Monthly marathon

01 April 2000 Comments Other February's mystery bird (plate 71, repeated here as plate 116) is clearly a medium-sized leaf-warbler Phylloscopus. There are no obvious wing-bars or tertial tips, and apparently no central crown stripe, so we can immediately rule out a number of speci...
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Looking back

01 April 2000 Comments Other ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO: `I have just obtained a bird which is in the list of your desiderata, and I therefore hope it will be acceptable to you. As the bird agrees in every respect with the description given of the stork (Ardea Ciconia), excep...
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Seventy-five years ago

01 July 1991 Comments Other NEARLY every recent book on British birds mentions Wiltshire as one of the counties in which the Common Curlew (Numenius arquata) breeds, but I am of opinion that this is one of those errors which get copied from one work to another. I know no part of ...
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Monthly marathon

01 July 1991 Comments Other The bird flying towards us (plate 110)--not a view we often get--was named as 32 different species: Osprey Pandion haliaetus (32%) Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata (10%) Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola (8%) Grey Heron Ardea cinerea (7%) Whi...
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