Heather burning is vitally important to grouse shooting. Burning the heather on a rotational basis, every few years, creates a pattern of young and older heather. The younger heather produces green vegetation that is eaten by Red Grouse whereas older heather provides more nesting cover. This image from talented wildlife photographer Peter Cairns shows…
Tag: National Trust
A bit of a round up – all good news
Virunga – good news here! And well done! to WWF. Hen Harriers in Bowland – some good news here – there are three pairs of Hen Harrier in England this year – that’s just under 1% of the number that there could be judging by the suitable habitat available. Hen Harriers on Springwatch – did…
Everyone loves the Hen Harrier – don’t they?
The science suggests that there should be a lot more Hen Harriers in the UK uplands than there are at the moment. Let’s just take Scotland for the moment. The science says there should be c1650 pairs (I have taken the central point of an estimate and then rounded it) in Scotland on the basis…
Ten reasons why you should sign an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting in England
Ten reasons why you should sign my e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. You are a vegetarian or vegan (see here for one point of view) You are against wild birds being used as ‘living targets’ for ‘sport’ You are against the artificially very high densities of Red Grouse that are produced for grouse-shooting…
National Trust – High Peak
At last week’s conference at Newton Rigg, the Director General of the National Trust (and former top-mandarin at Defra) Dame Helen Ghosh spoke. I know Helen just a little, having met her in her Defra role but the longest time I have ever spent in her company was when I showed her around the RSPB…
Peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution
There will be a peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution somewhere in the north of England on or around (probably before) the ‘Glorious’ 12th August this year. Let me know if you would be interested in taking part and wish to be kept informed by emailing mark@markavery.info The number of people expressing an interest is…
That flame should be fizzling out
Natural England are in a bit of a mess over the uplands – you might say they have been bogged down. NE had to dump their vision for the uplands of England because landowners – perhaps including their Minister at the time (Richard Benyon) – didn’t like it. They went back to basics and looked…
Guest Blog – Guests at Nature’s Table by Findlay Wilde
My name is Findlay Wilde, you might remember me from the last guest blog I did for Mark about my concerns for the future of our fabulous, but endangered, wildlife and habitats. And now I am back to write my second blog. A lot has changed in a year and I have now started High…
LEAF – turn over a new one
On Monday I went to the Linking Environment and Farming President’s conference in the headquarters of HSBC in Canary Wharf. I have a lot of time for LEAF, although there were a few moments on Monday when I thought I might have stumbled into an NFU conference instead of a LEAF one. How long should…
The Minox Challenge(s)
When I wrote about my 37-year-old binoculars being repaired I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t expect an email from Zeiss thanking me for my loyalty – and I didn’t get one, so that’s OK. And I didn’t expect an email from Minox saying: At MINOX GB we keep an eye on the media…