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Our Date With Nature in Regent’s Park was pretty successful yesterday – no famous singers or authors this time unfortunately but the three heron chicks were the stars of the show.

There were adults in four or five of the nests but we only spotted chicks in one. I couldn’t get over how big they are, at just 3-4 weeks old. How mum, dad and the chicks will all fit in the nest for another… Continue reading

My feature for Australia and New Zealand magazine on eco-volunteering in the Antipodes is in stores now….

Thanks to Biosphere Expeditions, Conservation Volunteers, Reef Check Australia and everyone else who helped out!

Click here to read it as a PDF

I’ve finally submitted my results online for last weekend’s Big Garden Birdwatch.
I decided to borrow a friend’s garden in the end, as I’ve never seen a single bird in our courtyard. She also supplied me with tea and chocolate digestives which was nice.

I made a little spread of seeds and over-ripe fruit out on her wall but the birds didn’t exactly flock to it. They need more than 20 minutes notice that the food is out, I… Continue reading

A story about aquaculture on a North Carolina news site gave me food for thought. The journalist visited a research facility which is developing methods of artificially cultivating saltwater fish (aquaculture has been used more for freshwater fish to date).

In many ways, I think aquaculture sounds like a sensible idea.

• Natural fish stocks around the world are now dangerously low because of overfishing. By farming fish in giant tanks, we can reduce the pressure on

I was pleased to hear that Cancun has devised an underwater museum as a new tourist attraction. Not because I thought the world necessarily needed an underwater museum (more on that later) but because this is good news for the threatened coral reefs in the Cancun area.

The massive expansion of tourism over the last 40 years has led to the rapid decline in the quality of the… Continue reading

I’ve just been reading an update on efforts in Egypt to make the Red Sea the first plastic bag-free zone in the country.

Discarded plastic bags were causing the deaths of birds, turtles, dolphins and other marine creatures which swallowed or became entangled in the rubbish blown out to sea. I’ve dived the Red Sea a couple of times and been disappointed to see litter – it really makes your heart sink… Continue reading

I’m researching a feature about conservation volunteering for Australia and New Zealand magazine at the moment, and have been upset to hear what’s happening to the Tasmanian Devil.

They’re much cuter in real life than in the Looney Tunes cartoon. They’re not fussy eaters, and have one of the strongest jaws in the world so will chomp down bones and all, but they’re actually quite a shy marsupial, and an icon the Tasmanians are very proud of… Continue reading

I finally got to see The Cove last week. If you haven’t heard about it, I posted a trailer for it back in July. It’s a documentary about the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in a hidden cove in Taiji, Japan. After the best are cherry-picked by oceanariums around the world, the rest are stabbed to death. The meat, which is toxically high in mercury, is sold as whale meat, and even given to children in free school lunches.

I’d been looking forward to… Continue reading | 1 Comment

This spoof story from The Onion is the funniest thing I’ve read in ages…..

“Executives from the Shell Oil Company blasted a floundering, oil-covered sea otter Monday, accusing the small aquatic mammal of grossly exaggerating the effects of last week’s hazardous petroleum spill.

According to Shell president Marvin Odum, the otter has been putting on “quite a show” in front of rescue workers and clean-up crews, and… Continue reading

I’m now two weeks into my cow’s milk ban, and I’ve done pretty bloody well. Soya yoghurt is not too bad at all, and Alpro makes a tasty chocolate mousse dessert.

For cereal and porridge, I’ve had to swap from soya milk to rice milk, which is much more drinkable. And I’ve had to allow myself one cup of tea with real milk per morning, as I couldn’t finish a mugful made with either soya or rice milk, and… Continue reading