I don’t know about you but I really try hard to remember to pick up my collection of miscellaneous shopping bags, a kaleidoscope of corporate colours of various vintages. But too often I forget them, at least if the car is outside there is still time for a mad dash to collect the shopping starts to pile up.

For those smaller, on foot forgetful shops there’s always the cheery ‘oh I don’t need a bag, thanks’ before…

My colleague Helen Byron has recently returned from Kenya with news about the Tana River Delta, where a lot has been happening, as she reports here.

On the positive side, I am delighted to report that the land-use planning process for the Delta now firmly underway. I was one of around 65 participants who took part in a high-level meeting in the town of Malindi on the Kenyan coast between 14-17 September to discuss the…

We heard today that the Court of Session in Edinburgh has ruled that it was not illegal for Scottish Ministers to decide that building a new a coal plant at Hunterston is in the national interest.

We've been following the twists and turns of the proposal to build a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston on the Clyde - here's the background to the case.

The proposal by Peel Energy to build a vast new polluting…

Great day at work – as we got the news that a proposed housing development in South Ascot has been rejected following a public inquiry.  This is an excellent outcome for the team that mustered our input to the public inquiry in concert with local people, Natural England and the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

The housing development was proposed adjacent to part of the Thames Basin Heaths…

From the Welsh boarder to the Black Country, from the Mersey to the West Midlands lies a landscape sculpted by ice and shaped human use.  Spend time in this inviting landscape and its character emerges – it is a wet-landscape, at every turn a mere or peaty moss, some small others extensive.  This scattered nature of wild wetlands across such a large area has historically hidden their importance for nature ... had…

It’s always exciting when the political tectonic plates start to shift as a result of effective campaigning.  The unified raspberry that has greeted the draft of the EnPeePeeEff (National Planning Policy Framework) across England (the rest of the UK can relax for now) has at last brought the Prime Minister, David Cameron, into the centre of the furore around the future of planning  - timely.

The bellicose approach…

In the wake of the Sunday Times article (11 September), which splashed the advisory group for the National Planning Policy Framework all over the front page and inside too, today’s Daily Telegraph contains an opinion piece by me which explains the RSPB’s position and some of the problems with the Government’s draft. Some of it will be familiar to readers of this blog, and, the headlines aside, I hope it’s a balanced…

This blog has just turned two!  Some 330 posts later and what have been the big themes?

I had a look at the same question a year ago – and here’s how the top ten topics have changed

1.  Dungeness – holds on to top spot with 53 posts
2. Special Protection Areas – up one place with 42 posts
3. Lydd Airport – in third spot with 30 posts
4. Planning – in from nowhere with 32 posts, but predicted last…

A short post to keep up with the torrent of interest in planning (in England) – I hope there’s interest in planning elsewhere in the UK, but you’d have to go some!

In true blog cross-pollination style – do read Martin Harper’s thoughts here ... Martin is our Director of Conservation.

If you are as worried as we are about the implications of the EnPeePeeEff (National Policy Planning Framework…

So, the Sunday Times has established what has been widely known for weeks, that the Government's planning policy was strongly influenced by an earlier draft prepared by a group of practitioners, of whom I was one. Actually, this was covered in a piece by the Guardian on 26 July.

This will come as no surprise to readers of this blog, since I posted about it on the same day.

Since then it's been hard to keep up with…

Wales MEP Derek Vaughan makes the link between high-quality (and improving) natural environments and the local economy on a visit to the Three Rivers project, part of the RSPB’s Futurescapes programme.

Derek Vaughan MEP backs the future of the Three Rivers

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Following the site visit to Dungeness which took place on the first day back there was a slow start to the enquiry on Wednesday as ornithological experts for both sides finalised a statement of common ground.

The purpose of this document was to come some agreement on the key habitats and species which could be impacted by the proposals, within certain sound parameters.

