The Minox Challenge – you decide

Seven organisations took up the Minox challenge on this blog; they each wrote a Guest Blog on why they should get your support.  All made their cases strongly and clearly. Here are the links to the individual blogs:   Joanna Bromley/Plantlife Mike Clarke/rspb Andy Clements/BTO Stephanie Hilborne/The Wildlife Trusts Andrew McLeish/MARINElife Matt Shardlow/Buglife Martin Warren/Butterfly…

Minox Challenge – the BTO by Andy Clements

Small is beautiful. I’ve now stopped introducing the BTO as a ‘small’ organisation. With 120 staff, an annual turnover of £5m, 17500 members and around 40,000 wonderful volunteers whose birdwatching creates our data, the numbers speak for themselves. Of course we are small when you compare us to the mighty RSPB, the ubiquitous Wildlife Trusts…

Have you seen a Cuckoo lately?

The BTO Cuckoo-tracking project is just fascinating.  ‘Our’ cuckoos are now in central Africa. Have you heard the one about the Scot, the Welshman and the Englishman? Chance is a Scot, a Scottish cuckoo tagged at Loch Katrine.  He is in Nigeria at the moment and he followed a very similar route through Europe on…

Just crumbs

I was pleased to see that there is some evidence, from the BTO, that the decline of urban House Sparrows has stopped, paused or slowed.  Let’s hope that the House Sparrow is on the up again. This is what I wrote about it for The Independent.