THIS MONTH, THE new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes law: that’s why, if you are on a commercial mailing list, you’ll have been asked to sign up for it again under new conditions. Bird clubs will also need to…
WE ARE SPOILED for choice in this hobby: just think of the innumerable varieties, colours and species that are available to keep us happy. And yet there’s a huge tranche of birds that, by and large, remain beyond our reach.…
GREAT NEWS HAS come from the recent Budgerigar Society (BS) spring event at Scotch Corner. Best in show was awarded to current BS world champion Ady Lovack with his seemingly unbeatable light green cock: the bird’s 11th best-in-show win. Ady…
THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY’S (AS) greatly anticipated Raymond Sawyer Scholarship is back! Applications to this year’s Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust workshop “Avian Egg Incubation” are now welcome. On page 4, we hear from Anna Temple, the 2017 scholarship winner, who was…
HOWARD HAWES IS spot on when he writes (letter, left): “We cannot sit back and hope nothing bad happens.” I’m convinced that the best thing we can all do to avert AAL is to make our MP aware of it…
MANY THANKS TO senior government advisor Sir John Randall for inviting Colin O’Hara and myself to a briefing on AAL last week (see page 3). We enjoyed our afternoon in the corridors of power; more to the point, we hope…
THANKS TO READER V. Gibbs for the letter opposite, expressing scepticism about the widespread concern over DEFRA’s proposed Animal Activities Licence scheme. I would love to believe that we have nothing to worry about. But I suggest we look at…
LONG-TIME CONTRIBUTOR Bob Baggs (whom I think of as the Sage of Wiltshire – see “Lizard wizard”, etc, below) observes as follows on page 15: “I believe the only way a person is likely to remain interested in birds for…
CRUNCH TIME IS here: every birdkeeper in the UK needs to make his or her voice heard to their MP. If we don’t speak out over the proposed new Animal Activities Licence, we’ll move into unknown territory together. It is…
THE DEVIL ISN’T in the background. It’s in the guidelines. Readers wishing to learn more about DEFRA’s proposed Animal Activities Licence (AAL) can check out what’s in the public domain, for instance the Next Steps document referred to in our…