The report of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel is a treat, a delight, a pleasure. That’s partly because the Panel does a very good job in compiling the records and writing them up, and partly because British Birds does a good job in publishing them but largely because birds are brilliant! In each of these…
Tag: golden eagle
USA checklist of birds
For what it’s worth, here is my bird list for five and a half weeks in the USA – just over 300 species and over 80 lifers (in bold). On a careful run through Sibley I noticed I’d missed out a few species – western grebe (from California), black vulture (from Arizona) and roadrunner…
Strange collection – blog 26
I am going to see an extinct butterfly’s last home so I may not have time to write a blog tomorrow (now today), so here, as a stop-gap, is a collection of wildlife sightings and sightings of Americana that I just want to get off my chest: Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America is named, probably…
Sublime
I failed completely in January and March but I hit the target in February and April. On Friday evening I visited Glapthorn Cow Pasture for my annual search for nightingales. They are pretty reliable, and there had been one reported a couple of days before, so although it was at the early end of arrival…
Vote for Abernethy, please
Sometimes opportunities come along when you may make a difference that is far in excess of the effort that you expend. An example of such an opportunity is the public poll organised by the European Outdoor Conservation Association (of whom I had never heard before this week – so they have gained some good publicity)…
Raptors
1. The Bowland Betty story from the BBC – well worth a look. Nice to see Tim Melling, Jude Lane, Stephen Murphy, Paul Irving, Des Thompson and others being so sensible. Martin Gillibrand, on the other hand, speaking for the Moorland Association, just looks foolish – have a look. It is difficult to see why…
To do
This morning’s blog has attracted lots of comments – as raptor-related blogs almost always do. If you feel strongly about this issue then why not write to your MP about it. There is an excellent letter in the comments to this morning’s blog (by MK) to his (her? I suspect his) MP Alistair Burt (who…
Why raptor persecution is different
There has been a little burst of correspondence in The Independent over gamekeepers (and raptor persecution)(here, here, here). I note that one of the correspondents, Reece Fowler, crops up in quite a lot of places (including this blog) saying how nice gamekeepers are and how misunderstood (see here, here, here). I thought that Mr Fowler’s…
Guest Blog – Mollusc of the Glen – by Peter Cosgrove
Peter Cosgrove’s passion for pearl mussels began in 1996. He carried out the first national pearl mussel survey and in one of those wonderful moments of happenstance, submitted his final report which recommended full legal protection during a periodic review of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. It had the desired effect and the law was…
Raptor round up
It would be perfectly possible to write about birds of prey, how wonderful they are and their troubled and shortened lives, every day on this blog. I try not to do that because there are other sites that do it so well (raptor politics and raptor persecution Scotland) and because there are other big issues…