Being broad-minded about plants again.

  The clue was really in the names. I saw Meadow Pipits (which I could identify but were nice to see), my first Meadow Browns of the year (which I also could identify) but also Meadowsweet (I know that one), Meadow Buttercup (there are an awful lot of buttercups), Meadow Cranesbill (I can do that…

BBS second visit

I’m really quite fond of my Breeding Bird Survey square (I have two but there is one that I think of as ‘mine’ more than the other). It really doesn’t photograph that well – being a bog-standard bit of arable farmland – but still, I am fond of it. On Sunday morning I made my…

Open Farm Sunday

I did a turn for my favourite local farmer yesterday on Open Farm Sunday. Duncan Farrington, of the delicious Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil (and the even more delicious Mellow Yellow garlic mayonnaise) had an event just down the road.  I spent the day, in the sunshine, talking to people about birds, as I have done…

Nonsense

I did, kind of, tell you so… In The Times, once a dull but reliable newspaper, a few days ago there was a headline thus ‘Farmers praised as Skylarks soar again’ (click here but you need a subscription). The piece by Ben Webster was a write-up of the GWCT ‘survey’ of farmland birds by farmers…

Who will be leading the NFU? and Dredging the depths

Two weeks tomorrow will see the election of a new NFU hierarchy of President, Vice President and Deputy President. The candidates for the NFU posts are as follows and you can see what they say about themselves by following the links (and their Twitter accounts).  Not much about the environment is there – from the…