Have you? We have.

And (at the time of writing) so have at least 84 thousand others. Join us and them in telling the European Commission to keep the Habitats and Birds Directives in place so they carry on protecting our wildlife and natural places which all depend on these important pieces of legislation.  The Commission is asking for our views and opinions on these laws so now is time to stand up for nature and take a few minutes letting the Eurocrats know how we feel about these vital statues.
To make it easier a group of 100 voluntary organisations from across the UK have done most of the hard work for you, just click through, fill in your details and that's it you're done (here:https://www.naturealert.eu/en).  It really is as simple as that  - assuming you agree with the pre-written answers although if you'd like to write your own, you go for it! you can do that here: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EUNatureDirectives
If you have more than a passing knowledge of the directives completing the survey on the EC Europa site means you have the option to complete a second more in-depth analysis of the directives.

There are details of what's going on in our news (you may need to track back a day or two) and of course we'll keep an eye on the situation and eventually bring you the results of the survey and reactions.

As we're thinking about nature in all its glory here are few phenological notes for you: the swifts have returned, last weekend, AW has seen the first bracken crooks (already 4" high) on the moor and her father-in-law reports an osprey flying over, a house on the moor edge has owls in the owl nesting box for the first time in 12 or so years (one chick from a clutch of three), the lords-and-ladies that we photographed earlier in the year is now in full flower, and it seems that it will be "oak before ash" which has absolutely nothing to do with El-Nino!

And finally another monster edition of CJS Weekly has gone to press, 30 pages again this week with adverts for 74 jobs and 17 for volunteers plus the training calendar of courses and events occurring in July.  Another week like this and we'll published 1500 adverts since January! If you don't want to miss out you'll need to subscribe.