It has been a cold weekend, although mine has been warmed by a rather lucky profit at Cheltenham racecourse (my winning bet came as a result of the leader falling at the last hurdle – but there is just as little point in apologising for fortuitous wins as railing against ‘unlucky’ losses) and by the…
Tag: Butterfly Conservation
A butterfly’s wing
December isn’t a great month for butterflies (but then November wasn’t a great month for nature as a whole), although, of course, they are all (apart from the painted ladies and red admirals) still out there as eggs or pupae or some other clever way of getting through the winter if you really want to…
Chaos theory – what happens when a butterfly doesn’t flap its wing?
The government and opposition argue about how to manage the economy. They agree that cuts are needed (although the size of the cuts is at issue) but the route to growth is in dispute. If you cut and cut will the economy stagnate? Many small businesses, including small NGOs, are worrying about how public spending…
The tangled bank
This is quite a long blog – for you it’s a ‘cup of tea and two chocolate digestives’ blog, for me it was a ‘two glasses of Rioja’ blog. And I write of the subject covered by Peter Marren in his thought-provoking opinion piece in the Independent last week (and the news piece written by…
What’s happening in the NGO family?
Everybody seems to be talking about NGOs this week – last week government was shouting at them! Greenpeace is 40 this week . WWF is 50 this week. The late, great, Sir Peter Scott who founded the Wildfowl Trust, now Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and had a lot to do with setting up the WWF…
The war on biodiversity loss, cuts and bank voles
Last week the biodiversity (and many other things) Minister, Richard Benyon, was quoted on the matter of the recovering bittern population. The Minister said “To see a species that was once extinct in the UK rise to a population of over one hundred is a real achievement. This is largely down to the work of the…
Bird Fair – Day 3
We might as well call it the International Bird Fair – I spent a very large part of today talking to friends and colleagues from Spain and the USA. It was good to meet friends from the BirdLife International partner in Spain, SEO, again and other birders from various parts of Spain too. And the…
Captive audience at RSPB Arne
Today I’ll be at the Bird Fair (come up and say hello – and perhaps buy a copy of Blogging for Nature from me) but last Thursday I was still on holiday in Dorset having not seen white-beaked dolphin and not seen Adonis blue butterfly. What would I not see next? Arne had already provided…
Something for the weekend sir?
I love farmers. Well, admittedly not all of them, but then I don’t love all birdwatchers, all RSPB members or all of anything – maybe all hen harriers? But I do love the fact that some farmers are doing a fantastic job with the help of my taxpayer’s money on their farms. We have come…
Game Fair
I was at the CLA Game Fair on Friday and Saturday. In a previous existence I used to spend three days there but I’ve given myself Sunday off for good behaviour. A couple of days at the Game Fair could provide the inspiration for a year’s blogs, and much of this coming week’s blogging will…