London Climate Change March, 21/9/14

If you read the papers on Monday morning you'd be forgiven for thinking that there weren't many news-worthy stories happening on Sunday, not just in the UK, but in numerous countries across the world. It is, after all, quite a regular occurrence these days to see many thousands of people gathered on the streets, placards in hand, shouting, cheering, clapping or just quietly expressing their feelings on important issues to the powers that be. I mean, isn't it?

Here are a few photos from the rally held in Parliament Square on Sunday to highlight the depth of public feeling on the global threat of Climate Change. The event was timed to coincide with the UN's New York summit on Climate Change which started this week. 

I spent a fun few hours walking among the 20,000-strong crowd, the same one whose numbers I'd overheard two policeman sneeringly belittle as they watched from Parliament Square. I liked reading the placards that bobbed around me and the messages that came across:

Of those messages, the threat of Climate Change and the disentangling of democracy from corporate interests rightly gathered side by side. Emma Thompson's speech railed against the degree to which corporations responsible for so much strife and environmental damage have wormed themselves into our culture and collected unconsciousness. The Bishop of London spoke of Climate Change as a "moral issue".  

After the speeches, an ill-advised (?) minute of silent reflection and the rather saccharine video that proceeded them, a huge carbon molecule loomed into view... 

...and there was a game of spot the pigeon too...

But overall, the message was clear...

Why did people march for Climate Change? See this useful New Scientist guide.

Can you hear the nightingales sing? (Part 2)

Last year I wrote a blog about Lodge Hill - a miraculous chunk of north Kent's rural landscape on the Hoo Peninsular that is home to the Nightingale, a rare breeding bird - and how it could all disappear.

A year on, some things have changed but one thing hasn't - the developers, Land Securities still want to build 5000 homes on the site. This will equate to a potentially catastrophic loss of wildlife on a local (and national) scale. Medway Council recognised it wasn't right and withdrew their plans, Land Securities on the other hand, simply went away and came back in March this year with revised plans which look remarkably like their first.

Tomorrow is the deadline for the current public consultation, so if you have time, please respond and object to this wholly damaging and inappropriate development.

Why is it important? See this post from 2013

Submitting your opinion is easy - it takes 2 mins (because I've written the answer below!)

- Click here to comment through the Medway planning page:

- Click the button saying you do not have a reference number

- fill in the deets and pick your fave bits from the following, or write your own:

I strongly object to the revised Lodge Hill planning application on the following grounds:

1. Lodge Hill has been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest by Natural England, the government’s expert advisors on the natural environment. This is in recognition of the site’s critical importance for nightingales, a migrant bird greatly declining in the UK. The 2012 BTO survey showed the area to hold 84 pairs of Nightingale – with 69 inside the boundary directly affected by development. This total amounts to 1.3(+)% of the national nightingale population. As such it is likely the single most important breeding site for this bird in Britain.

2. The site has considerable biodiversity value: Bat roosts have been recorded present in 19 structures, with several species of bat foraging on site. The site is likely to be of at least county importance for bats. Populations of great crested newts, toads, lizards, slow worms, grass snakes and adders are present. The site is at least of county importance for reptiles.

3. The cumulative impact of the proposed development has still not been recognised in any form. The revised application hugely underplays the additional infrastructure features needed (roads, drainage, sewerage, power) which will, without question, contribute to further damage of habitats in the area. Likewise, it is entirely inevitable that an influx of people to the area on this scale will have a permanent negative impact on the ecology and rural character of the area as a whole.

I find it absurd and downright disturbing that a site proven to be of significant ecological value on a national scale is being treated in this way. When the plans were proposed initially, little was known about the value of this site. What has now been proven is that this is a unique site for nature in the UK. These plans set a tragic example for children today and the generations to come, on our relationship with the environment. Lodge Hill is a key part of the landscape of North Kent and should be preserved without hesitation for the future prosperity and enjoyment of local people, visitors and wildlife.

For these points and more I remain thoroughly opposed to these plans.

St Mary's Bay



The estuary, looking north towards St Mary's Bay from the top of Decoy Hill, Hoo, Kent

Having worked to some extent over each of the last four weekends, watching in frustration as bushes everywhere seemingly groaned under the weight of scarce migrants, Sunday was a day off that I gladly wrestled free of my diary. As the early weekend showers parted and left a fresh, bright autumn morning, I made an early start and temporarily ditched my plans to head out to east Kent in favour of somewhere closer to home.  

