From February to June, participants in Spring Alive, a long-term BirdLife educational programme, observed and registered the arrivals of five migratory bird species in Europe and made more than 270,000 observations of migratory birds, the highest number ever! The people taking part in the programme, mainly children and their families represent countries across Europe, from […]
Tag: Cuckoo
More Japanese Reed Buntings
I had planned a longer photography trip this weekend, specifically to look for Pleske’s Grasshopper Warbler, however the typhoon that was supposed to pass across from the Japan Sea to the Pacific Ocean promptly decided to turn itself into a depression and sit just off the western coast of Kyushu! After a bit of procrastination, […]
Butterflies, Bugs and other Insects
Weather dominates the lives of all living things and changing weather patterns have an effect on the life cycles of most species on the planet. We talk about the weather all the time and European weather, if not global weather are going through changes. In south-west Spain we are feeling and experiencing unsettled and abnormal […]
On the trail of the large tortoiseshell, the UK’s most elusive butterfly
It was, joked Matthew Oates, a “lunatic fringe” mission. Scouring the hedgerows for the caterpillar of a butterfly that has been extinct for more than half a century might not be most people’s idea of fun, but Oates, a National Trust naturalist, has spent 50 summers tracking down the most elusive British butterflies. I joined […]
Azamidani
This morning I spent some time at Azamidani, Mount Unzen. There was an outside chance of migrant warblers and thrushes, however only the usual summer breeders and residents. The highlights were seeing the male Narcissus Flycatcher, Blue-and-white Flycatcher and Japanese Thrush. In particular, I observed what seemed to be some kind of courtship display by […]
Up and down and again…
This Spring is surely the one to be reminded as one of the least stable migration we had for years down in the Arava. While some morning start in full swing and there seems to be birds on every bush in the Arava and the sky are filled with migrating raptors, we have many mornings […]
Passerines seen in April
In the dictionary the word passerine is described thus: passerine |ˈpasərin, -ˌrīn|Ornithology adjective – of, relating to, or denoting birds of a large order distinguished by feet that are adapted for perching, including all songbirds. noun – a passerine bird; a perching bird. The order Passeriformes comprises more than half of all bird species, the […]