• Reflections on International Mountain Day: Choughs, Chamois, Kilimanjaro

    Today is International Mountain Day http://www.un.org/en/events/mountainday/ We don’t have any mountains in Surrey. The highest point is Leith Hill near Dorking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Hill at between 293-295m above sea level which is the second highest point in South East England after Walbury Hill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walbury_Hill, East Berkshire at 297m asl. Gibbet Hill at Hindhead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbet_Hill is the second highest point…

  • Originally posted on Dom Greves Digital / Blog: A former boating lake beside the A3 dual-carriageway in Surrey around rush-hour is not the first place you’d go looking for hobbies in the UK. But a pair of these young raptors fledged in the area this summer on land managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. I’ve had good…

  • Owen Paterson’s appointment kills Governments “green credentials”

    With the appointment of new Environment Minister the RT Hon Owen Patterson MP it seems the Government has laid its cards firmly on the table. Simply put, the priority is to reverse the economic crises the country is in, with all other concerns subsidiary. Paterson has just launched a new rural contract (http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2012/09/12/rural-growth/ which emphasises the…

  • Sorrow and delight in the same breath: a quantum conundrum as a noctule #bat comes my way

    Ranger Gemma bought me a present this morning and since its very nearly my birthday I got excited. Then she produced a small plastic bag and out of it pulled this Noctule bat who had caught her last insect on the wing. Gemma had found her at  at Wisley Common and by the look of the…

  • Song For A Fox by @RachelSermanni

    http://youtu.be/PudOwf44GOw I know its not strictly wildlife and conservation but how many times have you seen a fox and just been caught by the simple primal connection that exists in that moment. The physical fox leaves but he’s still in your head. “Sense her like my best kept thought/There still with my thickest blot/Like bees…