The walk out to St Mary's Bay from High Halstow is one of my favourites. Walking down from the farm at the top of Clinch Street, the view is underrated - looking north the estuary spills into the low ground between Kent and Essex and large, irregular arable fields amble downhill to be met by livestock grazing the marshes below the sea wall. A short way along I stopped and took a detour by the Hill, scattering numerous warblers as I pushed through the dense banks of hawthorn. Common whitethroats and Blackcaps tutted their frustration at being disturbed from their foraging as tits pinged here and there. A male Sparrowhawk sunned itself on a discreet perch before spotting me and bolting off with a loud, repetitive cry. Further down the lane a Willow warbler whistled and swallows buzzed by continuously, a Green woodpecker hugged a telegraph pole.

I took my time along the track at Swigshole to Egypt Bay, checking the bushes on the way. A young Reed warbler that hopped from cover momentarily was probably a local bird. Several Yellow wagtails flew over, their little sneezing calls giving them away. Scanning the fields to the east over Decoy Fleet, bought a large harrier that momentarily confused me as it soared to a great height, but there was no mistaking the male Marsh Harrier as he descended over his kingdom. As I reached the top of the wall overlooking Egpyt Bay, five Red-legged partridges flushed from the beach and thudded past me. The tide at Egypt Bay was lower than I've ever seen it and I fancied I could even wade across to Canvey at a push. But out on the distant tide line, amongst the vast tracts of rich, exposed mud, shapes flicked about and calls passed me on the breeze. Curlews were notable in number, pushing forty easy, it was good to see these birds back for winter.

Heron Meat: St Mary's marsh, south from the sea wall

The London Gateway container port from Egypt Bay, dominating the river.

I love the vantage point that following the seawall from Egypt Bay to St Mary's Bay brings; the river on one side, the marshes on the other. I always remember the misty morning two winters ago that Simon and I found a pair of Shore Lark here. This morning, from the same spot, a Wheatear pops up on the rocks and proceeds to leapfrog down the track ahead of me. In the field, I picked out a Hobby perched conspicuously in the short grass and two kestrels squabbling with each other in the distance. Save for a small group of Black-tailed godwits and some listless Black-headed gulls, St Mary's is empty, so I sat a bit, messing about with some digiscope shots of a Wheatear - probably the same one, as it darted among the debris of the high tide line in the bay.

I continued looking for chats along the access track that runs back south from St Mary's but it was rather quiet until I spotted a small, dark raptor zipping low over the fields to the left. I watched it alight on a distant fence post and, through the scope, discounted hobby and kestrel before clinching a female Merlin in the scope. Great stuff. Moments later I was buzzing again as I caught a brief chat-shaped bird shooting across the field. Scanning the fence posts in the direction of flight I quickly landed on four spanking Whinchats, jostling together on a strand of barbed wire. All lined up like that, the views were great.

Heading back up the lane to complete the circuit, my progress was followed by noisy squadrons of rooks overhead. There were a thousand and more, shifting this way and that; and it occurred to me that perhaps this more than anything else that morning, reminded me that autumn is here again.

Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), St Mary's Bay

Rooks in flight over St Mary's marsh

Such Great Heights

Ice Climb, Buzzard Injustice and the RSPB

Kong: pissed about the Arctic. source: http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/King_Kong

So last Thursday, having tuned in to watch the 'Ice Climb' unfold on TV and twitter, I had the incredibly original idea to write a blog about it - or to at least use it as the basis to cover several slightly less well-covered stories that I felt deserving of attention. As it turns out, one or two other people did too, of which the best is surely this wonderful piece from Jules Howard.

Anyway, I wasn't in London last Thursday but I followed the Ice Climb or rather the #iceclimb as it is properly known, with a genuine sense of awe and inner-hi-5ing. It was an incredible feat by those six climbers representing Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign, requiring immense skill and dedication to achieve. Finally, here were some people taking a very public stand on the environment, people with a message they wanted the world to see. It was exhilarating to watch, it was sexy, and by that I mean it's spirit, not necessarily that ropes and harnesses do anything for me (*coughs*) They promised that when they reached the top they would unveil an 'artwork' and I dearly hoped I would be gazing up at sunset at the sight of a giant inflatable Polar Bear clinging to the side of the building ala King Kong; as it was, they unfurled a flag reading 'Save the Arctic'. Their message.

