Margi Bryant
@margibryant.bsky.social
Researcher and writer on people and nature, focusing mostly on the Peak District and the (Derbyshire) River Derwent. Formerly journalist, aid worker, educator and accidental academic, now trying to draw these strands together in my writing.
Great idea, but the challenge is avoiding hybridisation with feral domestic cats. That's why the Scottish population is functionally extinct, not just low numbers. Scotland's www.savingwildcats.org.uk project tackles this with captive breeding and neutering/vaccinating feral cats in release areas.
Saving Wildcats | Scottish wildcat conservation and recovery
Wildcats are on the brink of extinction in Scotland and this is their last hope. Together we can secure the future of the Highland tiger by breeding and releasing wildcats into the wild.
www.savingwildcats.org.uk
November 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Great idea, but the challenge is avoiding hybridisation with feral domestic cats. That's why the Scottish population is functionally extinct, not just low numbers. Scotland's www.savingwildcats.org.uk project tackles this with captive breeding and neutering/vaccinating feral cats in release areas.
Sorry, wring link, it's www.savingwildcats.org.uk
Saving Wildcats | Scottish wildcat conservation and recovery
Wildcats are on the brink of extinction in Scotland and this is their last hope. Together we can secure the future of the Highland tiger by breeding and releasing wildcats into the wild.
www.savingwildcats.org.uk
November 18, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Sorry, wring link, it's www.savingwildcats.org.uk
Your R4 piece was so lovely! Beautifully written and read, conveying almost tangible presence of your owl neighbours. I listen out at this time of year for my local tawnies in the small urban park by my house, with sometimes a thrilling glimpse of one in silhouette on a bare branch or chimney stack.
November 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Your R4 piece was so lovely! Beautifully written and read, conveying almost tangible presence of your owl neighbours. I listen out at this time of year for my local tawnies in the small urban park by my house, with sometimes a thrilling glimpse of one in silhouette on a bare branch or chimney stack.
Mine was new in 2007. It's still going, but sends me messages advising me that it's suffering from "clutter and slowdown". I know the feeling! 😂
November 2, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Mine was new in 2007. It's still going, but sends me messages advising me that it's suffering from "clutter and slowdown". I know the feeling! 😂
Hi Karen, yes great to meet you, and the Callander evening was good! I'd like to follow up our tentative chat about similar discussion in Peak District NP. I'll email you through your website.
October 20, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Hi Karen, yes great to meet you, and the Callander evening was good! I'd like to follow up our tentative chat about similar discussion in Peak District NP. I'll email you through your website.
Tough on the lungs though, with wood fire going all day and no smoke outlet. I used to be an Iron Age woman at www.pembrokeshirecoast.wales/castell-henl... (I mean as a re-enactor, not in a previous life). Great fun, especially when schoolkids tried to catch you having a smoke behind the sheep-pen!
October 18, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Tough on the lungs though, with wood fire going all day and no smoke outlet. I used to be an Iron Age woman at www.pembrokeshirecoast.wales/castell-henl... (I mean as a re-enactor, not in a previous life). Great fun, especially when schoolkids tried to catch you having a smoke behind the sheep-pen!
Eider ducks always sound to me like old geezers in the pub!
October 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Eider ducks always sound to me like old geezers in the pub!
And it's bloody illegal! That is, if the peat is at least 30cm deep, which I'd imagine it is in this area (although I don't know for certain). All burning ought to be banned of course; it not only releases carbon and wrecks the ecosystem, it also causes the majority of wildfires.
October 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM
And it's bloody illegal! That is, if the peat is at least 30cm deep, which I'd imagine it is in this area (although I don't know for certain). All burning ought to be banned of course; it not only releases carbon and wrecks the ecosystem, it also causes the majority of wildfires.
I was thrilled to see one of the Peak District pairs this summer, but didn't talk about it in case I accidentally gave away their location. Good that they nested on land managed by @nationaltrust.org.uk but I wish the NT didn't still lease some of its land to grouse shooting tenants!
October 7, 2025 at 10:52 AM
I was thrilled to see one of the Peak District pairs this summer, but didn't talk about it in case I accidentally gave away their location. Good that they nested on land managed by @nationaltrust.org.uk but I wish the NT didn't still lease some of its land to grouse shooting tenants!
