Triggered by the news that Natural England had issued the first ever licence for the destruction of a buzzard nest at the request of a pheasant shooting estate, a colleague pointed me in the direction of a blog from Matthew Taylor (Chief Executive of...

State of Nature , a scientific collaboration of 25 UK conservation organisations, saying that our species are in already trouble, my thoughts turned to consider how climate change might be part of that. Especially when this UK report follows a recent...

I saw lots of hailstones on the fell yesterday but not many harriers. No harriers in fact. In fact I’ve not seen a harrier all year. Now I should point out that I am not on the hill every day like Mick (Bowland Assistant Warden) but even Mick...

This morning I reported that Natural England (NE) had issued licences to destroy buzzard nests and kill or capture adult birds. Setting aside the serious impact of the licences for a moment, the way in which NE and DEFRA have acted is central to our...

State of Nature in Scotland Yesterday I participated in a ground breaking event. I hosted the launch of the Scottish end of the State of Nature report. This is a collaboration of expert bodies pooling data about wildlife species and diagnosing the...