By education and training I am a microbiologist and worked in the NHS and biotech sector. I finished my working career in clinical research and patient safety in the pharmaceutical industry, so am a firm believer in evidence-based science. I’ve been a member of the RSPB for many years and started volunteering for them when…
Tag: RSPB
RSPB humming Shania Twain
The RSPB today turned its back on the failing and doomed Defra Hen Harrier plan – and quite right too. Humming a Shania Twain song, ‘Dance with the one that brought you‘ the RSPB turned its back on the grouse moor owners and came back to us. Thank you RSPB. Where does that leave the…
Well done RSPB!
Today the RSPB has withdrawn its support from the Defra Hen Harrier Plan. Well done them! Martin Harper explains in his blog that the voluntary approach (to abiding by the law!) has failed. Essentially the RSPB is saying that they do not trust the grouse shooters and have no confidence that the words they speak…
RSPB statement just published
This statement has just appeared on Martin Harper’s blog – analysis and comment very soon.
RSPB speaking softly and left its stick at home.
The RSPB continues to talk up the hopeless Defra Hen Harrier plan even though it shows no sign of making a difference on the ground. In a rather unspecific update Martin Harper says that there is only ‘a tiny handful’ of Hen Harrier nesting attempts in England to date. Tiny handful? Attempts? This long-heralded update…
RSPB appeal for information about Goshawk disappearance in Peak District
The RSPB has just released this to local media (links added by me): The RSPB is appealing for information after a Goshawk nest failed in suspicious circumstances at Dove Stone in the Peak District. On 10 May, a local raptor worker discovered the freshly abandoned Goshawk nest in conifer woodland in the Longendale Valley, which…
Guest blog by RSPB Chair of Council, Prof Steve Ormerod
Mark, As I promised, I’m responding to your questions and challenges set out in your earlier blog. You regularly and accurately point out that we are all basically after the same thing: we a future for England’s moors and hills that is free from the illegal killing of birds of prey and where land management…
RSPB Council – think again
It’s quite some time since I asked the Chair of RSPB Council about the RSPB position on driven grouse shooting – it’s almost 100 weeks ago. And Prof Ormerod was kind enough to reply too (see here). Before launching the current, third, e-petition on driven grouse shooting I went to talk to the RSPB about…
RSPB does something
The RSPB included a note in its April e-newsletter asking its members to sign Rob Sheldon’s e-petition on banning toxic lead ammunition. this was wittily called ‘Last chance to take the lead’. If this heralds a month of frantic activity on this subject from the RSPB, whose agreed policy is that there should be a…
Awful of Natural England, and confused of RSPB
BBC Wildlife Magazine has a good article about the Hen Harrier plan (welcomed by the RSPB) which will do nothing for the Hen Harrier. I am quoted as saying that neither the RSPB nor Natural England should have agreed a plan which does not have targets in it. What is a plan without a…