It’s a hundred years since we started working in Wales – by that stage the fledgling RSPB was 21 years old and on the brink of seeing it’s first campaigning success – the legal probation of the importation of feathers and the end of the massive fashion trade in bird plumes that had prompted out founding by Mrs Williamson in Didsbury in 1889.
We were founded by women outraged at an international industry that was destroying breeding populations of egrets – women that had no voice in the world of Victorian ornithology. And at the start of our history in Wales – women were leading the way. You can find out more here. If there’s a film to be made – I nominate Julie Walters in the role of Mrs Jones (follow the links and see if you agree!)
We’ve been to Wales a few times in the course of this blog – mainly looking at the issues around the Severn estuary (here’s a link and here’s another). And I will be bring you more stories during the year.
My chums and colleagues are convinced I’m a bit obsessed with waders (and looking back over recent posts there are a lot of them!) so I’m delighted that a priority for our Welsh centenary is the curlew (pictured); they are in a parlous state and urgent action is needed to stop and reverse the slump in their breeding numbers.
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