Spoon-billed Sandpiper – great news!

This spoon-billed sandpiper chick is amazingly cute and has an amazing mother and an amazing grandfather. Its own cuteness needs no elaboration from me. Its mother was hand-reared by conservationists in Russia from eggs taken from nests on the breeding grounds.  The reared birds were then released to set off on their 5000 mile journey…

Dr Debbie Pain recognised by Marsh Award

Dr Debbie Pain, the Conservation Director of the WWT, was recognised by the Zoological Society of London last week with the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology. Debbie worked ‘for’ me (in fact I appointed her) and then with me at the RSPB for 16 years before heading off for WWT. Debbie has done ground-breaking and influential…

Send WWT £10 now! I have.

I’ve mentioned the spoon-billed sandpiper a few times in this blog (eg here and here).  There is a very brave, uncertain and exciting rescue attempt being made to save this bird from extinction by a bunch of organisations: WWT, RSPB, BirdLife International and Birds Russia (with help from loads of other people). WWT have produced…

City of perspiring dreams

I spent yesterday back in Cambridge – I say ‘back’ because this was where I was an undergraduate and I spent many of my relatively youthful years in Cambridge and it has been a great influence on my life. I was attending the annual symposium (sounds grand for something that was so much fun) of…