Recent reports

13 March 2014 Comments News and comment These are largely unchecked reports, not authenticated records This deals with January 1972, to which all dates refer unless otherwise stated. The only really significant weather feature in a fairly mild, wet month was a short spell of freezing north-east...
Read More

News and comment

13 March 2014 Comments News and comment Golden Jubilee The International Council for Bird Preservation was formed in 1922, mainly through the foresight of an American, T. Gilbert Pearson, then president of what is now the National Audubon Society; the inaugural meeting was held in London on 20...
Read More

Letters

13 March 2014 Comments Letters Woodcock and thrushes breeding in open and Snipe a m o n g trees In view of recent notes on Woodcock Scolopax rusticola nesting away from trees (Brit. Birds, 64: 76; 65: 30-31), it may be worth recording that at dusk on 5 th July 1971, when I walked ac...
Read More

Reviews

13 March 2014 Comments Reviews African Birds of Prey. By Leslie Brown. Collins, London, 1971. 320 p a g e s ; 12 black-and-white plates. £2.25. This well-produced, smallish book covers the 89 diurnal raptors and 31 owls which inhabit Africa. The author is, of course, a well-known...
Read More

Notes

13 March 2014 Comments Notes Shags laying two clutches Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis have long been considered capable of producing two broods in one breeding season, but direct evidence of this is lacking (see The Handbook, vol 4; D. A. Bannerman, 1959, The Birds of the British Is...
Read More

Seventy-five years ago

01 June 1986 Comments Other 'PROBABLE SNOW-GEESE IN ESSEX. I have received a communication from Major J. Thornhill, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, to the effect that while he was searching the marshes in the neighbourhood ofthat place on April 13th, 1911, he observed two pairs of birds whi...
Read More

Notes

01 June 1986 Comments Notes Great Crested Grebe grasped the neck of the Little Grebe in its bill and appeared to be trying to submerge it under the water. After several seconds, during which it gave frequent yelping calls, the Little Grebe managed to free itself, but it appeared ...
Read More

European news

01 June 1986 Comments Main paper This nineteenth six-monthly selection includes contributions from 22 countries. The official correspondents whose detailed six-monthly reports are summarised in this feature are acknowledged at the end of this contribution. This feature is intended as ...
Read More

Mystery photographs

01 June 1986 Comments Main paper The warbler in last month's puzzle (plate 140, repeated here) has several eye-catching features. The supercilium is short and pointed, and there is a broad pale crescent below the eye: the pattern is distinctive, and could be shown only by Cetti's Warb...
Read More

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

Subscribe Now