Notes

13 March 2014 Comments Notes Moorhen completely submerging for more than a minute On 16 th January 1972 James Parkin and I were walking along the bank of the River Eden near Musgrave, Westmorland, when we saw a Moorhen Gallinula chloropus disappear into a pool about 2 5 metres away. ...
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Notes

01 August 1977 Comments Notes Kestrel hiding food At dusk on 6th April 1976, at Ynys-hir, Dyfed, J. Parry and I saw a male Kestrel Falco tinnunculus fly on to a bank below us about 20 m away. The falcon was carrying prey in one foot, which we later found to be a Wheatear Oe...
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Notes

01 February 1975 Comments Notes Breeding success of Red-throated Divers on Fetlar At the beginning of May 1971 I arrived on Fetlar, Shetland, to take up the post of summer warden on the bird reserve. Soon after, I became interested in the breeding Red-throated Divers Gavia st...
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Notes

01 August 1969 Comments Notes Overland migrations of Common Scoters The Handbook notes that Common Scoters Melanitta nigra occur on inland waters 'in small numbers irregularly but fairly often' and that such records 'are too frequent . . . during quite settled weather to be dismissed ...
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Notes

01 August 1959 Comments Notes Display flight of Bitterns.--On 18th May 1959, at midday, I saw three Bitterns (Botaurus stellaris) rise from a re,ed-bed near Walberswick, Suffolk, and mount in a fresh N . E . breeze to a height which I estimated to be 600 or 700 feet. Not much wingflap...
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Notes

01 June 1955 Comments Notes Unusual nest of Black-throated Diver.--The photographs reproduced on plate 40 show an unusual nest of the Black-throated Diver (Gavia arctica) which I found in June 1954 in central Sweden. This was built up on small rocks in the centre of a large lake whe...
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Notes

01 November 1953 Comments Notes Effective distraction display by Mallard.--As only a few observations have been recorded indicating the effectiveness of distraction display by a parent bird in deflecting the attention of a potential predator from the young [Bird Display, pp. 104-105) t...
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Notes

01 September 1953 Comments Notes Nesting of Curlew on river shingle-beds.--Of late years Curlews (Numenius arquata) have been nesting in increasing numbers on inland pastures and meadows in Northumberland, whereas formerly they were birds of the moorlands, nesting on heather-clad hills ...
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Notes

01 June 1951 Comments Notes Tebbutt's note on birds becoming " c a u g h t u p " in flocks of other species (antea, vol. xliii, p . 332) prompts me to record the following observations, which were made some years ago when I was living near Bury, Lancashire. Mr. Tebbutt gives exampl...
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