For a little while it seemed like a worthy environmental news story would y'know, for once, make the mainstream NEWS. And it did, kind of, although most outlets I saw managed to skirt round the 'why' part of the story, because apparently it isn't a story - Shell just shuffled their feet a bit and announced it's "not new", they've been slowly polluting the Arctic for years.

In case you missed it too, here it is: http://www.savethearctic.org/ It certainly made me pause to consider it for longer than I probably would have on any other day; I looked up some stuff, I got angry and subsequently signed an online petition or something whilst pressing the keys REALLY HARD. And that made me think about their other message - the one that didn't have a flag but said 'what are you going to do to Save the Arctic?'. The answer to that isn't 'sign a petition' well, maybe that's one answer but it's not the only one.

Getting a message across is something that the RSPB are pretty good at but their latest attempt to do so is a first for them. There was lots of talk about it on twitter naturally, so I watched their new TV ad (part of the 'give nature a home' campaign) online, since there was no chance I'd see it on TV unless they somehow managed to segueway it into SkySportsNews. It's great to see a conservation organisation attempting to reach more people than ever before, it shows belief, commitment and passion - the things people want to see and, most importantly, respond to. Funny then that I wasn't that moved by it one way or the other. I can't quite put my finger on it exactly, perhaps it seemed a bit 'flat', perhaps the idyllic middle class setting of it was a rather safe bet...and while I'm rolling, what's with the new lower-case 'rspb'? Strong words and actions are worthy of Capital Letters if you ask me....But anyway, I'm hardly its market - I hope it's a massive success and they get lots of people sending off for the free nature pack and maybe signing up to become members. I love what they do.

But it's no #iceclimb is it? Where were the RSPB's flags when the State of Nature report was released - or were they already flying at half-mast?

Perhaps a comparison isn't even relevant. I guess the answer lies in the result, of what happens when the ad run ends and the media move on - when it's left to us. Ice Climbs are little sparks and maybe TV can be too, it's just not nearly as much fun. Now, lets all dress up as buzzards and build a giant nest on Defra HQ.*

*This is some pretty brutal viewing but I wanted to put a link up showing how a small (?) minority manage our land for private gain. Hard to believe this is the 21s Century. If you find it as sick as I did, you might like to say something:

Given the continuing levels of illegal persecution of birds of prey the Government is called upon to introduce a system of operating licences for upland grouse shoots

Petition -  Licencing of upland grouse moors and gamekeepers 

Why stop there?

Winter...or spring?

This post was going to be all about Hawfinches. Instead, it's only going to be a little bit about Hawfinches and a bit more about other...stuff. I mean, I guess I'm finding things a little less-than-inspiring at the moment. Winter (or spring) rumbles on and I've yet to see my first Wheatear of the year...it will officially remain winter until then at least.

There's that old stereotype about how Brits love to talk about the weather and it's true; why not, weather is pretty interesting isn't it?! It's certainly relevant at the moment and while the media scaremongering is beyond tiresome, it is tuned into the fact that everybody is thinking 'what the ****?!' It's not that a cold March is that unusual, I'm sure I can recall it snowing in April before now, but the scale and ferocity of these wintry conditions are hard to ignore. The Guardian ran an interesting article yesterday linking this weather to Arctic sea ice loss. It's worth reading - next time you're at the hairdresser's and find the conversation steered towards the weather, you'll be able to drop in some gems. I wonder if there's a positive side to all this, it's a general awakening to the idea of climate change in the mass public consciousness?

The weather seems to have added a particularly morose veneer to the political machine of late too. I shivered at this incredible exchange of words being battered about the blogosphere recently:

"The idea that the countryside should just hang out and hope for the best is wrong, and, as a result, we've got an imbalance. I haven't seen a peewit or a curlew around here for years. I'm clear that wildlife law should be built around management.' 

