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Mystery photographs

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper This bird was, no doubt, instantly identified by most readers. Even a photograph gives the impression, from its bearing and proportions, that this is a rather large wader. Straight bill and long legs (judging from the tibia) rule out several species, a...

Personalities. 29. W. E. Oddie

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper Two things immediately struck me when I met Bill Oddie. The first was his stature—he's even smaller than Richard Porter—and the second was his extraordinary energy. The occasion was to finalise plans for a trip to India, Bill's first major for...

Identification pitfalls and assessment problems. 3. White Stork

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper Whit e Stork Ciconia ciconia. Although it may seem puzzling to those not involved in assessing reports of unusual species, unacceptable claims of White Stork are not infrequent. Besides the escape factor, which is quite high, the reasons fall i...

Two hens, but a single nest: an unusual case of polygyny by Hen Harriers in Orkney

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper In June 1981,I was told of a nest of Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus on the East Mainland of Orkney with ten eggs, and two females in attendance. Since an unusually high percentage of first-year males (25%) bred on the West Mainland of Orkney in 1981, ...

Survey of some of Europe's breeding birds

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper In an attempt to establish basic information on changes in status of the breeding birds of Europe for a paper presented at the XVIII International Ornithological Congress in Moscow, we contacted one correspondent in each European country. The detailed ...

Sap-sucking' by woodpeckers in Britain

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper The production by woodpeckers (Picidae) of rows of'peck marks' on the stems of healthy trees is well documented for various European countries such as Czechoslovakia (Turcek 1954) and Germany (Gatter 1972). It is known as 'tree ringing' or 'drilling', ...

Sandhill Crane: new to Britain

01 March 1983 Comments Main paper There was little sign of any migrant activity on Fair Isle, Shetland, early on the morning of 26th April 1981. The light northwest wind had brought nothing but a series of snow flurries, falling from a leaden sky. But, at 10.00 GMT, D. G. Borton report...

Wigeon X Chiloe Wigeon hybrid resembling American Wigeon

01 April 1968 Comments Main paper It has been established that some interspecific hybrids among ducks and geese (Anatidae) strongly resemble one parent or even another species altogether, thus causing problems in field-identification. An extreme case in Britain is the hybrid Pochard Ay...

Studies of less familiar birds: 147. Cory's Shearwater

01 April 1968 Comments Main paper Various changes have been made in the scientific nomenclature of Cory's Shearwater since the publication of The Handbook of British Birds (1938-41). Not only has the specific name kuhlii been replaced by diomedea, in accordance with the rale of priorit...

Little Swift in Co. Cork

01 April 1968 Comments Main paper On the evening of 12th June 1967, on Cape Clear Island, Co. Cork, I was sitting on top of a steep ridge overlooking Cummer, a narrow col situated between the north and south harbours. The soft evening light was directly behind me and it was perfectly c...

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