The impact of bird flu on wild birds is seen to be growing, even though the governments across the UK are proving to be pretty useless in having a view on this important conservation issue. Much of the impact this summer has been seen in seabird colonies such as gannetries and tern colonies (eg see…
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Latest BBS report from BTO/JNCC/RSPB
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The latest excellent BBS (and WBBS) report arrived through my letterbox last week. It’s a concise and beautiful report which is a model of comprehensible summary of somewhat complex data. If you want to know how a wide variety of commoner and widespread birds are faring in the UK, and often in individual nations or…
Sunday book review – Birds, Beasts and Bedlam by Derek Gow
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A very enjoyable read – Derek Gow has good stories galore and not only are they good stories, but he tells them very well. We learn quite a lot about Derek’s past, including his early jobs – an interesting mixture. But much of this book is about keeping animals in captivity, often for conservation purposes,…
Sunday book review – Cornerstones by Benedict Macdonald
This is, in my opinion (and why are you reading this review if you don’t want my opinion?), Benedict Macdonald’s best book to date. Yes, Rebirding (reviewed here) was a very good book, and Orchard (with Nicholas Gates, reviewed here) was perfectly OK, but this is a very, very good book. Nine groups of species:…
BBS 2
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Last weekend I did the second visit to one of my BBS squares. It was later in the allowable time than usual because everything has been later than usual for a while in my life. I wasn’t very optimistic about seeing lots of birds but the aim of the BBS is to record the birds…
RSPB press release – Roseate Terns and Avian/Poultry Flu
Concern is mounting for seabirds on RSPB Coquet Island in Northumberland, the UK’s only roseate tern breeding colony, and across the UK, following confirmed cases of Avian Influenza. A new virulent form of bird flu that originated in poultry in east Asia has now killed tens of thousands of wild birds in the UK and…
John Burton Memorial Fund
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Please consider donating to the John Burton Memorial Fund – set up to support causes about which John was particuarly keen in his last years.
RSPB press release – pesticides
Lack of research, weak regulation and a mix of over 150 pesticides – all the ingredients needed for a harmful cocktail of chemicals used in our countryside Every year over 150 different pesticides are used across the UK’s countryside in a combined quantity that could cover all UK farmland over ten times every year but there…
RSPB press release – Black-tailed Godwits
Today (28 June) sees the final release of hand-raised black-tailed godwits as part of an emergency intervention which has thrown the critically endangered wetland bird a lifeline and helped increase its chances of survival. Data collected by a five year partnership between the RSPB and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) called Project Godwit, shows the…
Guest blog – Eyot Notes by Tim Reed
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Although an ornithologist by training, Tim Reed has a background in monitoring and data quality- starting with standardising management planning and data recording for the statutory sector, moving on to developing the widely-used Common Standards site condition model. After a long period introducing peer-reviewable data and biodiversity and ecosystem reporting models in big corporates around…