Notes

01 March 1985
Comments Notes Aberrant Slavonian Grebe. A thick-billed and unfamiliarly plumaged Slavonian Grebe Podiceps auritus appeared on the open marine bathing-pool at Penzance, Cornwall, on 28th December 1981. It was distinctly odd-looking: rather bulky, with a relatively th...
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Mystery photographs

01 March 1985
Comments Main paper The combination of comparatively large head, large eye, slender legs and short bill clearly shows last month's mystery bird (plates 50 & 56) to be a plover. Furthermore, the single breast band (albeit broken in the middle) coupled with otherwi...
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Seventy-five years ago

01 March 1985
Comments Other 'A Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) was shot at Newhythe, near Aylesford, Kent, on November 25th, 1909. I am pleased to say that a police prosecution followed, but the defendant, who pleaded ignorance of the identity of the bird, was let off with the payme...
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PhotoSpot. 9. Knot

01 March 1985
Comments Main paper Adult Knots Calidris canutus normally spend a British September in dense, wary, moulting flocks on our largest estuaries. In contrast, juveniles fresh from Greenland or Arctic Canada may appear in habitats shunned by the adults, and may be extremely ta...
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Reviews

01 March 1985
Comments Reviews Bird Navigation: the solution of a mystery? By R. Robin Baker. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1984. 256 pages. Paperback, £9.75.  This book fills for the birdwatcher of the 1980s the niche which G.V.T. Matthews's pioneer Bird Navigation fil...
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Recent reports: December 1984

01 March 1985
Comments News and comment These are largely unchecked reports, not authenticated records. The dates in this report refer to December 1984 unless otherwise stated. The month began with mild, unsettled, westerly weather, followed after 8th by a settled period as pressure ...
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News and comment

01 March 1985
Comments News and comment Opinions expressed in this feature are not necessarily those of 'British Birds'. Gambian tragedy Three Midlands bird watchers were among four people who died when a river-boat hit a sand bank in the Gambia River and overturned in early December...
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Requests

01 March 1985
Comments Editorials Colour-marked and wing-tagged Eiders. The Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group is studying the local and long-distance movements of Eiders Somateria mollisiima by marking the males: the white plumage is dyed yellow, a yellow darvic tag is...
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Announcements

01 March 1985
Comments Editorials Christmas Whisky Puzzle. We received 46 correct solutions to the competition set on page xv of the December 1984 issue.  Whitethroat ('what' surrounding 'it or the' jumbled) Avocet ('ova' turned, followed by 'CET') Linnet ('let' with 'inn' in...
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