Yes, it was good! I liked your blog notes but you missed out Steven Lipscombe from @rewildingbritain.org.uk who came up with my fave phrase of the week "people and the rest of nature". Although "love your bogs and scrub" from @ianthewildside.bsky.social was a close contender.
October 5, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Yes, it was good! I liked your blog notes but you missed out Steven Lipscombe from @rewildingbritain.org.uk who came up with my fave phrase of the week "people and the rest of nature". Although "love your bogs and scrub" from @ianthewildside.bsky.social was a close contender.
That's good to hear! That kind of wall/fence (of which there are lots around here) isn't good for deer. Should be either a proper high angled deer fence or a traditional drystone wall. They often knock a hole in walls but I've helped repair many such holes, glad they got through without injury.
September 29, 2025 at 11:03 AM
That's good to hear! That kind of wall/fence (of which there are lots around here) isn't good for deer. Should be either a proper high angled deer fence or a traditional drystone wall. They often knock a hole in walls but I've helped repair many such holes, glad they got through without injury.
Did the stag jumping the fence get over all right? I've seen them not quite make it and get stuck on that kind of wall/fence combo.
September 29, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Did the stag jumping the fence get over all right? I've seen them not quite make it and get stuck on that kind of wall/fence combo.
Happens to us all! Reminds me of the year when all teaching went online in 2020-21. Nightmare!
September 25, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Happens to us all! Reminds me of the year when all teaching went online in 2020-21. Nightmare!
Looks lovely, whereabouts were you? I look forward to reading your new book!
Hope to say hello to you at the Paper Boats "Refuge for Nature?" meeting in Callander next month.
Hope to say hello to you at the Paper Boats "Refuge for Nature?" meeting in Callander next month.
September 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Looks lovely, whereabouts were you? I look forward to reading your new book!
Hope to say hello to you at the Paper Boats "Refuge for Nature?" meeting in Callander next month.
Hope to say hello to you at the Paper Boats "Refuge for Nature?" meeting in Callander next month.
Yes of course, "the century's corpse outleant". Thanks! I must have been thinking of "In time of the breaking of nations", which is actually more positive re continuation of basic human activities and emotions.
September 15, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Yes of course, "the century's corpse outleant". Thanks! I must have been thinking of "In time of the breaking of nations", which is actually more positive re continuation of basic human activities and emotions.
I've known this poem since my teens but not reaiised how much it represents right now! Was it written around the time of the outbreak of WWI? How great that you're teaching it. I just wish I could be party to the "blessed hope" that the thrush knows.
September 12, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I've known this poem since my teens but not reaiised how much it represents right now! Was it written around the time of the outbreak of WWI? How great that you're teaching it. I just wish I could be party to the "blessed hope" that the thrush knows.
Really heartfelt congratulations! You kindly signed a copy of this last year for me to give to my son and daughter-in-law, who had followed "Lost Rainforests" up and down the west coasts of Wales and Scotland! They loved "Lie of the Land" just as much.
September 11, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Really heartfelt congratulations! You kindly signed a copy of this last year for me to give to my son and daughter-in-law, who had followed "Lost Rainforests" up and down the west coasts of Wales and Scotland! They loved "Lie of the Land" just as much.
Isn't Restore Trust associated with the collective of far-right think tanks based at 55 Tufton Street, which draws on support from various disreputable forces incl the fossil fuel industry? I know that sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory, but sometimes conspiracy theories are, well, conspiracies!
September 11, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Isn't Restore Trust associated with the collective of far-right think tanks based at 55 Tufton Street, which draws on support from various disreputable forces incl the fossil fuel industry? I know that sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory, but sometimes conspiracy theories are, well, conspiracies!
True, housing cost less, if you had access to it. But if you were a single woman it was virtually impossible to take out a tenancy agreement or mortgage. And if you were a single women with a child, god help you!
September 1, 2025 at 8:59 PM
True, housing cost less, if you had access to it. But if you were a single woman it was virtually impossible to take out a tenancy agreement or mortgage. And if you were a single women with a child, god help you!
Well you're a poetically gifted writer already, so unless you fancy the other option...
But I think I'll definitely risk it one day!
But I think I'll definitely risk it one day!
September 1, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Well you're a poetically gifted writer already, so unless you fancy the other option...
But I think I'll definitely risk it one day!
But I think I'll definitely risk it one day!