‘On 1 September 1914, between midday and 1 pm, in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio, a pigeon breathed her last, and with her died her species. The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which…
Tag: passenger pigeon
Down on the farm…
This morning, early, I paid a visit to the workplace of one of my favourite farmers: Duncan Farrington’s place down the road from me, the home of the Mellow Yellow range. Those who have read the last chapter of A Message from Martha might have guessed what my visit was about, and yes, I was…
Feathers 1
I was sitting in the garden, looking up at the sky, waiting for an exciting bird to fly over, when, as you do, I started thinking about how many feathers there are in the world. Now I’m not thinking about the ones in duvets, pillows or jackets, I’m thinking about live feathers attached to live…
A message about A Message from Martha
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Dear Mark Apologies for the sudden email from a random stranger. However, unknown for me, I felt compelled to contact to congratulate and thank you your excellent book on the extinction the Passenger Pigeon which I’ve just finished. As a lover of the natural world ( and fascinated by extinct birds) I wouldn’t say it…
The riches of authorship
I know how some in the shooting industry like to make out that I am coining it in from writing Inglorious and that I’m just in it for the money. So wrong! Here is my latest royalty statement from Bloomsbury as far as it applies to Inglorious. Lots of numbers but if you were to…
Pandemics and Passenger Pigeons
Ecologists like myself often have a bit of a blindspot for diseases. We don’t see their impacts very often in wild populations – this may be a particular failing of ornithologists. But there are some good examples of diseases having big impacts on populations – usually, of course, introduced diseases that arrive in a new…
My column in April Birdwatch
The editorial team at Birdwatch are very kind to me, my copy deadline for each issue has gradually crept closer to publication day to enable my political birder column to be vaguely topical. And so it was first thing on 10 March that I sent Rebecca Armstrong my words for the April issue and it…
Farrington’s rapeseed oil leads the world – press release
Farrington’s Mellow Yellow Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil Becomes World’s First Food Product Certified as Carbon and Plastic Neutral* Farrington’s Mellow Yellow Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil has made history by becoming the world’s first food product to be certified as both carbon and plastic neutral. The entire Farrington’s Mellow Yellow range of oils, salad dressings and…
Belmont County, Ohio
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Two years ago today, near the bank of the Ohio River which forms the border between eastern Ohio and western West Virginia, there was a blow-out at a gas well owned by XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, which took 20 days to get under control. The gas well was about to be put into…
I liked getting this…
Yesterday I got an email from the USA; Hello, Mr. Avery. My name is ***********[girl’s name] and I’m a 9th grader at ********** North Junior High. I am doing a class project on passenger pigeons, and I see that you have quite a bit of expertise on the subject. A lot of people have varying…