Every time I open a Tetra Pak I hope I am helping eagles. Coignafearn is an unusual Scottish estate, set at the end of the road west of Tomatin (Tom-aaaahhh-tin) and owned by the Tetra Pak heiress Sigrid Rausing. Her aim is to restore the ecology of the estate and she has a passion for…
Tag: golden eagle
Robin breasts the tape first
Congratulations to the Robin! The winner of the vote for the national bird (whatever that means!). And congratulations to David Lindo for organising such a fun poll – and look out for a review of his new book here on Sunday. What does it mean that the Robin is our national bird? Well, first of…
Mulling eagles
Yesterday I was on Mull looking for eagles like many other tourists, and today I was reading about tourists going to Mull to look for eagles in the Guardian. Yesterday we passed two Germans who gave us a big grin and a thumbs up as they looked at a Buzzard. I looked around for an…
Still a slim chance
Parliament is dissolved in 11 days’ time and that is all the time that remains for Defra to do something this year! It could be about to release a report suggesting a lead-free future, but I somehow doubt it. It could be about to throw lots of money in the direction of the Hawk and…
Round up
Some stuff that caught my eye: e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting stands at 20,752 signatures. Thank you everyone. By the way, this is more than 10,000 more than GWCT, BASC etc could scrape together for their e-petition which tells you quite a lot. The Lodge Hill proposal has been ‘called in’ Countryside Alliance Chair…
Inglorious 12
This infographic has been sent to MPs by the Moorland Association and BASC recently. It allows me to make a few points. 1. They say: ‘Managing heather helps preserve and protect UK’s biggest carbon store‘. Not so according to The Times (1 October) reporting a recent study by Leeds University : ‘The owners of…
Vote – for your national bird
We are getting close to the end of the first round of voting in this poll for the National Bird– organised by David Lindo (The Urban Birder). There have been over 60,000 votes so far – but things are quite tight at the top. You’ve got until the end of the month to influence the…
NERF 2
Sunday’s North of England Raptor Forum meeting was excellent. There’s something considerably comforting about being surrounded by glum northerners with accents. All the talks were good (even the one I missed by chatting outside, I was told) and it would take the length of the day for me to tell all of you all about…
And it’s not even worth a bean to the economy
The grouse shooting industry is having a torrid time of it – and I can assure them that there is more to come. Grouse shooting is a ‘sport’ or an ‘industry’. Over the years it has tried to justify itself on the grounds that it either doesn’t do any harm or it does do some…
What they say 12:
The latest in the series of BAWC podcasts ahead of Hen Harrier Day (it’s difficult to keep up!) is a fascinating interview with Andrew Gilruth of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. You should listen to it here. I don’t know Andrew Gilruth, as far as I recall we’ve never met, but I was very…