davidhiggins.bsky.social

I've just published a personal essay on bitterns, bereavement, and Irish literature in _The Clearing_ @LittleToller. As it happens, today is the anniversary of the execution of one of its subjects, the poet and revolutionary Thomas MacDonagh. littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/t…

Starmer could talk about ending right to buy & funding local authorities to build massive amounts of new council housing. He could talk about profiteering developers banking land to control supply. No. Instead he tells us newts & bats are responsible for the housing crisis

Big flaw with Labour's 1.5m new homes – house-builders can't be trusted to add biodiversity, as this important @WildJustice_org study reveals: theguardian.com/environment/20… Simple solution: funding for proper inspection/enforcement/penalties.

@FirstWestYorks 1323 southbound. My stop is in Adel at northern end of the 28 line. Sometimes scheduled buses don’t appear but I’ve never had one arrive, sit for 10 minutes, and then drive off before. At least we could have been told what was happening.

@FirstWestYorks number 28 bus just sat for a few mins at George Martin drive before leaving without taking on passengers. No explanation. I’ve had to taxi instead to get my train. In my experience the weekend service on this line is poor.

Such an important graph in answering the commonly asked question "how the UK fucked up housing policy so badly" (From the CIH's UK Housing Review, via @jules_birch) insidehousing.co.uk/comment/do-sig…

It has been a year since my Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife came out with @pelagicpublish. I'm still so proud of it. To everyone who engaged with it, said nice things, and even bought copies - thank you so much!! 🙀📗💚

I'm fascinated by descriptions of the abundance of now rare species. This is W. H. Hudson in 1900, writing about turtle doves in the South Downs. The species is now on the verge of extinction in the UK. For more info, including how to help, see @SaveTurtleDoves

A developer wants to destroy one of the last remaining riverside meadows beside the Roding in London. 11 acres of rapidly rewilding meadow, a haven for nature in an urban area, where kingfishers nest, kestrels & bats take flight & all manner of insects, butterflies & amphibians live, is proposed to be bulldozed to create a crazy golf course. This despite the fact that there are already *two* existing golf courses within a few hundred metres of this site! The meadows used to be a publicly accessible playing field, but the person behind the development appears to have locked it up & allowed rubbish & flytipping to proliferate to make this site look ugly & unused; & thereby justify its destruction. I have been helping local residents to organise a campaign to ‘Save the Roding Meadows’ & they’ve done so much in a short space of time. Last weekend, they showed the power of community & organised a work day to do the landowners job for them and clean up the large amount of rubbish in the meadows. You can help them in their efforts by taking a moment to share this post and sign and share their petition: change.org/p/wanstead-par… If you live anywhere locally (in LB Redbridge or along the Roding) any additional objections to the local authority would be really helpful. The application is below, & you can use this link to log objections via the portal. The deadline is this Friday (4th October): planning.redbridge.gov.uk/redbridge/appl… Residents have compiled an example letter setting out the key objections at this link. Feel free to use, but personalised letters are preferable if at all possible: docs.google.com/document/d/1zv… Fingers crossed that the depth of care felt by local people for nature can save this irreplaceable meadow from destruction.

@DrPennyBradshaw Never been before. Tried the saltmarsh hides at Leighton Moss but didn't fancy driving through a huge puddle so decided to try Silverdale instead. Glad I did!

Visited Jenny Brown’s Point at the top of Morecambe Bay yesterday. Probably would have seen more birds if the tide had been in, but found the landscape itself enthralling. Space and light.

@mary_fairclough No I haven't. But I absolutely will: thanks for the reminder!

@Ferguson2Dr That would be an interesting research project: use of speculative fiction in science comms.

Thank you so much to @drdhiggins for getting our 2024-25 ‘Cultural Landscapes’ public lecture series off to a superb start this evening with a fascinating talk on ‘Rachel Carson and British Nature Writing’ @CumbriaUni @CNPPA_UoC @UoCResearch

@DrPennyBradshaw Thanks a lot Penny. Haven’t started early, due in part to the weather, but will give it a go later on.

Enjoyed this a lot. And a good excuse to look for bitterns at Leighton Moss tomorrow. Many thanks to @DrPennyBradshaw for the invitation and to the attentive audience.

@Ferguson2Dr Thanks a lot Paul. I just have ordered Traffication.

@onLoughrigg @DrPennyBradshaw Thanks for coming!

@drdhiggins @DrPennyBradshaw Good luck with the bitterns for this morning. And thank you for an interesting talk...

Any green historians, env hum or (critical) plant scholars interested in submitting an abstract for our hybrid panel for #ESEH2025 in Uppsala🇸🇪? 🌿 @elinetabak and I are drafting a panel proposal: “Vegetal (hi)stories: more-than-human narratives of invasion and belonging"🌵