Long day, number 1

I am writing this in Shreveport, Louisiana.  It’s been a long day so it will be a short blog. The day started in the UK at 430 am and at 430 pm I set off in my hire car from George Bush (presumably Snr, but maybe both) International Airport, Houston, TX .  It’s now 930…

Guest Blog – BTO & CLO by Andy Clements

  BTO recently hosted a visit from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO), Ithaca, NY, USA marking the exciting culmination of a year’s discussions to set up a long-term collaboration between our two organisations. It is thanks to Mark for initiating contact between myself and John Fitzpatrick, CEO at Cornell Lab, following Mark’s US road…

‘Standing up for nature’ goes to America

My main task between now and the end of September is to finish writing a book ‘on’ the passenger pigeon for Bloomsbury – and for me and for you! 1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the extinction of this bird – probably the most numerous bird in the world a few decades before…

Let’s go out and hunt some wrens

It’s good to get some exercise but the old custom of hunting a wren on this day is not one I particularly want to continue. Wrens are little but interesting – and noisy! Wrens are often polygynous and the males build the nests to try to attract one (or more) mates.  They are packed full…

You could be eating eagles…

Are you sitting down to eat a turkey later today? Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the USA instead of the actual choice of the bald eagle.  He wrote to his daughter thus: “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our…