With this finally signed off, the afternoon session…

I recently received news from Simon Buckell who saw 21 Spoon-billed sandpipers on 27th August.  The birds (12 adults and 9 juveniles) were feeding on a part of the mudflats at Yangkou.  It’s quite possible that there were other spoonies on other parts of the mudflats, therefore it’s conceivable that 10% of the World population were at Yangkou on that day.  This provides additional evidence of the importance…

I’ve been following the fortunes of the birds in a garden in Kent since I was quite young.  Alright – actually I’ve been doing more than following their fortunes, I’ve been keeping records since the early 1970s. I hope I’ve put my lists to good use as they are all tucked away safely on the BTO computer as part of BirdTrack – a joint BTO, RSPB, Scottish Bird Club, BirdWatch Ireland project…

So after a break in proceedings over the summer we arrived back at Folkestone yesterday morning expecting to hear additional ornithological evidence assessing the potential noise and visual impact on the Special Protection Area (SPA), however things did not go quite to plan.

New documents were introduced by the airport just before proceedings started and a request was made to recall and question a witness about habitats…

The relationship with the places most important to you and me define part of our sense of belonging – part of our identity.  I suspect that 2011 will come to be recognised as a year when more and more people realised just how import a sense of place is to them.  It’s happened before – back in the thirties rampant ribbon development and an ad hoc approach to our countryside prompted an out-pouring of concern that led…

This blog is full of stories of the work we do to ensure that the best wildlife sites get the protection they deserve. Sometimes this means opposing proposals that will have profound effects on the best bits of our natural environment, more often it involves working with developers, planners and others directly affected by development proposals to get the best outcomes often enabling the development to go ahead ... if…

My colleague, Kate Jennings, who's our Site Poilcy Officer - has been at the heart of working to protect our best wildlife sites  ... here she reflects on some significant recent publications.

Last week saw the little-heralded (although by some long-awaited...) publication of two Government reports  - Defra commissioned studies  into the ‘Benefits of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)’ and of ‘Ecosystem services…

My Dad grew hops in Kent – and as summer eases into autumn, the chill early ‘hopping’ mornings and bright days take me back to the hectic weeks of hop picking.  I plucked a small handful of hops from a bine draping itself through a hedge and scrubbled the hops between my hands to release the smell that, for me, is the essence of this time of year.

The year is turning and the natural world is busying…

The Min Jiang estuary in Fujian is an important wintering site for Spoon-billed sandpiper in China.  Numbers have varied between 15 and 25 in recent years.  Islands off the coast are the main breeding site for the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern.   The Endangered Black-faced Spoonbill also overwinter here.   It is the other main site in the “Saving Spoony’s Wetlands in China” project.  Part of the…

The training workshops and meeting with local government officers in Yangkou have now been completed.   Fifty six teachers, university students and birdwatching society volunteers were trained on education, communication and interpretation techniques relevant to work on Spoon-billed sandpiper and coastal wetlands.  The response was positive and now planning will progress leading to celebrations of the Yangkou wetlands in…

We know what a special place Dungeness on the south Kent coast is for watching wildlife but now a local artist is shedding new light on some of the more unusual plants that can be found there.

Nicholette Goff, from Folkestone, is currently researching and developing a set of prints to raise awareness of the vulnerability of some of the wildflowers in the area.

By laying sample leaves or flower heads on paper or fabr…

On Sunday afternoon, following the end of the first workshop I returned to the mudflats to take some photos and see some migrant waders.  The photos of the men and women who seek out the shellfish in the estuary mud, possibly show people who may soon be looking for a new livelihood.  The introduced and encroaching spartina grass is rapidly covering the estuarine mud.  This creeping sea of green is reducing the feeding areas…

After a lengthy meeting to discuss the fine details of tomorrow’s workshop, I had some free time to go to the mudflats in search of some feathered delights.  There will be a field visit during the workshops, so it was also a reconnaissance to observe the environmental issues in the area.  Walking across a huge area of estuarine mud in search of a small wader in amongst thousands of others is like trying to find a…

After surviving a three hour car journey from Shanghai, we arrived at the Defeng Hotel in Yangkou.  Yangkou is a fishing port, but since 2008 it has become an increasingly popular destination for birdwatchers.  The reason is the discovery that the mudflats are a regular feeding site for migrating Spoon-billed sandpipers.  I was talking to one birdwatcher who said that it can sometimes be difficult to book a room at this…