As if on cue, a sparrowhawk streaks past the kitchen window and scatters his doves, and he nearly spills his coffee in annoyance. Pity the RSPB employee who recently invited him to look through a telescope at a sparrowhawk-‘ The answer was no, I wouldn't like to, seeing as one had just eaten my last goldfinch. People are obsessed with raptors.'"

Who said that? You got it - it was Secretary of State for Defra, Owen Paterson. The weather's not so bad now is it? You can read the article in 'CountryLife' here, it's hilarious, really.

The bleak and icy conditions today may also be apt for what is the first anniversary of the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework. Greg Clark MP, former planning minister, has been singing its praises on his blog : "The NPPF has succeeded in combining development with conservation, national standards with local empowerment...prophecies of an environmental apocalypse have not come to pass. The green belt is still very much in place, containing sprawl and ensuring that England remains green and pleasant." Thinking about my last post, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. Only one year on, this is really just the beginning, there are tough, relentless challenges for the environment ahead. The weather will improve eventually, the spin will stay the same, I just hope that in the rush for the lotion and the bucket and spade, we don't forget everything else.

On a brighter note, I headed out last weekend to see some Hawfinches! If you're a birder living anywhere in the vicinity of London, you will have heard about Mickleham and the incredible flock of finches currently frequenting the area. For birds more typically encountered in small flocks, the 110+ individuals that have been recorded here for the last few weeks is a remarkable occurrence. Whilst resident in the UK, albeit very locally, it seems a flock of this size must be swelled with, if not entirely consist of, continental birds - perhaps pushed into seeking new food sources by the harsh winter?

I scraped the ice off my car and headed round the M25 to Surrey on Saturday to have a look. Arriving around 8am in murky conditions, I found the spot at Juniper Bottom, closely followed by two more birders. If there was an upside to the cold and the gently falling snow, it was the stillness and the silence. Snow hung on the trees where nothing moved save tiny hidden voices every now and then. A Tawny Owl shrieked somewhere and a Song Thrush did its admirable best to lift spirits. For an hour an half I walked up and down the track, more in an effort to keep warm than anything, without sign of the birds until eventually I began to pick up some calls in a nearby fir. Another group of birders timed their arrival perfectly because within minutes, a flock of 11 birds suddenly left the shelter of the tree and swirled over our heads, this was followed a moment later by another large flock of c30 birds. Looking up into the sky, in between mouthfuls of sleet, I got decent views of this monster finch and it made the long, cold wait worthwhile. After a burst of activity, the flock disappeared from view and I was left to contemplate the wintery landscape.

Haw frost: Juniper Bottom, Mickleham, Surrey, 23/3/13

Twitching? It's snow joke...classic

Can you hear the Nightingales sing?

In almost exactly a month from now, the first Nightingales to have returned to southern England from their wintering grounds in the lush forests of East Africa will be starting to fill the hawthorn thickets and rides around Lodge Hill and Chattenden Woods on the Hoo Peninsular with their astounding song. But they won’t be aware that the future of the site, one of the single most important locations in the country for a species which nationally declined 60% between 1995 and 2009, hangs in the balance.

For several years now, Lodge Hill has been the subject of a massive new 700ha development by Medway Council and Land Securities; a development amounting to 5000 new homes (the biggest single one in Europe) and countless other amenities being dumped slap bang in the middle of the Hoo Peninsular - a predominantly rural area, rich in wildlife, history and community values. It is a thorughly miserbale concept. But when plans for the development were scrutinised, local conservation groups reacted with the urgency you would expect, going to great lengths to point out the value of this site for nightingales and other wildlife. Their pleas were backed up by the results of the BTO’s 2012 Nightingale survey that showed the area to hold a fantastic 84 pairs of Nightingales, more than previously thought - with 69 inside the boundary directly affected by the development.

Yesterday (Thursday), after many months of hard work behind the scenes, an important decision was made by Natural England. They awarded Lodge Hill SSSI status on account of its important mosaic of habitats, specifically ancient, semi-natural woodland and tracts of neutral (unimproved) grassland and its importance for breeding nightingales. This decision extends the current SSSI boundary of Chattenden Woods, creating a new area of 222ha. This is a great result, it’s the right decision and while it the issue won’t go away overnight, it will now presumably make things much harder for the developers.

