I note there is a job vacancy for an IT Officer with BC. He/she will have a golden opportunity in organising online canvassing of members' views about the Forestry sell-off. That would be a much simpler way for us to make our views known rather than having to write individually. Closing date is 9th...

Felix and Pete make the valid point that communication should be through the local branch, but I was on a working party yesterday with two committee members and the sole comment that I got was "we'll get the money from Lotto" so does "wishy-washy " permeate up or down in butterfl...

Last Refuges of England's Rarest Species Revealed

in Natural England's press release http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/region ... 60111.aspx

British Wildlife Photography Awards 2011, Call for Entries The competition opens on 1 February 2011, with a prize fund of up to £20,000. The British Wildlife Photography Awards in 2011 are your chance to win a prestigious photography award and cash prize of £5,000. http://www.bwpawards.org I shall n...

I presume that a number of us will be making a submission to the consultation process. It would therefore be useful if Butterfly Conservation were to publish a boilerplate, that way me might be able to present a fairly united front. Furthermore it would be nice if we had some indication from BC as t...

Don't forget to shoot any birds eating the cotoneaster seeds as they are contravening the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 schedule 9

Apart from the ones you mention Night Flowering Catchfly will bring them in. http://wildseed.co.uk/species/view/129

Perhaps the most significant piece of enlightenment was on page 56: “No employee earned £60,000 per annum or more (including taxable benefits but excluding employer pension contributions) during the period.” Maybe I had expected too much “hands-on” from BC Headquarters. HQ concentrates on other mat...

How about an events page that anyone can post to? I know we have a link from the board index which seems to be for events of national interest. What I suggest is mention of forthcoming county meetings such as the Hants and IoW meeting that Pete reported, since it was a wet day maybe other people mig...

Running charities is a good career. So it should be. You're not seriously proposing that BC should be staffed by temps or people neither able to run an organisation effectively nor deal with the range of callers BC deal with in a professional manner for the sake of saving a few thousand pounds on t...

Susie wrote:

Jack Harrison wrote: HQ employs paid staff.
Jack

Who are probably paid the minimum.

The last annual accounts say that they have 60 staff whose wages and salaries cost £1,302,799 which averages out at £21,713, I guess someone on the minimum wage would get half of that.
Running charities is a good career.

I am not saying that the Winter Moth might not be interesting, nor worthy of recording. The point that I wish to make is that here we have the PR people of a national charity issuing a statement which does not paint the whole picture. If the article ended "the W.M. is a pest on fruit trees"...

From today's Big Butterfly Count Newsletter Look out for Winter Moths this month Winter moth The small, dark moths that flutter in car headlights on winter evenings are almost always Winter Moths. Although not one of our prettiest moths, Winter Moths are a very interesting species that have excellen...

I like the Sussex site because there are signs of life and things change, the Surrey site has all the characteristics of a petrified dodo. All I want on a county butterfly site is a diary of forthcoming events, details of who does what, the county reserves, a good set of links, some guidance on star...

Hi John, That's an interesting comment; would you care to elaborate upon your views and what has drawn you to this conclusion? Having read comments on other websites as well as more lengthy missives in one or two publications I know that you are not alone in your sentiment. Felix. Half a century ag...

Santa turned up. Reindeer s**t everywhere but who am I to complain?

Were the species in question birds rather than butterflies, the usual course of action would be to contact what is known as The Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP). Gibster (a keen birder). How unfortunate that their initial letters are so similar to another bird organisation whose views, IMHO, do mor...

The next question ought to be what sturdy, lightweight tripod do people recommend? Having tried to use a tripod when stalking with a rifle I settled for long thumb stick, which is easy to carry and one which I can rest my rifle and still get a reasonable group at 200 yards - so would a monopod suffi...

GOLDENORFE wrote: no mpe-65 then!
phil

No, no, please don't tempt me. My credit card bill came in yesterday which meant that I could order the EF 100-400L USM IS today 'coz I won't have to pay 'till February (and I got it for a grand).

The two lenses arrived via the postman this morning. I bought them on the grey market on-line from HDEW http://www.hdewcameras.co.uk . I phoned the orders through and was answered by helpful, pleasant sounding people in their office in Wallington, Surrey. Whilst they had the 7D camera and the 18-55 ...