You may not realize it but you are doing your part. Betsy S. Franz has compiled 10 Ways that Birders and Wildlife Watchers will Help Save the Planet. I like how she summarizes each impact.

Kenn Kaufman has written five superb field-guides (that’s about five more than 99.9% of the world’s birders) - and in a competition arranged with his wife Kim we are going to be giving away THREE sets of ALL five books to three 10,000 Birds Conservation Club members next month. Was a 25USD investment EVER such good value?

The justification used by Japan that the Minke Whale population is booming and thereby stopping other whales recovering is - as a rational person might suspect - a pile of complete doo-doo. A widely reproduced report shows that the Minke population has remained relatively stable and that the idea of ‘culling’ them for scientific research is hokum. Now wait for a new argument for continued killing from the corrupt International Whaling Commission in the coming weeks…

The weather is set to be fairly awful (again/still/typical/whatever) in the UK this weekend so why not sit by a window in a comfy chair and take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch? I will be - and then sending in my sightings to help the RSPB ascertain the state of the UK’s garden birds population. Will I get my first House Sparrow of the year? A Starling, Collared Dove, or Feral Pigeon? The excitement mounts (a bit)…