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…
Tag: wwt
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…
Guest Blog – Guests at Nature’s Table by Findlay Wilde
My name is Findlay Wilde, you might remember me from the last guest blog I did for Mark about my concerns for the future of our fabulous, but endangered, wildlife and habitats. And now I am back to write my second blog. A lot has changed in a year and I have now started High…
Nature Check
Today, 41 organisations, under the banner of Wildlife and Countryside Link, publish their assessment of Government’s progress over the last 12 months, on its own stated commitments (a report called Nature Check). In four areas Government gets the green light indicating good progress, in nine areas a red light for failure, and in 12 areas…
Guest Blog – Kids and nature by Andy Simpson
It is hard to imagine a great childhood that would not involve being outdoors, being active and exploring natural places. From playing conkers and wading through fallen leaves in the Autumn to discovering the magic of a rockpool at the seaside, those are the memories of glorious days we want our children to have. I…
The Minox Challenge(s)
When I wrote about my 37-year-old binoculars being repaired I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t expect an email from Zeiss thanking me for my loyalty – and I didn’t get one, so that’s OK. And I didn’t expect an email from Minox saying: At MINOX GB we keep an eye on the media…
Plastic environmentalists
I attended many political party conferences in a former life and I got to grow to enjoy them. Moving from the LibDems to Labour to Conservative conferences became part of the autumn scene. There were individual members of every party with whom one could have sensible and constructive conversations about nature and the environment but…
A tangled bank
If you subscribe to the excellent British Wildlife then you may have seen my article praising the wildlife NGOs for the State of Nature report which came out in June. I didn’t get the impression at the Bird Fair last week that any follow up is planned. Maybe I’m wrong, but…
Bird Fair
I started making a list of people I thought would be at the Bird Fair and I wanted to see but it got too long after: Carry Akroyd, Tim Appleton, John Armitage, Nick Baker, Jessie Barry, Keith Betton, Andrew Branson, Keith Brockie, Mike Clarke (and everyone else at the RSPB), Victoria Chester (and everyone else…
Guest Blog – Why should we care about Jon Snow? by Ralph Underhill
Ralph Underhill worked on planning casework and water policy at the RSPB for seven years, before joining the Public Interest Research Centre where has worked on the Common Cause for Nature report which wss published yesterday. He also draws cartoons for this website. Why should…