• The Essex Otter and The Mayfly Knight

    A week or so ago I found myself in Essex on the Rivers Colne and Stour http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=51.91318812737575&lon=0.8061829263453214&gz=11&oz=6&gt=1   I was meeting up with other otter ecologist colleagues from neighbouring counties where otters are few and far between to keep our hand in with surveying for otter and water vole signs. After about our third attempt at…

  • Raptor Rage- the usual suspects complain and the promise of #PES

    Does anyone else feel a bit DIRTY about feeling GRAFTEFUL over DEFRA’s U-turn on spending tax payer’s money on research into raptor control ostensibly to protect a NON NATIVE INTRODUCED GAME SPECIES (pheasants) from being blown to oblivion for a marginal economic benefit to preserve a “Countryside Way of Life” that is in general ecologically…

  • Evolution at Easter: science or spiritual?

    Just contemplating Easter and all that new life stuff and finding peace and existential satisfaction from the ecological and evolutionary processes inherent in the new anemones, bluebells and sorrel peeping through in the woods, the newts and frogspawn in Nower Woods ponds and the Red Kite in Pirbright village. But is that satisfaction scientific and…

  • Water Vole: Wishes and Woes at Wisley

    I was really hoping that I’d see signs of water vole on Wisley Common this morning. When one of the rangers sent me these pictures last week I was optomistic that we might be on to find evidence of these endangered mammals in Surrey  for the first time in three years. We just don’t have any extant records in…

  • Back to Basics

    I spend every day of my life working as a conservation professional. I am one of the lucky few to have secured a full time position working for a conservation NGO. I consider myself incredibly lucky to be doing a job that I love, and like many of my colleagues I find it impossible to…