Looking back

01 October 1999 Comments Other FIFTY YEARS AGO On 8th October 1949, a bird shaped like a Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia, but with plumage tones recalling a Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, was watched in a turnip and cabbage patch at Leogh on Fair Isle, Shetland -&nb...
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Monthly marathon

01 October 1999 Comments Other The slim body and long legs of the bird in plate 160 (repeated here as plate 216), with that obvious, long, fairly flat hind claw, long tertials, relatively long, narrow tail and distinctive, darkcentred, pale-edged median coverts all point to a pipit ...
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Looking back

01 October 1999 Comments Other `Occurrence of Sylvia Orphea [Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis] in Yorkshire ... My bird is evidently a female, and was observed in company with its mate for a considerable time before it was shot. The other bird had a black head, and the description I...
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Monthly marathon

01 April 1998 Comments Other The headless, seaweed-frequenting wheatear Oenanthe was named as Northern O. oenanthe (79%), Isabelline O. isabeUina (17%) and Desert O. deserti (4%). The majority choice was correct, this Northern Wheatear having been photographed in Scilly in October...
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Looking Back

01 April 1998 Comments Other Twenty-five years ago: 'INTRODUCTIONS AND ESCAPES' The current project to re-establish the Great Bustard Otis tarda as a breeding species in Britain has focused attention once again on the merits of these and other introductions, just as did the aborti...
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