Tim Birkhead is professor of Zoology at the University of Sheffield. He’s been studying guillemots on Skomer Island, and elsewhere for over 40 years. There is an interview of Tim in Behind More Binoculars. Most of his research has been on the mating systems of birds, but after seeing the guillemot’s egg feature on a…
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Natural England in a new mess with Hen Harrier data
Natural England published a skeletal version of its Hen Harrier tracking dataset back in September 2017, after years of pressure from this blog and others. Last Saturday it updated that dataset by adding one extra column – of grid references of the last good fixes of Hen Harriers that were known to be dead or…
Study reveals reasons for huge decline of Arctic Skuas
RSPB press release: Lack of food driving loss of Arctic skuas Arctic skuas could become extinct as a breeding species in the UK a new study by the RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, has revealed. The study found that the main driver of an 81% population decline is…
Celebrity women speakers at the Bird Fair – who you want.
I asked you on this blog just over a week ago, who would be your preferred female celebrity speakers at the Bird Fair if some male speakers were to make way in the interest of gender balance. 290 of you responded (although there were some ‘don’t knows’ and some ‘don’t cares’). Some of you responded…
Your favourite male Bird Fair celebrity speakers – what you want.
A growing area of interest and concern is the representation of female speakers at events, on panels etc. This applies to the annual Bird Fair at Rutland Water just as it does to other events. The Bird Fair took place over three days the weekend before last. If there is to be a better, more…
Guest blog: pesticides and farmland birds by Gerald Collini
Gerald Collini was an arable agronomist for 43 years. For the latter 33 years he worked independently. The declining numbers of some farm land birds and a possible contributing factor? Several recent European and home studies suggest that insecticides may be implicated? The 1970s and the start of intensive arable farming appears to…
Bird Fair – favourite things
I’ve closed the questionnaire on Bird Fair speakers – watch this space. But one of the questions asked was ‘What was your favourite moment of the 2018 Bird Fair?’. Here are lists of answers for men and women separately. I’ve tabulated the answers that scored more than one mention from each gender. This has to…
Hen Harrier survey, 2016, published
The headline results of this survey were released in June 2017 but now the full paper has emerged in Bird Study. Status of the Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus in the UK and Isle of Man in 2016. Simon R. Wotton, Stephen Bladwell, Wendy Mattingley, Neil G. Morris, David Raw, Marc Ruddock, Andrew Stephenson and Mark…
Bank Holiday Monday book review: Turning the Tide on Plastic by Lucy Siegle
I knew I’d like this book, despite its depressing subject, and I did. I’m a fan of Lucy Siegle’s writing on environmental and consumer matters, I’ve heard her say interesting things on panels and I’ve had a very few brief chats with her. She would have been the perfect chair for the otherwise all-female panel…
Paul Leyland – Marmalade Hoverfly
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Paul writes: If you can only recognise one hoverfly it will probably be this one. The combination of orange and black stripes on the abdomen is found only on this species. The Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) widespread throughout Europe, North Asia and North Africa and can turn up in almost all habits. Whenever I’m on…