Recent reports

13 March 2014 Comments News and comment These are largely unchecked reports, not authenticated records This deals with January 1972, to which all dates refer unless otherwise stated. The only really significant weather feature in a fairly mild, wet month was a short spell of freezing north-east...
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News and comment

13 March 2014 Comments News and comment Golden Jubilee The International Council for Bird Preservation was formed in 1922, mainly through the foresight of an American, T. Gilbert Pearson, then president of what is now the National Audubon Society; the inaugural meeting was held in London on 20...
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Letters

13 March 2014 Comments Letters Woodcock and thrushes breeding in open and Snipe a m o n g trees In view of recent notes on Woodcock Scolopax rusticola nesting away from trees (Brit. Birds, 64: 76; 65: 30-31), it may be worth recording that at dusk on 5 th July 1971, when I walked ac...
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Reviews

13 March 2014 Comments Reviews African Birds of Prey. By Leslie Brown. Collins, London, 1971. 320 p a g e s ; 12 black-and-white plates. £2.25. This well-produced, smallish book covers the 89 diurnal raptors and 31 owls which inhabit Africa. The author is, of course, a well-known...
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Notes

13 March 2014 Comments Notes Shags laying two clutches Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis have long been considered capable of producing two broods in one breeding season, but direct evidence of this is lacking (see The Handbook, vol 4; D. A. Bannerman, 1959, The Birds of the British Is...
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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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Mystery photographs

01 August 1990 Comments Main paper Perched conspicuously on a prominent vantage point, this mystery bird shows a fairly substantial bill, relatively long tail and black mask, a combination which quickly shows it to be one of the shrikes Lanius. The blackness of the wings and '...
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Seventy-five years ago

01 August 1990 Comments Other 'LAND-RAILS IN STAFFORDSHIRE. I am pleased to report that the Land-Rail (Crex crex) turned up this year in quite average numbers in the district of Cheadle, Staffordshire . . . This very dry season is bringing on a very early hay harvest, and this...
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Seasonal reports: winter 1989/90

01 August 1990 Comments Main paper The weather during this winter period was milder and wetter than average everywhere, with temperatures 2.5ºC above normal in much of southern and eastern England Unsettled westerly weather in early November changed to warm anticyclonic southeasterlies...
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