The hotel on St. Paul, the rather gloriously named King Eider Hotel, is connected to the airport buildings and is rather 1980’s in décor but functional. After checking in we were keen to head into the field and spent a couple of hours birding Ridge Wall, east facing cliffs in the south-west of the island. […]
POLL: Should the killing of animals by Wildlife Services be stopped?
The highly secretive arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 3.2 million animals during fiscal year 2015, according to new data released by the agency. The total number of wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, beavers, foxes, eagles and other animals killed largely at the behest of the livestock […]
Piping Plovers Here and There
In June 2013 during my Conservation Big Year, when I still needed to see an endangered Roseate Tern, I learned that I had a good chance of seeing one or more feeding at Popham Beach State Park in Maine. Sure enough, I saw one there—the only Roseate Tern I saw all year—but that listing conquest […]
POLL: Should Zimbabwe and Namibia be allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles?
A huge legal sale of ivory intended to cut elephant poaching instead catastrophically backfired by dramatically increasing elephant deaths, according to new research. The revelation comes just months before a decision on whether to permit another legal sale and against a backdrop of more African elephants being killed for ivory than are being born. In […]
Encounter with a Red Fox cub
I went out to a local nature reserve north of Karlsruhe, Germany very early one day last week primarily to look for breeding Bluethroats, but came across this lovely young Red Fox cub. His muddy paws were a result of exploring the reed-beds on the fringes of one of the many pools on the reserve. […]
Champions of the Flyway 2016 – every bird counts!
The Beginning of the Beginning It is perhaps the most fascinating phenomenon in the birding world, but unfortunately not without danger: bird migration. And Eilat, Israel, is one of the best places in the world to experience this spectacular phenomenon. It should therefore come as no surprise that here, for the third time, the international […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Week 25 Jun 2016
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Week” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. First click an image and browse through the slideshow. Then select the three images you like best of all and click the VOTE button at the bottom of the page. […]
Sanibel Gardens Preserve
On 12 June 2016, wildlife blogger France Paulsen observed a Fork-tailed Flycatcher at Sanibel Gardens Preserve just north of the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge Bailey Tract on Sanibel Island. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a rare Code 3 vagrant in the ABA area. The species’ breeding range is in Central and South America. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher […]