This open-access publication looks at birders’ behaviour across a large number of countries and, surprise surprise, most birders have been affected by a global health pandemic. It’s not just you who didn’t get out so much! The paper rightly suggests that citizen science studies will be affected by recent and ongoing movement restrictions but also…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
Songbird Survival looking for a CEO – no conservation knowledge or experience necessary
Here’s an opportunity to earn £50,000+ per annum leading an organisation with 1700 members which is the ‘voice for songbirds’. Membership is £20 per annum and of that almost £10 goes to the research fund. So membership subscriptions seem to fund only a third of the CEO salary at most. According to the Charity Commission…
Birdwatch magazine’s 2020 Birders’ Choice awards
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It’s that time of year when Birdwatch magazine invites its readers and the world (almost the same, surely?) to vote for their Conservation Hero of the Year, Guano Award for Environmental Harm, Book of the Year and a host of other awards. I’ve had a quick look, and some categories I find easy and others…
Waxwings?
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Every few years we have a Waxwing winter when these highly attractive birds turn up in numbers and strip the berries from Rowan trees all over the place and Cotoneaster bushes in Tesco car parks. Waxwings come here in years of Waxwing abundance and berry-scarcity in Scandinavia. They are superb birds and all the more…
My neighbour’s Walnut tree
I slightly covet my neighbour’s Walnut tree but I’m not sure how good the walnuts are. What I do know is that the local Jackdaws love them, as does what appears to be a single Rook. The Jackdaws seem to arrive just after 9am every morning (why then?) and take away individual walnuts in their…
Lots of Knots at Snetts
Snettisham Beach this morning as the mist cleared and the tide rose – brilliant. We didn’t exactly have the place to ourselves as there were lots of people with binoculars and telescopes (maybe 100 or so) but we were all outnumbered by around 100,000 waders or more – probably more than half of them were…
Kingfisher reporting rate
Yesterday’s BirdTrack reporting rate graph was Kingfisher. I’m not sure I would have identified this species from its reporting rate – it’s not a very common/obvious species because its reporting rate is quite low. What happens in June – September? Is this when juveniles disperse and there is more whizzing around and indeed more calling?…
Blackbird reporting rate
Yesterday’s Birdtrack reporting rate graph was Blackbird. The biggest clue is the high reporting rate through the year. As with all the reporting rate graphs (reporting rate is the proportion of all complete lists of birds in which the species is recorded) the shape of the graph is affected by where birders go and what…
Green Woodpecker reporting rates
Tim Melling’s photographs and text on Green Woodpeckers on Saturday were well-timed for me because on my recent visits to Stanwick Lakes, my local patch, I’ve recorded Green Woodpeckers on each recent visit even though I’ve not seen a single one. They are very shouty at this time of year. And I’ve heard some from…
Keeping track after Lockdown
I’ve gone back to look at the BirdTrack reporting rate graphs for two species which I think exemplify Lockdown – House Sparrow and Little Egret. During Lockdown from 24 March until late May there was a big increase in reporting rate (% of complete bird species lists entered into Birdtrack) for House Sparrow. The simplest…