“It is an offence for any person intentionally or recklessly to destroy or damage the special features of the SSSI or to disturb any of the fauna”

What’s especially encouraging about this decision is that in October 2012, Natural England initially turned down the chance to notify the contested land as a SSSI “at this stage” on the grounds of “good but incomplete evidence”, referring to an issue with the 1999 national nightingale census. I think this shows a fair and diligent approach to the evidence since presented. If Land Securities and Medway Council were concerned by the open-ended nature of this initial statement (and they were) it would have been interesting to be in their offices yesterday don’t you think?!

On the BBC News last night Councillor Jane Chitty, overseeing Strategic Development and Economic Growth in Medway, lamented those pesky nightingales, moaning “is the priority to protect 80 nightingales or is it more important to provide housing?”. That may be a laughably cynical attempt at riling up public feeling ('it's only a few birds') but what she’s missing here is that this isn’t really about 80 nightingales at all, it’s about all those next year and the year after, securing the future of one the most important sites for the species in England. As the designation states, it’s about recognising important habitats, preserving those invertebrate-rich grasslands and so much more. It’s not a case of ‘Birds v Houses’ as the media wants to sell it, the right to provide homes is not being denied; it’s about respect for the environment, logic and protecting something that can't be replaced - a site we should be proud of. 

I don’t think there is any mitigation that can adequately account for Lodge Hill - despite a ‘biodiversity offsetting’ (shudder) scoping report in November 2012 suggesting it is ‘technically feasible’ to adequately offset expected losses to nightingale populations with habitat elsewhere. The amount of habitat required was cautiously suggested by BTO experts to amount to 300-400ha, assuming certain key habitat conditions were in place (!) That’s a lot of land for Kent - meaning lots of smaller sites scattered across the county, many requiring a lot of work (and time) to make them suitable. Do you think offsetting on this scale could work? Perhaps it might on a smaller scale in some situations, but surely the RISK here just too great to mess with? There is clearly something very important about this site to this particular species - what if it doesn't work? 

As I understand, Medway Council and Land Securities now have 4 months to challenge the decision and they will no doubt have been preparing for this outcome so I guess we shouldn’t pop the champagne corks just yet. Personally I'm sick of seeing our countryside filled in by lazy developments and the thought of seeing a whole new town of characterless, unsustainable and over-priced homes, makes me angry; but I’m not blind to the fact that we’re all living too long and we need new places to live. Of course there are other sites where you can build more houses in Medway if you must, without depriving future generations of an important, iconic part of their natural heritage. Lodge Hill may have looked like an easy option, brownfield, picturesque, commutable, but it’s time for a more constructive, sensitive plan B now – leave Lodge Hill to those ’80’ nightingales and all the other little wonders that call it home.

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)
Source: Andreas Eichler [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Protect Lodge Hill

Stuck on Red

A very interesting report came out today called 'Nature Check 2012'. The report, by Wildlife and Countryside Link, looks at the coalition government's progress on its environmental promises since 2010. Link are a small but important London-based 'umbrella' organisation that aims to tie together ideas and issues affecting a wide range of member NGOs from the UK environment sector with a view to forming coherent, well-supported policies. I was pleased to see this come out hot on the heels of last week's State of the UK Birds Report as their findings provide further weight to the notion that our natural environment is being wholly failed by the coalition government. I guess that may come as no surprise but hey, graphs are always welcome:

Nature Check 2012 - Summary of results.
Source: http://www.wcl.org.uk/docs/Link_Nature_Check_Report_November_2012.pdf. 27/11/12. 

The report assesses the government's progress on the commitments it made to the natural environment in 2010. To illustrate this it uses a 'traffic light' scoring method to rate progress on 20 key commitments. 'Green' means 'well-delivered' (good progress), 'Amber' means 'delayed or under-delivered' (moderate progress) and well, you can guess, 'Red' means 'Poorly or not delivered' (failing). The graph above shows a summary of the 2012 results - as clear as a car crash isn't it?

Two of those areas where the coalition are shown to be singularly failing are particularly relevant right now; point 6 refers to the Pitt Review and a promise to 'improve flood defences and prevent unnecessary building in areas of high flood risk', while point 9 details their blindly inept handling of Bovine TB. Point 14 highlights their continued failure to act on the Marine Coastal and Access Act (2009) which strives among other things to achieve "clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, better protection for our marine environment and sustainable use of our marine resources" (Defra). If this report had come out later, would the handling of Ash Dieback have any bearing on the results?

