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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Rarities committee news

01 January 2008 Comments News and comment Although it is more than two years since Canada Goose was split into two species, Greater Branta canadensis and Lesser Canada Goose B. hutchinsii, neither species is currently on category A of the British List. Both species apparently...
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News and comment

01 January 2008 Comments News and comment The discovery of a new bird taxon is always exciting; if it is a wader, and a migratory one at that, it is not only exciting, but also almost unbelievable. David Bakewell and BB Assistant Editor Peter Kennerley are to be congratulated (and envied) for ...
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Reviews

01 January 2008 Comments Reviews COLLINS FIELD GUIDE –­ BIRDS OF THE PALEARCTIC: PASSERINES By Norman Arlott. HarperCollins, London, 2007. 240 pages; 80 colour plates; numerous distribution maps. ISBN 978-0-00-714705-2. Hardback, £25.00. there is currently little available informa...
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Optimising digital images

01 January 2008 Comments Main paper Once the shutter has been pressed, most igital photography has opened up a images can be substantially improved by photowhole new world for many birders, editing software. Just about all compact cameras while for seasoned bird photographers come with b...
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