How about the bird above? It’s a fairly common species, although I see it less often than I used to do. Yesterday’s two teasers: This bird is a washed-out Robin photographed in a Devon garden recently. It may be leucistic but after reading this interesting paper I am not so sure. But it is a…
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A Sunday cartoon from Ralph Underhill
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This cartoon was drawn for Scottish Environment Link – see here for their thoughts on the precautionary principle.
Tim Melling – Dotterel
Tim writes: this was one I took of an obliging male Dotterel on Lancashire’s Pendle Hill in late April. I was particularly pleased with this shot as you can even see the semi-palmations between its toes which are obscured when it is in vegetation. An old Norfolk folk name for Dotterel is “Stone Runner” and…
Sizzling Sandgrouse by Paul Sterry
Paul writes: If you think the UK has been hot of late then think again: on a recent photographic trip to northeast Spain temperatures peaked at 44°C. The aim of trip was to photograph sandgrouse, two species of which – Pin-tailed and Black-bellied – are present in the region. The height of summer, when water…
Mystery birds (2)
I was sent this photo of a mystery bird photographed in a garden in Higham Ferrers (east Northants). It was seen, appropriately enough, on 4 July. I’ve seen this bird in the wild but never as well as this. I was sent a recording of its call too, and that pretty much nailed it.
Mystery birds (1)
This robin-like bird was recently filmed in a Devon garden – it looks not only robin-like but Robin-like to me. I think it is a Robin. But it’s very washed out. It’s obviously not a Redbreast nor a typical juvenile recently out of the nest. It’s very pale but it is not albino. How do…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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This cartoon was drawn for Scottish Environment Link – see here for their thoughts on the polluter pays principle.
76 minutes of chat with Fieldsportschannel.tv
I had a chat with Fieldsportschannel.tv ‘s Charlie Jacoby last week. I was lured to a field in Yorkshire en route to meeting Henry Morris and friends on their run across the moors. I am, it seems, The Joker to ‘their’ Batman (which one is Batman then? Andrew Gilruth? Tim Bonner?) and the Vader to…
Pandas attacked by Pheasants?
The Daily Telegraph quotes Jake Berry (who is unfortunately likely to have a prominent role in any Johnson government) as wanting to make the hook-beaked (eh?) Curlew ‘the panda of UK conservation.’. Jake will never persuade Curlews to eat bamboo and give up sex but maybe that wasn’t what he meant. Because this is…
River
River, a Hen Harrier from Lancashire disappeared in an area of grouse moor in the Nidderdale AONB (a notorious raptor-persecution hotspot) in North Yorkshire in November 2018. She was one of several young tagged Hen Harriers that didn’t even make it to Christmas, yet alone to their first birthday, let alone to raising eggs and…