There are plenty of people reading this blog who will know more about this subject than I do. What do you make of this? Apart, of course, from the fact that there is no history before the coalition government came into being.
Tag: Natural England
Guest blog – Licensing by Ed Hutchings
Born in East Anglia, but raised in the Arabian Gulf, Ed Hutchings was always going to have two things – itchy feet and an inquisitive mind. After leaving university with a degree in hospitality, he embarked on a career as a sommelier for a decade, working at various Michelin-star restaurants; in the process winning the…
‘New’ raptor persecution maps produced by Defra
Defra has just published old and incomplete maps of raptor persecution events on the Magic system. These are worth having a glance at and I’ll be looking at them more closely through the day, as I’m sure will Raptor Persecution UK (this is right up their street), but if you have ever looked at the…
Guest blog – Planning and biodiversity survey advice in England by Tim Reed
Although an ornithologist by training, Tim Reed has a background in monitoring and data quality- starting with standardising management planning and data recording for the statutory sector, moving on to developing the widely-used Common Standards site condition model. After a long period introducing peer-reviewable data and biodiversity and ecosystem reporting models in big corporates around…
Guest blog – Ban driven grouse shooting by Gavin Gamble
Gavin Gamble is a thirty-something Naturalist, Environmentalist and occasional ink-slinger currently studying Natural Biology and Environmental Science with the Open University alongside full time employment. He is also the author of the latest petition to ban driven grouse shooting from our uplands. I suspect many of Mark’s regular readers readers will…
Forest Enterprise and non-toxic ammunition
Natural England could learn a few lessons from the Forest Enterprise. I asked Forest Enterprise England for some information on correspondence between themselves and Defra on 21 November and received a reply on 29 November with no fuss at all. Thank you FC! You’ll notice that the email below has the subject line ‘Mark Avery’s…
Impacts of climate change on UK birds
The distribution, numbers and behaviour of birds in the UK are changing because of a changing climate according to a new report. The State of the UK’s Birds 2017 (SUKB) – the one-stop shop for all the latest results from bird surveys and monitoring studies – this year highlights how many of the UK’s species are already…
Local issue – further comments
It’s becoming quite a battle to find one’s way onto the East Northants Council’s planning part of their website, and an increasing struggle to navigate through the comments to find what one might be looking for. But these are my latest comments on the planning proposal to build a large set of broiler houses 7…
NE don’t know much about their study
Back on 1 October I asked NE some questions. They asked for extra time to answer them and I had a response yesterday afternoon. The questions related to an excellent NE publication of 2008 entitled ‘A future for hen harriers in England?’ which it is well worth having a good look at, and asking yourself…
Guest blog – Conservation 21 by Ian Carter
Ian Carter has worked as an ornithologist for more than 25 years. He was involved with the Red Kite reintroduction programme in England and has a keen interest in the conservation of raptors, bird reintroductions and wildlife management more generally. He is particularly interested in human attitudes towards wildlife and the complex ways in which…