To give them some credit, points 16 and 17 show the government to be fulfilling their promises on the issues of commercial whaling and ivory sales respectively (as they were in 2011). But however worthy they are, it is surely woeful that they have not managed to make significant progress on any of the issues addressed here that directly affect the UK's natural environment. Biodiversity and habitat loss is just one of several vital concerns currently stalling under 'amber'. Marginal progress may have been detected with regards planning frameworks but then I think we're still waiting for real proof there.

If he responds, what will Owen Paterson make of this I wonder? Will he heed the calls here for a change to the 'patchy' and 'inconsistent' approach witnessed so far? What will it look like this time next year? Let's hope that traffic is flowing smoothly because every year that passes without relevant, committed environmental leadership will yield a poorer future for all of us.    

It's a really interesting report, read it here.

EU - don't CUT the CAP budget

HLS funded field margin near Meopham, north Kent, June 2012

You'd be forgiven for thinking  that us humans don't really care much for the environment at the moment; that we've got it all figured out and have decided we can probably do without clean air, secure food supplies, healthy ecosystems and such like. The daily barrage of narrow-minded, destructive attempts at undermining our environment continued yesterday with the announcement that a vital part of the EU budget that funds and encourages wildlife-friendly farming across Europe is set to be slashed.

As part of the 'Pillar 2' funding stream of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farmers are rewarded for employing sensitive, wildlife-friendly practices under such schemes as the Higher Level Stewardship. This scheme has evolved over recent years to advise farmers and landowners and ensure that money is spent on strictly observed and tailored practices, designed to enhance farming landscapes for biodiversity without compromising the needs of farmers to make a living. It has a massive role to play in the UK where farming landscapes have changed radically over the last hundred years, resulting in the loss or steep decline of countless species of flora and fauna. In the UK there are more than 58,000 agri-environment schemes, covering a total of over 6 million hectares of farmland! These schemes are an amazing achievement and vital to the continued conservation of our wildlife and the health of our environment as a whole. The announcement of a proposed 17-20% cut to this part of the EU agricultural budget therefore threatens to blow a hole through this and leave a vast shortfall that in current conditions will be nigh on impossible to make up.

Walking around the arable fields near my home town over the last few years, I have seen a number of positive changes to the environment. Several years ago, the local farmer installed a superb new hedgerow, several hundred metres long, filled with native plants and shrubs. A nice scrubby area has been allowed to regenerate in one corner of a field and this year, last time I looked, it appeared a sizeable weedy cover crop has been left to stand for the winter. As a result, this spring I saw and heard more corn buntings in the fields than ever before. I'm fairly sure several pairs of Linnet nested successfully and just a few weeks ago I spotted a pair of reed buntings in the area for the first time. In one corner of the field, mostly obscured by a tangled hedge, a little hand made sign makes reference to the fact that these changes have come about as a result of the HLS scheme. It's great to see this close to home and I hope the farmer is aware of these things. Cutting funds like this will see us take one step forward and two back. We stand to lose so much.

It was good to see the Wildlife Trust's statement today, as well as the many others. They suggest emailing David Cameron before next week's EU summit to make our voices heard. I know we're in financial dire straits at the moment but we can't afford to let this slip now. Worth it don't you think?

If you care about farmland birds or butterflies or bugs or sustainably produced food or just a nice walk in the countryside, email the Prime Minister through the RSPB campaign page - it only takes a minute! Or write your own. Don't cut the CAP budget!

Corn Bunting on telegraph wire, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, 2012

Arrivederci...for a bit

No posts for a week or two as I'm heading to Italy tomorrow to join up with a team from Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) at their annual bird protection camp in Brescia.

This is my first time volunteering with CABS, a Germany-based campaigning/conservation organisation that tackles the widespread persecution of resident and migrant birds at key areas across Europe. Like many people, the appalling crimes that birds (particularly migrant ones) suffer across Europe sickens me, so I'm realistic but equally excited and grateful to have the opportunity to take part in this. I'm looking forward to going somewhere I've never been and experiencing it for myself. Conversely, I doubt very much I'm looking forward to seeing many birds, since there's a chance the ones I do will be hanging upside down with shattered legs or entangled in trapper's nets.

