Mark Bannister
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mark-banni.bsky.social
Mark Bannister
@mark-banni.bsky.social
Low carbon birding, sound recording: Barton claypits & other places; Green Party and Land access rights activist; printmaker; Ex-aerodynamicist.
“Hope is risky; you can lose, and you often do, but the records show that if you try, sometimes you win.”
From what I can see, Germany’s Energiewende still foresees the need for a national grid to allow solar in south and wind in north to be distributed? Some places are just windier and others sunnier….
eg
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/preview...
July 11, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Would recommend WSRS membership for anyone interested in sound recording. I particularly like reading and listening to sound recordings and projects from the other side of the world without the carbon cost of flying there. It really feels like you are there.
May 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Probably the most important revelation from my studies is that local pochard productivity is falling victim to saline intrusion. Via rising sea levels.
May 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Wrote an article for the latest WSRS magazine on identification of individual bittern in local clay pits using sound recording and the vulnerability of this population to climate change. Some snippets:
#lowcarbonbirding
#lowcarbonsoundrecording
May 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Willow tit, Threave, Dumfries&Galloway. Notable that their territory fell within young or coppiced willow and without singing blue and great tit which were instead within high woodland close by. Collecting moss for nest. Now a distant memory for NLincs.
May 7, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Gold dust. After failing to find one last year at Carstramon, very pleased to find WO singing late morning. Still clinging on. iPhone recording here - gear packed for early morning session tomorrow. Sitting in a wood full of common birds with no background noise is the most precious of things.
April 29, 2025 at 9:05 PM
What is claimed to be the female water rail song. Not something I hear very often.
April 3, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Woodlark warming the heart on a cold BTO heathland birds survey
March 14, 2025 at 7:40 PM
I count myself lucky indeed to have a garden. Glad you are enjoying yours when you can.
I’m having a try of Melissa Harrison’s free Encounter nature journal app to record what I experience in my garden this year. May be of interest to you if you are up to it.

BW
Mark
February 24, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Garden woodcock habitat creation appears a success
January 11, 2025 at 12:56 PM
No home makeover as cottage boasting ‘stunning views of the Humber’ according to Rightmove is no more. Will miss it as a landmark.
9 snow bunting just west of Goxhill haven on my late Humber WEBS count along with a few gangs of fieldfare, redwing and starling heading east.
November 18, 2024 at 12:52 PM
Aligns well with this study on people’s limits of compassion (moral circle). I’m a ‘14’ although I do like rocks too. Don’t think they have a score low enough for DT.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 16, 2024 at 9:14 AM