Bins are central to the way a birder views the world – literally and metaphorically. I remember the thrill when I first acquired my pair of ‘Dialyts’ (on joining RSPB staff). But the symbolism of binoculars risks becoming a deterrent to those who think enjoying birds and other wildlife is the exclusive pursuit of a…
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Minox Challenge – Plantlife by Joanna Bromley
Iris Murdoch once wrote ‘people from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.’ I couldn’t put it better myself but I have a feeling that Mark is looking for a few more words so I’ll soldier on. This is a discerning…
Minox Challenge – the BTO by Andy Clements
Small is beautiful. I’ve now stopped introducing the BTO as a ‘small’ organisation. With 120 staff, an annual turnover of £5m, 17500 members and around 40,000 wonderful volunteers whose birdwatching creates our data, the numbers speak for themselves. Of course we are small when you compare us to the mighty RSPB, the ubiquitous Wildlife Trusts…
Minox challenge – MARINElife by Andrew McLeish
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Why MARINElife deserves the public’s support If you were a traveller, holiday-maker or whale watching enthusiast in the mid 90’s you may have been among the hundreds of thousands of people who travelled across the Bay of Biscay on board P&O’s flagship ferry service ‘The Pride of Bilbao’. The ‘Billy’ as she was fondly known…
Minox Challenge – Butterfly Conservation by Martin Warren
Who could resist a butterfly? Butterflies are among nature’s most colourful and spectacular creatures, which are used across the world as symbols of beauty and spirituality. Sadly, they are also one our most seriously threatened groups of wildlife. This is the case for why Butterfly Conservation, the NGO that works to conserve butterflies and moths,…
Minox Challenge – seven Guest Blogs
At 10-minute intervals after this blog appears so will the Guest Blogs of seven organisations that have taken up the Minox Challenge. They are published in the order in which they were received. I am grateful to all seven organisations, and their Chief Executives (or deputies in the cases of Plantlife and MARINElife which don’t…
Minox review (and challenge)
Regular readers will remember that Minox sent me a pair of binoculars to review and that they will be auctioned on this site in the next few weeks and the money will go to the wildlife conservation charity of your choice. So what do I make of the Minox 10x43HD binoculars? I have become quite…
Sunday Book Review – The Crossley ID Guide by Richard Crossley and Dominic Couzens
This review is part of a ‘blog tour‘ where yesterday, this book, The Crossley ID Guide, was reviewed by 10,000 Birds. This is a useful guide to bird identification aimed at beginners and intermediate birders. I guess I would put myself at the high end of intermediate as I know all the common birds…
Saturday cartoon – by Ralph Underhill
Pigeons and doves
I went out for a walk on Monday morning and as I parked the car at 0710 a large flock of pigeons flew past. Just Woodpigeons, nothing very special, but hundreds of them so quite interesting. And then another flew past, and another and I started counting. In 15 minutes c5000 birds flew past; and…