An Unreliable End to Birdwatching by Paul Thomas

Paul is having a break from producing cartoons to coincide with my ‘blog sabbatical’. He seems to be working on a book.   It’s been good to have him here for so many weeks using this audience as a testing ground. And I now have this image in my office:          

Guest blog – Dead from the neck down by David Elias

David Elias is now retired but worked for RSPB, NCC and CCW mostly as a warden on various reserves. He also spent some time working in a national park in Malawi.  His last stint was on the Berwyn Mountains in North Wales – so hen harriers are close to his heart. He lives near Bala…

#justice4henharriers

Things are moving, though not incredibly quickly, with our legal challenge to brood meddling.  I’ll be getting a full update from our lawyers today. Another snippet from my witness statement:

Forest of Bowland AONB – get a new logo!

Forest of Bowland AONB, get a new logo!  Or even better, use your good offices to help the Hen Harrier, the bird featured on your signs (see above), to recover in numbers in your patch. In a recent online poll I asked readers of this blog which of three logos they thought were most appropriate…

My first House Martin

I like House Martins. Yesterday at Stanwick Lakes I was wearing a T-shirt (Hen Harrier Day 2014 if you really want to know), shirt, fleece and my Barbour but I wasn’t warm in the cold NE wind. However, there were 2 Common Sandpipers and my first LRP of the year so it felt as though…

Which logo?

Logo 1 – the original               Logo 2 – slightly adjusted             Logo 3 – slightly adjusted               The Forest of Bowland AONB is consulting on its 5-year management plan.  One thing they should consider is whether the…

Forest of Bowland wants your views

The Forest of Bowland AONB is consulting on its management plan – you have until 25 May to respond. Please respond to this consultation – I shall. Off the top of my head I might respond by saying; the logo of the AONB is inappropriate since the key species has been wiped out over the…

Ravens

The decision of SNH to issue a licence for a mass cull of  Ravens in Perthshire is absolutely stunning in its stupidity – see here. The next thing they’ll suggest is taking away Ravens from their nests, raising them in captivity and then letting them go again a few weeks later – see here. It…

Application for judicial review submitted

As predicted, there was a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing over the final details of our application for judicial review of Natural England’s daft decision to license brood meddling (occasionally known as brood management) of Hen Harriers but the dream-team of lawyers submitted our application with no problem at all. Which is just as…