Get Ready for Earth Hour on 31st March 2012

Sign up for WWF's Earth Hour Beginning 20:30 Saturday 31 March 2012


Find out more about World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour and how you might  get involved.

RSPB big garden Birdwatch - Still Time to Take Part

This weekend the RSPB have organised their Big Garden Birdwatch. There is still time to observe the birds in your garden for an hour and then record and send off your observations to the RSPB. A form can be completed online or printed off and posted.

With results from so many gardens, the RSPB are able  to create a ‘snapshot’ of bird numbers in each part of the UK. This is important because their previous surveys have shown that some of our birds are disappearing.

We’ve lost more than half our house sparrows and some three quarters of our starlings. And previous results have helped highlight these dramatic declines.However, it isn't all doom and gloom - these surveys help the RSPB spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right.

My wife, Rowena, conducted her observations this morning and recorded, robins, sparrows, blackbirds, a starling, gulls and a blue tit in our front garden.

The RSPB look forward to finding out what you've seen.

Katrina Murray joins Beach Clean Up at Grassy Beach

Earlier today, Katrina Murray, Labour's general election candidate for Dundee East joined me and ten other volunteers in the litter pick at a very breezy Grassy Beach. This was organised by the Broughty Ferry Beach Management Group as a contribution to the Beautiful Scotland National Spring Clean Event.

Katrina Murray said:
"I was delighted to join the enthusiastic and energetic band of volunteers in their clean up of Grassy Beach. I know that the beach and the combined cycle path and walkway between Douglas Terrace and the Stannergate is a really valued place for recreation in The Ferry. I appreciate the valuable work that members of the Broughty Ferry Beach Management Group are undertaking to protect and enhance the environment. And no this was not like Mrs Thatcher's famous televised clean up in Hyde Park when the rubbish was put out for her; you can see that Laurie and I donned protective gloves and wielded litter pickers to collect a sack load of real litter that had been washed up on the beach and deposited on the grass."