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Notes

01 March 2006 Comments Notes All Notes submitted to British Birds are subject to independent review, either by the Notes Panel or by the BB Editorial Board.Those considered appropriate for BB will be published either here or on our website (www.britishbirds.co.uk) subject to the a...

Letters

01 March 2006 Comments Letters When Garner (2005) reviewed the `Fair Isle sandpiper' (FIS), his reasoning that the bird was not a Western Sandpiper Calidris mauri seemed compelling. It is not possible for statistics to prove that the bird was one species or another, since it deals o...

Seabirds and pipefish: A request for records

01 March 2006 Comments Editorials Seabirds in the northeast Atlantic usually feed their chicks on small, oil-rich shoaling fish such as sandeels Ammodytes marinus, sprats Sprattus sprattus, herring Clupea harengus and capelin Mallotus villosus. Although many other fish species have bee...

Report on scarce migrant birds in Britain in 2003 Part 2: Short-toed Lark to Little Bunting

01 March 2006 Comments Main paper This is the second part of this, the ninth, annual Scarce Migrants report, which covers the passerine species from Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla to Little Bunting Emberiza pusilla. Part 1 of the report, which dealt with non-passerines, has ...

Has the juvenile plumage of Honey-buzzard evolved to mimic that of Common Buzzard?

01 March 2006 Comments Main paper ABSTRACT Juvenile Honey-buzzards Pernis apivorus exhibit a striking resemblance to Common Buzzards Buteo buteo, even though the two species are not closely related. Both species, but particularly Honey-buzzards, rather frequently fall prey to Northern ...

British Birds – March 2006

01 March 2006 Comments Latest issues ...

Semipalmated Plover: new to Britain and Ireland

01 October 1980 Comments Main paper At about midday on 9th October 1978, near Porth Killier, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, F. H. D. Hicks and I heard an unfamiliar wader call: a plaintive, disyllabic 'che-wee', not unlike the 'chewit' note of the Spotted Redshank Tringa erythropus, but soft...

Predictions of future Nearctic landbird vagrants to Europe

01 October 1980 Comments Main paper Rarities generate more than their share of interest among the birdwatching public. The avid field observer thrills at breaking an arrival or departure date. The 'twitcher' travels long distances to add rare species to his list. Ringers are attracted to...

Why are Capercaillie cocks so big?

01 October 1980 Comments Main paper Chris Knights and Terry Andrewartha have taken some remarkable (pictures of displaying Capercaillies Tetrao urogallus which illustrate an obvious question: why are cock Capercaillies so much bigger than the hens? Body size and ecological niche...

Owls allopreening in the wild

01 October 1980 Comments Main paper A short note by F. Haverschmidt (Brit. Birds 71: 359-360) on one Little Owl Athene noctua preening another was based on observations at Heerlen in the Netherlands on 13th April 1939 and 27th March 1941. John W. Fitzpatrick (Auk 92: 598-599) reported wh...

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