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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Monthly marathon

01 July 2001 Comments Other The long pointed wings and long, tapering, forked tail of the bird in Monthly Marathon number 177 (plate 109, repeated here as plate 198) will have been readily identifiable as a swift (Apodidae) to all but the most inexperienced of obser vers. The pho...
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Reviews

01 July 2001 Comments Reviews PIGEONS AND DOVES By David Gibbs, Eustace Barnes & John Cox. Pica Press, Sussex, 2001. 615 pages; 76 colour plates; 314 species illustrated in colour; 309 maps. ISBN 1-873403-60-7. Hardback, £38.00. Everyone is familiar with pigeons and doves; ind...
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News and Comment

01 July 2001 Comments News and comment The British Trust for Ornithology's Waterways Bird Survey has highlighted the rapid decline of breeding Yellow Wagtails Motacilla flava in riparian habitats. Some coastal populations appear stable, but in many areas the decrease has been dramatic. The ...
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