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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Obituary - James Maurice Harrison, DSC, MRCS, LRCP (1892-1971)

13 March 2014 Comments Obituaries James Harrison was born in the reign of Queen Victoria in the year of Gladstone's fourth ministry. He died nearly eighty years later, having lived through a period of great scientific and industrial developments, two major world wars and extensive social ...

Identification pitfalls and assessment problems. 8 Purple Heron Ardea purpurea

01 February 1985 Comments Main paper The Purple Heron is seldom seen away from large reed-beds and marshland vegetation where it spends much of the day concealed. It is, therefore, most frequently seen in flight, and then usually soon after dawn and shortly before dusk. As most speci...

Product reports

01 February 1985 Comments Main paper Items included in this feature have been submitted by the manufacturers or their agents. The reviews are the personal opinions of the reviewers; they are not the result of technical tests, but are assessments made after use in appropriate conditions (e...

Seventy-five years ago

01 February 1985 Comments Other 'A Bittern (Bolaurus stellaris) was put up by my son on the Crumbles, Eastbourne, on December 21st, 1909. Though he had his gun with him he wisely forebore to shoot the bird, which I hope is still at large. H. P. MOLINEUX.' {Brit. Birds 3: 308, Februar...

PhotoSpot. 8. Grey Hypocolius

01 February 1985 Comments Main paper The Grey Hypocolius Hypocolius ampelinus is allied to waxwings (Bombycillidae), but recalls a shrike Lanius, and has a very restricted Middle-eastern distribution. It breeds in a narrow zone from northern Iraq, through southern Iran and into south...

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