A bird of resolution

The recovery of the red kite is a great conservation success story and it’s good to see it celebrated in the regional press like here. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to see red kites, and spend at least a minute revelling in their beauty, on at least 200 days this year.  They are…

Red kites

I see red kites quite often over my garden in east Northants now – practically every day if the weather is OK and I spend enough time looking.  I saw one as I was on my way to the Post Office on Tuesday, and on both Tuesday and Wednesday, on trips to London, I saw…

Don’t fire-bomb the countryside tonight!

I like 5 November – although clearly the Catholic conspirators missed an opportunity to influence Parliament.  The failed Catesby plot allows us to celebrate with fireworks – and that’s what I’ll be doing this evening (probably after Strictly Come Dancing). But a couple of years ago I was in Stratford upon Avon at this time…

The raptor haters – Richard Ingrams

The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Richard Ingrams finds red kites ‘menacing‘, ‘savage‘ and ‘unlikeable‘ and is ‘pleased to see a picture of a dead one‘.  Every three years or so he dips his pen in poison and is really nasty about these magnificent…