Looking back at the weekend, looking forward to the week ahead

It was a weekend of near misses. 

I helped my 81 year old Dad fulfil a promise made many decades ago by climbing Green Gable but only ‘on to’ Great Gable in the Lakes.  And then I completed the Great North Run one minute fifty seconds slower than my target time of one hour forty five minutes. 

The pleasures of the walk came for free, but the run means that I am a bit poorer as I had promised to double the many generous donations received if I didn’t meet my target time.  I am happy about that (even if my wife is less so) as the money is going to support the work of our fantastic investigations team who work tirelessly with the policy to catch those illegally killing birds of prey.  

The week ahead is also quite packed but probably less energy-sapping.

I shall be taking part in the first environment roundtable meeting of NGOs with the Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, on Monday. 

On Tuesday, I shall be locked in a debate on re-wilding with George Monbiot at our reserves conference in Nottingham.

Sir David Attenborough will once again be helping to launch the second State of Nature report in London before a debate on implications of Brexit on nature.

Wader conservation will be a topic of  debate at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Game and Wildlife Thursday and I look forward to sharing our experience including successes from our reserves.

And, on Friday, I hope and expect to return to the Lodge.

While the week will focus on how to develop the right political and practical response to the state of our nature, at least a bit of me will still be in the Lakes watching a wheatear thinking about its imminent migration while waiting for my Dad - making his way down the hill in his own time and in his own way.

Tom Marhsall's image of a wheatear is a good reminder of my Saturday walk (rspb-images.com)