Recent reports

01 September 1996
Comments News and comment Madeira/Cape Verde/Soft-plumaged Petrel Pterodroma madeira/P. feae/P. mollis Galley Head (Co. Cork), 27th July. American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica Tresco (Scilly), 5th August. White-rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis Breydon Water (Norfolk): ...
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Monthly marathon

01 September 1996
Comments Other Plate 144. 'Monthly marathon'. Photo no. 123. Third stage in ninth 'Marathon'. Identify both of the species. Read the rules on page 24 of the January issue and the amendment on page 333 in the July issue, then send in your answer on a postcard to Month...
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Reviews

01 September 1996
Comments Reviews Collins Illustrated Checklist: birds of Eastern Africa. By Ber van Perlo. HarperCollins, London, 1995. 301 pages; 96 colour plates; 1488 distribution maps, ISBN 0-00219937-8. £14.99. Ber van Perlo is to be congratulated on this brilliant guide. T...
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Mystery photographs

01 September 1996
Comments Main paper Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus is a rare visitor to Britain and Ireland which has become even rarer in recent years. A total of 47 was recorded here up to the end of 1957, 67 during 1958-83 and just 14 from 1984 to the end of 1994. An indi...
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News and comment

01 September 1996
Comments News and comment Perhaps as much as 40% of all British reedbeds has been lost in the last 50 years, and the quality of the remaining 60% has declined dramatically. One clear result of this is the Great Bittern Botaurus stellaris population declining to a mere 20 b...
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Looking Back

01 September 1996
Comments Other One hundred years ago: 'NOTES ON BIRDS IN KENT, BY BOYD ALEXANDER . . . Families of Redbacked Shrikes [Lanius collurio] are abroad. Stout hedgerows, whose outgrowing branches serve as perches, or the sunny portions of a wooden fence, are at this time f...
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Announcements

01 September 1996
Comments Editorials Using the Rarities Committee database, a new T & A D Poyser book, Rare Birds Day by Day by Steve Dudley, Pete Fraser, Tim Benton & John Ryan, sets records out in calendar fashion, rather than species by species, so that one can see the annual p...
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Letters

01 September 1996
Comments Letters The comments under the title 'Of partridges, pheasants and White-headed Ducks' (Brit. Birds 89: 241) are, I submit, not worthy of your excellent magazine. Although the opinions are 'not necessarily those of "British Birds'", the complete lack of docume...
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