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Letters

01 November 1999 Comments Letters Tombeur 's note on a pale Great Skua Catharacta skua in Iceland (Brit. Birds 92: 164-165) requires further comment. Judging by the `normal' bird, it looks to me as though the photographs, as well as one of the birds, are also pale. Allowing for this, I...

Looking back

01 November 1999 Comments Other `There is a point in connection with the song of birds which I have not seen mentioned, although it must have been noticed by many who are interested in ornithology; it is the differences in the note, or rather the tone of the note, of a bird, in diffe...

Report on rare birds in Great Britain in 1998

01 November 1999 Comments Main paper This is the forty-first annual Report of the British Birds Rarities Committee and it is an almost complete record of the rare birds recorded in Britain in 1998. Descriptions and, where available, photographs of each record have been scrutinised by a te...

Recent reports

01 October 1995 Comments News and comment Compiled by Barry Nightingale and Anthony McGeehan This summary covers the period 14th August to 17th September 1995. These are unchecked reports, not authenticated records. Black-browed Albatross Diomedea melanophris Cape Clear Island (Co. Cork), 10th...

News and comment

01 October 1995 Comments News and comment It was in 1990 that the (then) Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) and the RSPB published Red Data Birds in Britain, identifying 117 species in need of 'our care and attention'. Knowledge relating to the status of some of these species was inevitably sket...

Notes

01 October 1995 Comments Notes In 1992, in the village of Byshkiv in the Lviv region of Ukraine, I noted a White Stork Ciconia ciconia regularly taking domestic ducklings. While the ducklings, which were two or three weeks old, were swimming on the water, the stork moved sharply tow...

Status of the Great Grey Shrike in Britain and Ireland

01 October 1995 Comments Main paper The Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor is a widespread Holarctic species. The nominate race breeds from Scandinavia and France east to western Siberia, northern populations exhibiting a winter dispersal or short-distance migration to warmer areas, incl...

Philadephia Vireo: new to the Western Palearctic

01 October 1995 Comments Main paper On 12th October 1985, while hiking on Galley Head, Co. Cork, with J. Adamson and P. A. Cummins, I discovered an unfamiliar bird feeding with some Blue Tits Parus caeruleus and Goldcrests Regulus regulus. The initial view of its bluish 'cap' and greenis...

Monthly marathon

01 October 1995 Comments Other As noted last month, the closing dates for the last three hurdles (plates 97, 111 and 126) are all 15th October 1995, so the answers will be given next month. This month's hurdle is shown below (plate 140). The current leaders in this competition are J...

Looking Back

01 October 1995 Comments Other 'Burrow-chat, Wheatear or White-rump, Saxicola OEnanthe. Abundant on the sand links along our coast, where it arrives early in the spring, and breeds in the deserted rabbit-holes . . . It is delicious eating, although in this neighbourhood it is neglec...

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