In the previous blog I estimated the number of feathers on living wild birds to be around 420 trillion. Now I’ve had the chance to check a few things I’d like to revise the estimate a little. The logic strikes me as pretty good. How many (wild) birds are there in the world and simply…
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If Starlings had…
If Starlings had contrails, like planes, then the sky above my garden would be painted with the paths of Starlings taking food to their recently hatched young. Starlings are single-prey loaders when their chicks are young (they fly out from the nest to collect one item of food and fly back to the nest with…
Primates 2
The gibbons were particularly funky. And it’s the birthday of the primate narrator of this series today. Happy Birthday Chris Packham!
Can you help?
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Here’s a big pile of boxes; What is in the boxes? Photographic plates – lots of them. Photographs of what, you might ask? Photographs of birds, by John T Fisher. These glass plates, about 200 of them, are looking for a home, a good home. I’m merely an intermediary here. The slides were given to…
Lockdown Nature-Writing challenge entries
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I’ve started being a 9-5 person. I’m now often heading to bed at 9pm and waking at around 5am. This morning, after standing outside for a few minutes, to listen to the end of the dawn chorus, I turned on my computer to see that, as I expected, there was a flood of entries for…
What people are reading…
I’ve been asked by a few people about a good bird book – lockdown is making people look at what’s around them, and in many ways, the most obvious, alluring and beautiful things to watch are birds. And that’s why they are buying these titles on Amazon… The RSPB Pocket Guide is the 138th best-selling…
Yet another week on…
In each of the previous two weeks there were an extra 36,000 reported cases of coronavirus in the UK – this week there were 33,000 new cases. That is the extent to which the spread of the virus is slowing down – not much! The global reported deaths have recently passed 200,000 at the same…
Primates 1
Last night saw the first of this three-part series on primates, narrated by Chris Packham. The images were stunningly good showing the habitats occupied, whether a flooded Amazon rainforest, Madagascar or the temples of Kathmandu. But my favourite sequences were of Drills (similar to, but different from, Mandrills) from the tropical island of Bioko (formerly…
And another week on…
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Two weeks ago: Last week: This week: And yes, it’s still an utterly beautiful yet terrifying curve. Last week cases increased from 48,000 to 84,000 cases – an increase of 36,000. This week, cases increased from 84,000 to 120,000 – an increase of 36,000 cases. In other words, the same number of new cases but…
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
In yesterday’s Natural England blog on the licensing of taking Peregrines from the wild Natural England’s Director for wildlife licensing, Dave Slater, points out that Natural England can issue licences for a variety of purposes which include falconry. The legislation in question is the Wildlife and Countryside Act where the relevant section is, I think,…