Blogs

GWCT Head of Education Mike Swan looks at what's involved when creating a new pheasant shoot from scratch.

Today we sent this letter to Màiri McAllan MSP, newly appointed to the Scottish Government as Minister for Environment, Biodiversity & Land Reform.

Over the last few months, we have been eagerly watching the activity of the nesting pair of barn owls on Owl Box LIVE. Earlier in the season we captured evidence that the pair were breeding and subsequently the female laid four eggs.

Every autumn we use PIT tags to mark juvenile salmon, which are detected at East Stoke when they go to sea as smolts and when they return as adults. 2021's first two PIT-tagged two-sea-winter salmon have been detected as they pass our floating PIT antennae:

Habitat loss for over 80 years, often incentivised by Government to increase food production, will not be reversed overnight but there is cause for hope. 

The drive to plant trees to sequester carbon raises the potential conflict between carbon and biodiversity and at present it seems that carbon trumps biodiversity.

This Thursday (20 May) marks the fourth annual World Bee Day. Given that more than 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination, it’s remarkable that this has been so long in the making.

On 19th April we highlighted an increase in the number of lapwing clutches predated by badgers at Auchnerran, our Scottish demonstration farm. Now, almost a month later, we can provide an update. 3 minute read.

The breeding season is moving along swiftly, and the pair of breeding barn owls within one of our Owl Box Initiative project nest boxes can frequently be seen continuing to cement their bond with one another. Courtship behaviour is an important part of bonding in breeding barn owl pairs and begins over winter and throughout the nesting season.

Defra have published their long awaited General Licence for gamebird releasing on European Protected Sites. Releasing pheasants and red-legged partridges in the protected sites and within a 500m buffer around them will be licensed for an interim period of four years whilst Defra and NE undertake work to assess impacts of gamebird management on individual sites.