Monthly marathon

01 March 2003
Comments Other For most participants, the bird featured in Monthly Marathon photo number 194 (Brit. Birds 95: plate 347, repeated here as plate 97 was immediately apparent as a skua (Stercorariidae). Only a gull (Laridae) has similar structural proportions and overal...
Read More

Monthly marathon

01 February 2003
Comments Other I think most people will recognise the slim, brownish passerine with heavily streaked underparts in photograph 193 (Brit. Birds 95: plate 322, repeated here as plate 58) as some kind of pipit Anthus. That much is easy, but pipits are one group...
Read More

Looking back

01 January 2003
Comments Other ON THE DECREASE OF BLACKGAME IN SCOTLAND.­ Miss L. J. Rintoul and Miss E. V. Baxter have collected a valuable series of comparative observations, derived from a large number of correspondents and published records, on this subject... From the reports ...
Read More

Monthly marathon

01 January 2003
Comments Other Bird identification, just like certain modern technologies, has developed immensely in the last decade, and keeping up with either can often be a real struggle. Thankfully, thoughts of having to use new `fieldcraft' techniques such as scanning or resiz...
Read More

Looking back

01 October 2002
Comments Other Fifty years ago:  ‘Jays and Magpies eating wasps.–In reference to the notes on reactions of birds eating wasps (Brit. Birds 44: 406-407) it seems worth recording that my captive Jays (Garrulus glandarius) ...
Read More

Monthly marathon

01 September 2002
Comments Other There are probably few BB readers who did not immediately recognise the bird in photo number 188 (repeated here as plate 276) as a goose. Its apparent bulkiness quickly rules out any thoughts of a duck, while its short legs do not fit an ibis Threskior...
Read More

Monthly marathon

01 August 2002
Comments Other I have to admit that my first reaction upon seeing photo number 187 (Brit. Birds 95: plates 77 & 111; repeated here as plate 254) was `what an awful photograph!' and to feel a little pity for whoever would have the task of writing a solution. Littl...
Read More

Stay at the forefront of British birding by taking out a subscription to British Birds.

Subscribe Now