This is a book about Hen Harriers too (see reviews of The Hen Harrier and Bowland Beth)! But this book takes a different perspective – it is a novel about the impacts that Hen Harriers, and their persecution, have on a local family and the community in which it sits. In theory, this is a…
Tag: hen harrier
Some news and some blogs
Things that have caught my eye in a busy week: at least two pairs of Bee-eaters have hatched young at East Leake – and Mark Thomas from RSPB was on Today this morning talking about it (he’s very good with the media) official announcement of the West Pennine Moors SSSI (a few fields were snipped…
Farming subsidy debate gets moving…
We’ll have to see what ‘Green Brexit’ Gove actually says today, and then watch like hawks (harriers, eagles, kites and falcons) what he actually does. But there is clearly something afoot when the Today programme stirs itself on the subject of agricultural payments (click here and two bits – at 08:10 and 08:55). The first…
Banking on wildlife
I went to the bank the other day, which entails a car journey, and I was hoping to see a Bittern at a local nature reserve a few miles further on. I was only a hundred yards or so from home when I stopped at a T-junction and looked right; there was no traffic but…
A present came in the post
This charming Hen Harrier arrived in the post from one of my favourite Twitter accounts: @chunkymark aka Artist Taxi Driver. Thank you very much. I’m expecting @chunkymark to sign up to Findlay Wilde’s thunderclap – which has passed a social reach of 6million (!!!!) And you never know, he might be in…
Sunday book review – Bowland Beth by David Cobham
I very much enjoyed David Cobham’s previous book on raptors, A Sparrowhawk’s Lament. This new, slim offering has many of the same features that made that book such a pleasure to read; a love of raptors, a selection of anecdotes and a range of snippets of conversations with others involved in the subject. But this…
Responding to PDNP consultation – some hints
The Peak District National Park wants to know what you think – so you should tell them. This is the consultation document and this is the 52-question questionnaire. Here’s a tip: if you are planning on responding then it’s a good idea to open these two things in two separate tabs so that you can…
Pallid Harriers nest successfully in The Netherlands
The first nesting of Pallid Harriers in western Europe has occurred in the Netherlands this year, and the birds have fledged four young (all females). The birds were discovered by Willem-Pier Vellinga, a volunteer of the Dutch Montagu’s Harrier Foundation. This successful nesting of a rare species is only now being publicised at the…
Big Butterfly Count
Comments Off on Big Butterfly Count
The Big Butterfly Count starts on Friday (Bastille Day) and lasts until 6 August (the Sunday of Hen Harrier Day weekend). If you spend 15 minutes looking for butterflies and day-flying moths, record what you see, and then enter the data you will be contributing to the world’s biggest survey of butterflies. Last year…
Hen Harriers on WatO
If you were listening to the World at One today (starting at 38 minutes into piece) you will have heard a long piece on Hen Harriers. Well done WatO! And well done RSPB (especially Ian Thomson and Blanaid Denman). The bird in question looks like these images by Gordon Yates – super bird isn’t…