The Brescia camp in northern Italy has been running since the 1980s to tackle the widespread illegal poaching that occurs in the Lombardy region. Every autumn, as the last weary summer migrants pass through the Alps on their way south, with the first wintering birds on their heels, they begin funnelling through the food rich valleys in the area, where trappers wait with their nets and a range of crude, archaic traps and hunters ready their guns. And every autumn CABS volunteers are there, monitoring the situation, removing traps and working with the Italian Forest Police. Of the birds that are trapped indiscriminately, some are caught live to meet the demand for hunter's 'decoys' while others are destined for under the counter 'delicacies' in local restaurants. The proactive stance of groups like CABS and the continued pressure heaped on regional governments has seen successes of late in Italy but these still can't hide the sad, unjustifiable fate of millions of birds every year. It should be an interesting week, stay tuned...

Follow the CABS daily blog for updates.

An excerpt from Jonathan Franzen's essay, 'The Ugly Mediterranean':

Italy is a long, narrow gantlet for a winged migrant to run. Poachers in Brescia, in the north, trap a million songbirds annually for sale to restaurants offering pulenta e osei-polenta with little birds. The woods of Sardinia are full of wire snares, the Venetian wetlands are a slaughtering ground for wintering ducks, and Umbria, the home of St. Francis, has more registered hunters per capita than any other region. Hunters in Tuscany pursue their quotas of woodcock and wood pigeon and four legally shootable songbirds, including song thrush and skylark; but at dawn, in the mist, it’s hard to distinguish legal from illegal quarry, and who’s keeping track anyway? To the south, in Campania, much of which is controlled by the Camorra (the local mafia), the most inviting habitat for migratory waterfowl and waders is in fields flooded by the Camorra and rented to hunters for up to a thousand euros a day; songbird wholesalers from Brescia bring down refrigerated trucks to collect the take from small-time poachers; entire Campanian provinces are blanketed with traps for seven tuneful European finch species, and flush Camorristi pay handsomely for well-trained singers at the illegal bird markets there. Farther south, in Calabria and Sicily, the highly publicized springtime hunting of migrating honey buzzards has been reduced by intensive law enforcement and volunteer monitoring, but Calabria, especially, is still full of poachers who, if they can get away with it, will shoot anything that flies.

Reprinted from Telegraph article 8/11/10.  All copyright/respect to Jonathan Franzen. Thanks to Lisa A.

When it comes to badgers, it IS black and white...

Badger (Meles meles) source:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Badger-badger.jpg 

When it comes to badgers, it is black and white – there is simply no excuse for the appalling situation we find ourselves facing today. Despite good scientific evidence in favour of vaccinations and widespread appeals, our dear government looks likely to press ahead with plans to start a trial cull of badgers in Gloucestershire and Somerset. According to reports this could result in the needless deaths of 100,000 animals or a third of the national population. 

It was interesting to talk to a few friends at the weekend about the Badger cull. They’re all good, smart, clued up folk, yet I was quite surprised to find some were not aware of the issue or the proposed cull. And that’s totally fine, I mean it doesn’t have to crop up in everyday life or interest everyone but rather than reflect a lack of interest, I think it’s more a sign of how well the media (and the government) have managed to keep this under the radar. Who can blame them though when there's more pressing matters to address (or undress?) like some women's pixellated tits. It was nice to see the issue make the front page of the Guardian this morning, rather than quietly filed under the ‘Environment’ tab (or on page17 of a Red Top).

I think this is a story deserving of every front page, heralding as it does a sinister dark pass in the government’s thinking on how to manage the countryside. Owen Paterson, Environment Secretary, even managed to spin it as helping badgers - by not allowing them to suffer the effects of bTb. And vaccination would do what? I’m having a pretty hard time getting my head around the chain of events.

