Independence Day lessons

This video is doing the rounds of social media and brought a smile to my face. An American friend sent it to me. It’s clever and funny, and I suspect it is sufficiently well produced that it will be seen by Republican voters as well as Democrats, and therefore might influence the Presidential election. Using…

Tim Melling – Goshawk

Tim writes: I was out on the Peak District Moors in early March and had a great stroke of luck when this female Goshawk cruised over me.  I identified her as a female by her large size, but also by the rather indistinct face pattern and yellow eye.  Males are smaller with a noticeably dark…

We’re all ageing…

We’re all ageing but in birders’ parlance this word often means working out the age of a bird (often from details of its plumage). And sexing means telling the sex of a bird likewise (whatever else you may have thought). When British Birds arrived at my swanky house this week, as well as an excellent…

Guest blog – Tracking Robins in the Soundscape by Murray Marr

I’ve been measuring the seasonal vocal outputs of various songbirds on Midhurst Common’s woodlands in West Sussex, since 2003. This was when, on a whim, part of a regular dog walk started to include ten minutes of counting of singing individuals of each species within a series of short time frames. I do this simple,…