The Willow Warbler looks very much like a Chiffchaff – they can be a bit tricky to tell apart at times, and are closely related species, but their songs are completely and utterly different. Whereas the Chiffchaff’s song is simple and cuts through the early Spring air like a knife, the Willow Warbler has a…
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Prospects for the shooting season?
Despite the shooting industry trying to put on a confident front that it will be unaffected by a global pandemic touching, heavily touching, every other aspect of human life, it seems that the reality is very different. Pheasant and partridge shooting are currently particularly affected because of their dependence on massive imports of eggs and…
Birds on the Brink
Another new charity… Although some charities have an image problem this one will not, funded as it is by the competiton Bird Photographer of the Year.
Bird song (18) – the pictures
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Here are three Great Tit songs (from the excellent xenocanto website). I’ve chosen Great Tit because I like Great Tits but also because their songs are quite simple. But these three songs not only sound different but, when displayed in the accompanying sonograms, they also look different. Have a listen and a look. The sonograms…
Licensing by statutory agencies
SNH: Covid-19 Update SNH Licensing team are experiencing an extremely high work load. Due to the current situation with regards to Covid-19, we will be prioritising licence applications based on their purpose. As such, licence applications for preserving public health and safety and licence applications for preventing serious damage will be prioritised. Licence applications for other…
Brood-meddling – not much of an update
We went back to court, to the Court of Appeal, to appeal against the judgment against us (and the RSPB) over our judicial review of brood meddling. If you recall, one of the three judges, Sir Patrick Elias, was taken ill at lunchtime and so the case was … well I’m not quite sure what…
Silage (a little bit more)
Following on from yesterday and silage production and Curlews (and I am grateful to a reader for pointing me to this paper); This graph, note the logarithmic scale of the Y-axis, shows the increase in silage production, in Great Britain, from practically nothing to rather a lot over a century or so. This will not…
The unchecked march of silage…
At lunchtime I wrote of some errors of avian population trends in Magnus Linklater’s recent opinion piece on the demise of the Curlew. It’s a good example of how all opinions are valid, but that facts are sacred, and that if your opinion doesn’t fit with the facts then maybe you should rethink. By the…
Magnus Linklater and old Times
Magnus Linklater‘s piece in Monday’s The Times reminds me of many of his previous pieces (but we all believe in recycling) in that he always forgets to mention his close personal interest in game management and he always gets it a bit wrong in my humble opinion. Where he is undoubtedly right is that farmland…
Guest blog – Chaffinch numbers in Big Garden Birdwatch by Lyn Ebbs
Lyn Ebbs is a scientist by education and has been a member of the RSPB for many years and volunteered for them since she retired. Lyn is actively involved with wildlife campaigns and has attended Hen Harrier Day rallies every year since joining the Sodden 570. Lyn has written three accounts of RSPB AGMs here…