
Wild Places – Wales’ top 40 Nature Sites by Iolo Williams
Published by Seren Reprinted in 2017 Paperback 192 pages price £19.99 This book gives you an insight into 40 locations you must visit in Wales to see a wide variety of wildlife especially birds. I was amazed how many I had already visited after a short time in Wales as assistant warden at Ynis hir way back in 1980. Sadly I have never been back but must make the effort to catch up with those sites I have missed and look at the changes that have taken place in others. I know t

The end of Langholm part 2. Will there ever be a part 3?
The end of August sees the end of a 10 year programme to make Langholm moor a biodiverse area along with Red Grouse shooting. Red Grouse shooting never took place as the bar was set too high. Red Grouse shooting could have taken place but there was a large element against it as it would mean that Birds of Prey would have won! There was so much going for Langholm under the right management but again little effort was made to bring the wider public to the moor to see the fascin

Farming and Birds by Ian Newton
Published by New Naturalist William Collins Hard and Soft Back 628 pages Price £65.00 and £35.00 Yet another amazing book by Ian who has done 3 other books in this series [Finches, Bird Migration and Bird Populations]. The size of the book shows the problems facing birds today on farms and what with Brexit coming up another volume could be on the way in the near future! The shear explosion of farming with their size, methods and machinery not to mention the stocking rates, po

Rare Pallid Harriers and more problems with the establishment
Some of you may have gone to see the male Pallid Harrier in Bowland this spring but now it has been confirmed that there was a second one in Cumbria! Due to nesting Hen Harriers in the same area of Yorkshire/Cumbria border the bird was not put out to the general public. The Hen Harriers failed due to the eggs going missing. Sadly with no proof foxes were blamed not man as the nests were by a Red Grouse moor and of course foxes are protected on Red Grouse moors![not] This PR l