Notes

01 August 1990
Comments Notes Oystercatchers incubating on closely adjacent nests. In early spring 1987, in a quiet corner of Blackpool Airport, Lancashire, soil, sand and chippings were dumped and then levelled. Later, the area became partly covered by vegetation and up to five Oy...
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Notes

01 April 1989
Comments Notes Mating behaviour of Cuckoos. At approximately 08.00 GMT on 5th June 1986, on an alpine heath, in the vicinity of Ammarnas, south Swedish Lapland, I heard a 'gowk' call and saw two Cuckoos Cuculus canorus approaching in a wild and noisy pursuit flight f...
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Notes

01 April 1988
Comments Notes Pied-billed Grebe catching fish attracted by man. I was very interested in Dan Crawley's recent note (Brit. Birds 80: 72-73) describing how a Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus caught fish attracted by bread thrown to waterbirds. I had rather a sim...
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Notes

01 July 1986
Comments Notes Parent Great Crested Grebe killing own small chick. On 30th June 1984, on a fine sunny morning, I was watching a family of Great Crested Grebes Podiceps cristatus at Les Grangettes Nature Reserve on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Each parent carried two chi...
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Notes

01 November 1985
Comments Notes Interspecific aggression between Little Grebe and Dipper. On 19th August 1982, at Loch Beannacharain, Ross & Cromarty, I saw a Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis diving close to the shore of the loch around the mouth of the River Meig, whi...
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Letters

01 October 1985
Comments Letters Distinction between Mandarin and Wood Duck in female-type plumages. A comprehensive description of differences between Mandarin Aix galericulata and Wood Duck A. sponsa was given by C. Holt {Brit. Birds 11: 227-232). As he noted, however, some of the c...
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Notes

01 October 1985
Comments Notes Feeding behaviour and voice of Cory's Shearwater at sea. On 18th August 1982, on board the Cypriot ferry Sol Phryne nearing Piraeus, Greece, I spent several hours trying to photograph a group of up to 70 Cory's Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea followin...
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Notes

01 August 1985
Comments Notes Pink-footed Geese feeding on school playing-fields. During the exceptionally severe winter of 1981/82, unprecedented numbers of Pink-footed Geese Anser brachyrhynchus were present on the southwest Lancashire and north Merseyside feeding grounds, notabl...
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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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Notes

01 January 1985
Comments Notes Hybrid resembling Ring-necked Duck. On 18th March 1984, a Ring-necked Duck Aythya collaris was reported from Tottenhill Gravel-pits, Norfolk. N. Bostock, myself and others went to see it. At about 150m it resembled a male Ring-necked Duck, but at ...
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