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

Announcements

01 March 1991
Comments Editorials Rarities Committee: new members As previously announced (Brit. Birds 83: 413-414), three vacancies will arise on the Rarities Committee* from 1st April 1991. In addition to the Committee's three nominations, two further independent nominations were receiv...
Read More

Mystery photographs

01 March 1991
Comments Main paper The weak bill, small head, short neck, plump body, long tail and (presumably) short legs of last month's mystery bird (plate 64, repeated here) instantly identify it as a pigeon or dove. Most readers will have progressed farther immediately, by noticin...
Read More

Letter

01 March 1991
Comments Letters The occurrence of 'Russian' Bean Geese in Britain. In reply to Andreas Noeske (Brit. Birds 83: 556-560), we should like to comment as follows: 1. We agree that the Bean Goose Anser fabalis shows clinal variation and that subspecific identification is d...
Read More

Notes

01 March 1991
Comments Notes Unusual concealment behaviour by Coot. On 27th June 1986, while walking along the bank of the Union Canal close to Winchburgh, Lothian, I watched a single adult Coot Fulica atra disappear underwater about 1 m from the water's edge and about 20 paces ah...
Read More

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

Subscribe Now