The Hen Harrier – some biology

There is a lot of nonsense talked about the Hen Harrier -and about everything else in the world I guess.  Let’s hope I am not going to add to it. Here’s my take on the biology of the bird. What they eat: Hen Harriers eat lots of things. The Langholm study showed that the density…

BBS

The BBS report covering 2012 is out – here is the link. The results: the results are the most important part of the report.  You should look at them, but here are some of the things that struck me, mostly concerning the long-term trends rather than the 2011-12 changes: there are a lot more greylag…

Poor things and real things

Did you watch Planet Earth Live on Sunday night?  I did and there were some enjoyable moments in it. It seemed to be all about going ‘Awww’ at cute little mammals that were having a tough time of making their way in the world – but enough of the presenters Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury….

Who is all at sea?

The Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009 was one of the major environmental achievements of the last Labour government but, to be fair, the Shadow Defra team, including Richard Benyon who is now a junior Defra minister, were very supportive of the thrust of the legislation too.  At times, the progress of the Act…

A slightly dull report

Yesterday’s blog considered an interesting report by gamekeepers about the state of the countryside and today’s blog is about a slightly dull report by the BTO, RSPB and the JNCC about the state of breeding bird populations in the countryside.  Yesterday’s report was based on a questionnaire survey whereas this one is based on tens…