What a bird the Rose-coloured Starling is! What a cracker! This was, for several years, the only bird that I had seen but not through my binoculars. I was studying Bee-eaters in the Camargue when a flock of Rose-coloured starling flew past me, quite close, while I was in a parked car. My hands were occupied ringing and taking a blood sample from the femoral vein of a Bee-eater so I couldn’t raise my binoculars – but the identification wasn’t really in doubt was it? Ace photograph by Pauline Greenhalgh.
Also in this month’s issue – information about Hen Harrier-related online events in August, an article by the World Land Trust on their work and my column which, probably unsurprisingly, is on Hen Harriers. My column ends thus:
We’re in the grouse shooting endgame, much more so in Scotland than Englnad. I wish things were moving quicker, but driven grouse shooting’s years are numbered.
I was at Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve a couple of weeks ago and I’d seen the social media fuss about Veiolia cutting the grass on their massive landfill site in the bird nesting season. Dominic Mitchell writes in length and with passion about this in Birdwatch this month.
There’s an amazing image (by John Richardson) of a Hobby buzzing the Icklingham Roller. If I’d have thought I might have seen that interaction then I might have gone for it.
Talking of Hobbies and interactions, did you see this amazing video – most of the action is in the first three minutes;
By Wildlife Kate from Stowe Maries Great War Aerodrome in Essex.
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Thank you Mark,
I’ll try and get a copy,
and open a subscription,
Brexit permitting
I did subscribe when Dominic first brought it out as did birding pal.