Alison Watson

Sign the petition: Save Our Swifts Swifts have lost more than half their population in 20 years. A simple £35 brick in new builds could help save them. Labour used to support this – now they’re planning to backtrack. Sign the petition ...

Labour are backtracking on a plan to help save birds: by blocking a new rule that would make developers put a £35 nest brick in every new home. They think it'll help win them votes - we need to show it would do the opposite. Sign the petition 38d.gs/ky2i

Please stick up for wrasse and sign this petition! petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE...

Ministers threatened with legal action over fishing of ‘vital’ species The Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust has called on the Scottish Government to stop the fishing of wrasse in marine protected areas.

The wrasse fishery is yet another example of our government selling out our environment for the benefit of foreign owned billion earning #salmon farms, who get more government hand outs than they pay in tax. news.stv.tv/scotland/min...

🧵Open season for trapping wild wrasse starts tomorrow in Scotland (in no way avoiding the breeding season), purely to supply the #salmon farming industry. Removing wrasse damages our coastal environment because of their vital role in the food chain. Its also incredibly cruel.

There are ducks at Loch Garten who use nest boxes in trees. They are Goldeneyes, I think. The ducklings hurl themselves out of the boxes when they fledge. Dangerous times!

I love the way the gorse has grown in the top of the post. Opportunistic little plant.

Restaurant boss halfwits should have no powers to chop down trees The felling of an ancient oak tree has understandably put local residents and conservationists on a collision course with the Toby Carvery restaurant chain.

‘Restaurant boss halfwits should have no powers to chop down trees’

My piece for @lbc.co.uk on the Toby Carvery chopping down an ancient oak tree

www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/view...

It's devastating. In NW Scotland, too, the tragedy of landscape destruction goes on.

I had a lot like this one particularly cold spring. I wasn't sure if it was that the eggs had died or the adults weren't fit. Interesting replies to your post

🌍 Nature matters to us all 🌿🤝

We need the #NaturalEnvironmentBill to set strong, meaningful targets to help nature recover.

Will you tell our leaders how much this matters, and why you love Scotland’s nature? 👉 www.scotlandlovesnature.scot/actnow

#ScotlandLovesNature @scotlink.bsky.social

Did u know? Feeding early emerging pollinators is so important this time of year. A sweet smelling & beautiful solution to that is Viburnum Bodnantense-Charles Lamont. It's a gorgeous & useful wildlife garden addition. Bees & early emergers like Red Admiral butterflies adore its nectar.🌿🌱🪲🐝🌍🦋

The house here keeps throwing up problems after 2 years uninhabited but yesterday I found a drumstick primula. Happy gardening to you, too!

When I moved in to my house in February the last owner left me a list of birds she'd seen in the garden. There are bird boxes hidden all over. Am looking forward to taking a very over grown garden in hand and noting the insects and butterflies visiting.

Definitely his best side. 🐎

Oh dear. Why is moving home so hard? I feel like I'm still camping here and things aren't where they should be. At least the sitting room looks tidy now. Onwards to bedrooms next!

Farmed salmon from Scotland in the news again today, hard to believe that salmon are considered a healthy choice of food to eat.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Herdwick sheep in sun bathed Cumbrian fells. Warm autumn colours

Herdwick Sheep Wasdale - linocut by Cumbria painter and printmaker, Mark A Pearce

More of this artist's light-filled linocuts, here: markapearce.co.uk/product-cate...

#art #sheep #Herdwick #Cumbria

Lots of papers today covering the report from Scottish parliament committee.
It's a shame organisations like the RSPCA & Soil Association can't pay attention to this report, they need to stop certifying farms with high mortality.
archive.ph/zvXSb

Scottish government must do more to control salmon farming, inquiry finds Report criticises ‘slow progress’ on industry regulation, amid record fish mortality and concerns over welfare and environmental pollution

Since 2018 enquiry - Record breaking mortalities (17.4 million fish in 2013), 25% mortality a year,+ massively increased chemical use, yet the industry say they are 'Hugely further along.' Eh? @vickyallan.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/... @vickyallan.bsky.social

Moving house. Stressful and emotional. Leaving one life to start anew. Doubts, setbacks and a new garden to nurture.

Reading Windswept I was drawn into your world and its inhabitants. Cathma was such a good friend to you. Sorry to read of her loss.

£5m public funding for Scottish Salmon Company post-smolt project A four-year Scottish Salmon Company project to grow post-smolts to 500g at its Applecross site in the northwest highlands has been awarded up to £5 million in public sector funding.

£5 million of tax payers money to a foreign owned multinational, and as usual our Cab Sec for rural affairs is in the thick of it. How can this spend be justified @mairigougeon.bsky.social ? Bakkafrost have a track record of mass mortality. #Offthetable

www.fishfarmingexpert.com/applecross-h...

I used to live in a house with a well. We often ran dry and one of our goats would take a slurp of our brought in water and shake her head in disgust. Amazing animals 😃

If you need guidance on how to spot real accounts, you need to look carefully at the name. It has the domain name of the user, in this case it’s moneysavingexpert.com. This can only be enabled by the domain holder, so offered verification for the user.

Winter in the Caledonian forest ❄️ Among the treetops, red squirrels build cosy nests, known as dreys, to provide protection from winter storms.

Rewilding helps ensure that vital habitats for wildlife don’t disappear. By restoring #nature, we’re creating refuges for Scotland’s incredible wildlife🌳

Old oak tree with twisted branches in autumn woodland of ancient oaks

A single 400-year-old ancient oak produces 234,000 litres of oxygen a year while soaking up carbon dioxide, and can support more than 2,000 species of bird, insect, fungus, and lichen. Nature is amazing - we need more of it, not less. Please repost if you agree 🌳

More of our money wasted on hot air. Don't they ever actually DO anything?

Harrods and Fortnum & Mason accused of 'misleading' customers with fish labels The retail giants have came under fire from campaigners after they found a label without adequate information.

Don Staniford of Scamon Scotland claimed “Scottish salmon is a welfare nightmare that should be avoided. Yet retailers are flouting fish labelling laws and misleading consumers"
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1982...

Out of the blue: Is blue carbon the next frontier for climate change mitigation in Scotland? This blog explains the current understanding of carbon captured and stored in Scotland’s coastal and marine environment, known as ‘blue carbon’. It also outlines known threats to …

Scotland's marine muds sink more carbon than our forestry, peat, + terrestrial soils combined. If damaged (e.g. by bottom dragged fishing gear or #salmon farming) the sinks lose their function + can become Carbon sources. @thesnp.bsky.social must protect them.

spice-spotlight.scot/2021/03/24/o...

Raining today but a walk in a forest when the rain falls is a lovely prospect.