The potential extinction of a not so horrid spider

Vanessa Amaral-Rogers is the Campaigns Officer for Buglife. After finishing her Masters in Conservation Biology at the University of Derby on bat ecology, she now works on science communications, legislation, pesticides and pollinators.           In a quarry in the South-West of England, a small spider lurks. The Horrid ground weaver (Nothophantes…

An end of year survey

What do you think of wildlife NGOs, political parties, this website and a few other things? Just a dozen easy questions – and it is anonymous. Click here to take part. Poll will close late December, results here early January.  

Glad we’ve cleared that up

From Guy Smith’s Twitter feed (@essexpeasant): @bbcfarmingtoday please note that reports I mentioned on your prog of 70% of the Swedish OSR crop being destroyed by flea beetle were wrong and Now seen transcript and fully admit what I said was wrong. Apologies. Will not be repeating it again. Well done to Guy, NFU Vice-President,…

Nature Check

Today, 41 organisations, under the banner of Wildlife and Countryside Link, publish their assessment of Government’s progress over the last 12 months, on its own stated commitments (a report called Nature Check).  In four areas Government gets the green light indicating good progress, in nine areas a red light for failure, and in 12 areas…

The Minox challenge results

In the end it was close, but the winner was: the rspb. The total 1352 votes cast were as follows: rspb   311 The Wildlife Trusts   274 Buglife   264 Butterfly Conservation   231 BTO   128 Plantlife   75 MARINElife  69   Well done to the rspb – but well done to all.  I hope that being able to…

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 – Buglife by Matt Shardlow

Make Buglife part of Yourlife Assumption – you think wildlife is worth conserving.  If not, don’t carry on reading this blog.  If you think that bumblebees, grasshoppers, beetles, snails or other little animals are amazing and fantastic, or if you understand that they are essential to ecosystems and us (e.g. pollination = £510 million worth…

The Minox Challenge(s)

When I wrote about my 37-year-old binoculars being repaired I didn’t expect this to happen.  I didn’t expect an email from Zeiss thanking me for my loyalty – and I didn’t get one, so that’s OK.  And I didn’t expect an email from Minox saying: At MINOX GB we keep an eye on the media…