We find ourselves on the verge of witnessing the needless slaughter of an iconic and much loved native animal. It’s a decision that flies in the face of sound scientific evidence and is instead fuelled by a bloody minded insistence that they know best. Expensive, unsustainable and destructive, the desire for action in a direct, physical sense has replaced all sane, compassionate thought. Forget the fact that this won’t work and will cause numerous problems for farmers, landowners, protesters and others, it promotes a way of managing the countryside that ultimately threatens something far greater than a single species. It perpetuates the image that nature and our countryside is something that needs to be battled and fought against with GUNS and steely determination. Midnight SWAT teams descending on woodlands and field boundaries, ruthlessly crashing through terminating THE ENEMY. What a message to send. THIS…this is the BEST we can come up with? Are you f**king kidding?!

So what happens next?

Well, it’s worth taking a look at this short video and signing the petition if you haven’t already. Then tell all your friends. Look, you couldn't say no to David Attenborough could you?!:

The petition is a long shot and unlikely to make any difference at this late stage, but it will provide them with an idea as to the strength of public feeling on the subject. With the Badger Trust’s judicial challenge failing last week, parliament not sitting until mid-October and the permits already flying out of Natural England, you’re guess is as good as mine as to what will happen. I’d like to think of them all sitting there as the door bursts open and a messenger runs in yelling ”WAIT, wait…have a look at THIS!”, before he slings a folder with 100,000 signatures across the table. But I’m not sure it works like that. Why not tell your MP what you think too? Check here for details. At the very least you'll get a fancy headed letter in the post.

Every nature lover in the country wants to see farmers make a living and bovine tubercolosis (bTb) eliminated, but this is NOT the way to do it. It's time we showed some respect. I feel sorry for the farmers who'll have to go through this, who have been put in this position by the government. For while I am sure there will be some for whom the cull is of little significance, another job on the list, there will be those who are saddened and shocked by the actions.

Apologies if this was a rambling, repetitive blog, one of those days. I'll leave the last word to Johnny Rotten:

Links:

Guardian verdict: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/16/badger-cull-government-go-ahead

Farmer's Weekly: http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/14/09/2012/135197/Race-is-on-to-start-badger-cull-as-appeal-fails.htm

Reshuffle 2012

Just a short post about the cabinet reshuffle this week. Cheerier news to follow soon I hope (!)

Makes no sense at all

There was a bit of banter in the office yesterday about Cameron's cabinet reshuffle. I noticed a few people had the event scrolling live on their screens and every now and then there were a few 'hmms' out loud. The main response came when it was revealed that Owen Paterson was going to be the new Environment Secretary. His name didn't stick in my head so I looked him up and predictably, it wasn't great news. According to what sources you look at Caroline Spelman's replacement looks like an ideal fit for Cameron. Among other things:

• He hates badgers (apparently he's an 'expert' on Bovine TB) 
• He loves horses
• He likes the possibilities of shale gas exploitation
• He hates wind farms

With a background in rural issues (he was Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food between 2003-5) you might hope he's got good, well-informed opinions on things like farming, wildlife, hunting and sustainable food production. But when the Countryside Alliance are one of the first groups in to show support for his appointment you probably get an idea of what kind of Environment Secretary we're going to be dealing with. Oh and apparently, he's got £2.2 billion of Defra money to play with. I bet him and Richard Benyon are going to get on like a house on fire. 

I'm not an expert on these things but I would've liked Caroline Spelman to stay. She seemed like a good sort, a generally reliable voice in the ranks. But there's no doubt Cameron is closing ranks around himself now, like a general readying for a siege. It's long been known how this government feels about the environment and how with a total absence of foresight, innovation or reason they see no other way out than to attack it relentlessly. The desperate measures of a desperate man. I guess we'll have to see how things play out. I hope I'm surprised and Paterson et al gives our countryside and the wider environment the respect and support it desperately needs.

Apart from the re-shuffle there was lots of talk about Heathrow too, with the government set to make a U-turn on it's no third runway policy. What do you think about that? Here's what George Monbiot thinks and as ever he really nailed the whole issue in his Guardian blog this week. It's a great piece - short, articulate and powerful. Read it and weep:

The day the world went mad

The sound of silence

There have been a lot of interesting stories going around this week. I was going to put up a whole load of links but thought maybe that would be kinda dull. Instead here's just one that I found really moving and I really wanted to share. It's from the Guardian again:

'A great silence is spreading over the natural world'  

Wow. How to follow that?