A just-published study reveals that lead gunshot is still a threat to wild waterbirds in the UK, over a decade after the use of lead gunshot was banned in wetlands and for shooting wildfowl in England ( similar but slightly different legislation pertains elsewhere in the UK). Waterfowl ingest spent lead shot whilst feeding. Sometimes…
Tag: RSPB
Mown down – the Grasslands Trust
Last week’s news that the Grasslands Trust has gone into liquidation is sad to hear but it may only be the first and most public sign of the impact of the recession on our tangled bank of wildlife conservation organisations. I know many of the Grasslands Trust’s staff personally, including their Chief Executive Lucy Cooper,…
Leading the way
Do you remember that the Shooting Times were given a copy of a WWT Council paper on their position on lead ammunition back in the spring? As I said at the time, it’s hardly surprising that a nature conservation organisation is against the use of a type of ammunition that poisons some of its victims…
What’s in a name? Where is the movement?
Your votes in the poll on your preferred future name for the RSPB show you to be a pretty conservative bunch – no surprises there. Almost two thirds of the 600+ votes were for ‘no change’ with the remainder of the votes split more or less equally between a name that would stick to birds…
Guest Blog – response to Mark Avery by Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a former editor of The Scotsman and Scottish Editor of The Times. He is trustee of an estate in Perthshire, and a regular commentator on rural affairs. I knew that taking on the RSPB would be nothing but trouble. But I was not quite prepared for the volume and ferocity of…
The raptor haters? – Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a clever man as befits some Old Etonians and some former editors of The Scotsman newspaper. I’ve only met him once and we got on quite well as we looked at the heather moors of the Langholm Estate one sunny day. He wouldn’t deserve a place in this occasional series of articles,…
More hope from Hope
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Back to skylarks and Hope
I wrote a little about skylarks here recently – and how numbers had quadrupled at the RSPB’s Hope Farm over the last 12 years, increasing from 10 pairs in 2000 to the low 40s in recent years). The story of how skylarks increased is quite well known – it’s done by leaving small bare patches…
Sunshine
On Monday the sun was shining and I suddenly thought – why not go and enjoy it? So I did. Summer sun means butterflies and I headed to Fermyn Woods to see if it might be third time lucky in looking for purple emperors. The long line of cars parked by the road on a…
Nice farmers – make your choice
It’s time to vote in the Nature of Farming award which is the UK’s biggest farm wildlife award. Last year 22,000 of us voted to choose the winner from four finalists chosen by experts. The award is sponsored by the Daily Telegraph and the EU Life+ Programme and is a partnership between the RSPB, Plantlife…