A female Montagu’s Harrier looks very similar to a female Hen Harrier. They can be rather difficult to tell apart unless you are familiar with the two species (or one of them very well). Both are brown, the same shape and with a white rump. Did you see the item on the One Show yesterday…
Tag: hen harrier
You couldn’t make this up
The new EU Environment Commissioner is from Malta (and I’m told is a hunter (does anybody know whether this is true please?), and is certainly a former Tourism Minister) named Karmenu Vella. His role could have been written by George Osborne – ‘Protecting the environment and maintaining our competitiveness have to go hand-in-hand’. The new…
Catch-up 1
Last week I went to an AFON Conference and a Green Party Conference – and I’ll say something about them tomorrow (or later in the week), but the rest of the world kept on spinning. Here are some things that happened: Boris Island got the elbow – hooray! It’ll probably be back one day, but…
Oscar Dewhurst – Bearded Tit
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Oscar writes: Other than Bitterns and Marsh Harriers, I also wanted to get some photos of Bearded Tits when I was at Minsmere. Luckily the best spot for them was the best spot for Bitterns! During a period of Bittern inactivity I heard the characteristic pinging calls of Bearded Tits and on turning around I…
Government response to e-petition 65627
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed the 10,000 signature mark on 31 July and received a response after nearly five weeks of brow-wrinkling thought on behalf of Defra on 1 September (maybe they thought I’d be touched by it appearing on the centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon). The sections in…
Let joy be unconfined!
Tomorrow I will address the pathetically evasive response from Defra to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (that gives you a hint as to what I think about it) but you may have noticed that it mentions that there are four pairs of Hen Harrier in England this year. The existence of the fourth…
Nothing controversial here
On Tuesday evening the World Land Trust organised a second evening of Controversial Conservation. This time it involved Chris Packham, Bill Oddie, Andrew Gilruth (from GWCT), John Burton (CEO of the World Land Trust and Garry Marvin – and me. Andrew was a bit outnumbered but he did really well – considering the sticky wicket…
A response, of a kind, from Defra
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed 16,800 signatures yesterday. Thank you to all who have signed. Yesterday also saw Defra’s response to the e-petition – earned when the 10,000th person signed the e-petition (but it has taken a while). I’m not much impressed by the response. Are you? I’ll tell you why not…
Guest Blog – Conservation bursaries by Oliver Simms
Oliver Simms has recently graduated from Durham University with a Classics degree and is about to start work as an accountant at the National Audit Office. He is a keen birder, hill walker and passionate conservationist, who has volunteered extensively including at Raptor Camp in Malta. He has served as Trip and Partnerships Officer for…
E-petition passes 16,000 signatures – where is Defra’s response?
A little while before midday yesterday our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed the 16,000 signature mark. Thank you to all who have signed it already. This is already, inside three months, the 9th most-signed e-petition aimed at Defra. And there are another seven months to go (there would be nine if it weren’t…