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Bonxies, barnacles and bleached blondes

01 June 1994 Comments Main paper The large skuas of the genus Catharacta* are easily watched at the breeding places, but it is more difficult to study the non-breeding birds in immature and winter plumages and their activities while they are away at sea. This attracted little attentio...

Brown-headed Cowbird in Strathclyde: new to Britain and Ireland

01 June 1994 Comments Main paper A long with my companion, Sue Crosthwaite, I spent the afternoon of 24th of April 1988 making observations on the feeding behaviour and move ments of Red-billed Choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax at Ardnave Point, Islay, Strathclyde, as part of my PhD pro...

In memoriam: Garefowl or Great Auk

01 June 1994 Comments Main paper Exactly 150 years ago, on about 3rd June 1844, a party of 14 Icelandic fishermen/fowlers set out from Kirkjuvogur in an eight-oared boat to make the crossing to the seabird colony of Eldey. There they hoped to collect eggs and birds, not for food, as t...

Comparative nesting ecology of the three British breeding woodpeckers

01 June 1994 Comments Main paper Despite their striking plumages and loud calls, the three resident British woodpeckers, the Green Picus viridis, the Great Spotted Dendrocopos major and the Lesser Spotted D. minor, remain an elusive and relatively little-studied trio. Some of their ne...

Asian Brown Flycatcher, Mugimaki Flycatcher and Pallas's Rosefinch

01 June 1994 Comments Main paper he 19th and 20th Reports of the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (1993, 1994) included details of several changes to the British & Irish List. Among these are decisions relating to observations of Asian Brown Flycatcher Mnscicapa dau...

Mystery photographs

01 December 1992 Comments Main paper It is October in southwest Britain and anything can turn up. You are being bombarded by vagrants from all points of the compass when you come upon this unfamiliar bird in some poplars Populus (plate 267, repeated here in black-and-white). You real...

Scarce migrants in Britain and Ireland . Part 1. Numbers during 1986-90: seabirds to waders

01 December 1992 Comments Main paper As part of the process of maintaining the totals of species falling within the ambit of the British Birds Rarities Committee*, we have been collating records of certain 'sub-rarities'. The species studied include (a) those which were formerly included ...

Field identification of Black-faced Bunting

01 December 1992 Comments Main paper ...

Studies of West Palearctic birds 191. Azores Bullfinch