You are going to participate in Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend aren't you?
Fisheries and almost-everything-else Minister, Richard Benyon, is coming under pressure from fellow fishermen to allow culling of cormorants in their breeding season. We work closely with fishermen on a range of issues such as the Severn Barrage, river pollution and the Water Framework Directive but some of them are a bit bonkers. No you don't need extra powers to cull cormorants - you have plenty of unnecessary scope already. We hope that in his busy job, Mr Benyon has time to be sensible on this issue.
Forests - we'll hear soon of the government's actual plans on this subject. We will be scrutinising the consultation paper carefully and then making our views known. The timing of this article in the Independent cannot be accidental.
Waxwings - look out for colour-ringed birds. I see that some of the local Northamptonshire birds are carrying colour-rings clamped onto them by the Grampian Ringing Group earlier in the winter.
I'm looking forward to talking at the Sussex Ornithological Society Conference this weekend - but the other speakers on the programme are excellent so I'm looking forward to listening too.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
I live in Nottingham many miles from the sea and it seems that the Cormorants are having a serious affect on the river Trent. I lived before in Hampshire and I understand that the Cormorant population has had a dramatic effect on the trout and salmon population on the Dorset Stour and the river Meon.
I understand that the Cormorants and some other birds used to inhabit the coastal areas but have now changed to inhabiting areas and nesting many miles in land.
I recently saw hundreds on some islands in the middle of Orleans in France hundreds of miles from the sea.
The RSPB want to forget about political correctness and admit that some birds like Cormorants and Magpies need to be culled.
I understand that it is the RSPB's view that Magpies do not decimate the garden bird popultaion. I would like to know if these same people look out in their back garden in the spring like I do and see many garden birds nests raided by Magpies.
This along with the cat population rising it is no wonder that the garden bird population is in trouble.
Are we going to see the RSPB preside over the extinction of many garden birds because they cannot admit the reality of the situation.