Andy Paton
@andypaton.bsky.social
There is no Maverick without Goose. A team worker looking out for wildlife.
The Scottish explorer who fancied an adventure closer to home: hiking the Highlands’ Affric Kintail Way | Highlands holidays | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
The Scottish explorer who fancied an adventure closer to home: hiking the Highlands’ Affric Kintail Way
Globetrotter and TV presenter Alice Morrison trades in her camels and backup team for wild camping in one of Scotland’s most beautiful glens
theguardian.com
The first juvenile waders are arriving from their breeding grounds. How quickly do they learn to feed efficiently on shellfish and polychaetes? wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l... #ukbirding
Delighted to catch up with the Sooty Tern at Coquet Island yesterday evening, happy days! #NEbirding
Our film An Irish Atlantic Rainforest is going down a total bomb with anyone who sees it. It's sold out for a 3rd night running at Bantry Cinemax, and is being brought back to the Irish Film Institute in Dublin for another week from Friday due to popular demand!!! 🥳 🎉 🪅 🎊 vimeo.com/1211649058/7...
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest Trailer_ProRes
When a Dublin sculptor trades city life for 73 acres of ecologically ravaged land on Ireland's wild Atlantic coast, he discovers that the most radical act of conservation is simply learning to do noth...
vimeo.com
The study combines data from 149 field studies, in 27 countries across five continents to compare the impacts of plant diversity on natural pest predators across croplands, grasslands and forests. UKCEH's Ben Woodcock is among the co-authors. See our news: https://tinyurl.com/3mtyu6ft 2/2
Plant diversity boosts pests’ predators and reduces crop damage
The largest global assessment of its kind has shown that plant diversity increases populations of predators to suppress pests before they cause significant crop damage. The meta-analysis combines data from 149 field studies across five continents, with co-authors including Dr Ben Woodcock of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
tinyurl.com
The NatureScot #guga decision “bore all the hallmarks of a modern Scottish public body captured by the need to impose an ideology on those they consider to be educationally and culturally beneath them.” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
Scotland’s political elites seem to loathe the people and traditions of the Highlands
Scottish political elite appear to be obsessed with imposing an alien central belt ideology on the Highlands and Islands, says Kevin McKenna
heraldscotland.com
Cory’s Shearwater east past St David’s Harbour @20:05 03/08/26
Aug 2. Bird walk Musselburgh Lagoons (66 species) Some close views: Ruff, Bar- and Black-tailed Godwits @btoscotland.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social @birdinglothian.bsky.social #BirdingLothian
Rewilding is the best defence against wildfires (and why the Telegraph is unsurprisingly wrong): spectator.com/article/rewi...
Rewilding is the best defence against wildfires
Rewilding is not the cause of Britain's worsening upland wildfires. Increasingly, it looks like one of the most promising solutions.
spectator.com
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater becomes my 300th island bird after dropping back to 296 with the AviList update! What a bird to do it with! Was a nice surprise to see it hunting for bees as we drove past the fence at Burray! Not where Id of predicted it’d turn up! #OrkneyBirding
Great sighting! Every colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit can tell a story. Here's one: wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/j... Combining everyone's sightings: wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/g... And add in tracking for powerful conservation science: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
Just one Black-tailed Godwit
When you receive a list of sightings of a colour-ringed bird that you have reported to a scheme organiser, it can hide a wealth of information. Here’s one such bird. Blue Red – Yellow Green-flag BR…
wadertales.wordpress.com
Stephen Welch@lothianrecorder.bsky.social · 3d ago14 ad Blackwits dropped in at Seton Burn dusk on Friday, tricky at 300m range but grateful to @jengill.bsky.social for matching and history of RR-W/W, a bird which winters on the Stour with 126 resightings - though relatively early return date might suggest it is a failed breeder... #BirdingScotland
Natural England forced to admit 'Every White-tailed Eagle death in Dorset linked to rat poison'. #RaptorResearch raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/08/01/n...
Natural England forced to admit ‘Every White-tailed Eagle death in Dorset linked to rat poison’
Last week, the independent group Wildlife Poisoning Research UK (WPRUK) issued a press release confirming the poisoning of more White-tailed Eagles in Dorset, following the high profile poisoning o…
raptorpersecutionuk.org
Simon finally persuaded me to visit the Long Tailed Shrike today. It settled into a hunting routine and wasn’t bothered by its few admirers showing really well. It took a Vole & several Grasshoppers. Pics on iPhone through Swaro scope #Shrikes lots of Corn Bunts, 2 Whinchat, Whitethroat galore.
Martens everywhere! 4 of...🤔 2 mums and 2 kits i think. Mums must be related. A lonnng time since I'd 4 martens together. #pinemartens
A roundup of the main #OrkneyBirding highlights for July now over on that there Facebook. www.facebook.com/groups/20378...
Meg and me sat in the #sitka today watching #goshawks. A few hours later we're watching 4 pinemartens in the same small section of sitka on my 4g camera from our house. This still blows my mind, Gos & #pinemartens sharing the same space.
Again? There ought to be an escalating cost of multiple planning applications for developers. Or, a cooling off period 'cos you didn't make a good enough case last time.
Jeremy Bartlett@jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 5d agoI’m helping save Coul Links. Will you? Coul Links is a beautiful and unique wildlife habitat in the Scottish Highlands. But it is threatened once again with development. Join me in urging Scottish Ministers to say no to this damaging application. action.rspb.org.uk/page/166270/...
Maybe we need to update the saying that golf is "a good walk spoiled" to "a good ecosystem spoiled" (by entitled rich men).
Scotland’s rarest mountain woodlands get £108k grant markavery.info/2026/07/31/s... #rewilding #nevis #corrour #glencoe @n-t-s.bsky.social @johnmuirtrust.bsky.social @treesforlife.bsky.social 📷 @scotlandtbp.bsky.social
I wonder how this happened? I mean, it’s not like scientists have been banging on about the consequences of climate change for decades. 🙄
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4d ago‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops
Migratory bird numbers fall in Wales as global decline continues nation.cymru/news/migrato...
Migratory bird numbers fall in Wales as global decline continues
Abby Neve A major review is warning that over half of migratory bird species are in decline including those that breed in Wales. The international collaboration involved scientists from multiple organ...
nation.cymru
At the end of July, I check whether French authorities have reauthorised the temporary ban on shooting Curlew. They did! Curlews are still shot, but it is illegal. More here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/b... Birds tagged in France breeding in UK ⬇️ #ornithology
I'm screaming inside reading this. The implications are beyond comprehension.
Nahel Belgherze@wxnb.bsky.social · 5d agoBordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.
