Bird flu – some comparisons between 2021 and 2022

This year and last: this time last year, from the end of July to the beginning of October, there were hardly any positive cases of bird flu in wild birds recorded by the government surveillance scheme. In 10 full weeks there were only three weeks with positive cases, though these were all Great Skuas, and…

Guest blog – New paper, same old…

Dominic Woodfield is the Managing Director of Bioscan, a long established and well-respected consultancy specialising in applied ecology. He is a life-long birder, a specialist in botany, habitat restoration and creation and in protected fauna including bats, herpetofauna and other species. He is also a highly experienced practitioner in Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations…

Bank Holiday book review – Seasonality by Ian Parsons

Ian Parsons has contributed to this blog on numerous occasions (see here) and this is the third of his books reviewed here (see A Vulture Landscape, October 2020, and A Tree Miscellany, January 2017). I like Ian’s writing as it is clear, easy to understand, has some embedded wit and much embedded knowledge and an…

Bank Holiday book review – The Bird Name Book by Susan Myers

This is an interesting book which explores the origins of bird names from accentor to Zeledonia. I’m interested in names, and in birds, and birds’ names, and the more I dipped into this book the more and more I liked it. The 400+ pages are packed with information and are well-referenced. I hadn’t appreciated that…