Month: December 2024
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A Christmas wildlife miscellany
The picture above was taken in in January 2010 when the Kennet & Avon canal which runs through our village was partly iced over. No decent snow this year though. Newsletter 139 from the Binfield Badger Group is an excellent issue, not just because they have partly reproduced my account of our last survey, for…
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Slimbridge Wetland Centre
This is a rather gloomy post, so at the end is a short list of twelve reasons the RSPB has given to celebrate in the form of wildlife successes this year. I last went to Slimbridge ten years ago with my children. It was very sobering to visit again this week and to see it…
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BTO, RSPB, BBOWT, BirdGuides and Tamanend
I usually review and summarise the British Trust for Ornithology’s news magazine at some length, but I have to say that I found the winter 2024 edition rather lacklustre. It features a Harlequin Duck (I prefer the less gaudy Mandarins) on the cover to accompany a piece about the hoary and difficult subject of invasive…
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Good news for wildlife
In part at least. I thought I would follow Protect the Wild’s lead – they have just made a video recording some of the happier recent stories. It’s a reminder not to feel completely helpless and even desperate. I repeat the stories here. Snares are finally properly illegal in Scotland. I do wonder about enforcement…
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A Jay, a Magpie and Birdwatch magazine December 2024
Magpies are pretty common, I see them all the time, but I have only ever seen a Jay perhaps two or three times in my life. Their colours, both delicate and bold, are beyond words. At Hart Wildlife Rescue, in the isolation room again, I was entrusted with five hedgehogs and moving a Jay and…