Monthly marathon

01 December 2003 Comments Other Every so often, this competition includes something which initially defies identification. The bird depicted in plate 213, repeated here as plate 403, is one such individual, since it lacks any clear or familiar plumage features that would normally all...
Read More

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...
Read More

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 ...
Read More

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...
Read More

Stay at the forefront of British birding by taking out a subscription to British Birds.

Subscribe Now