Yesterday I visited the Aso-Kuju area in central Kyushu. Specifically I wanted to see Japanese Reed Bunting (aka Ochre-rumped Bunting), but also other summer birds of higher altitudes. Although this was the middle of rainy season, the forecast seemed promising so I arrived at dawn. Soon after starting off a trail famous for having my […]
Tag: Pheasant
RSPB accused of hypocrisy for killing hundreds of birds on its reserves
The RSPB has admitted killing hundreds of birds on its reserves, prompting an accusation of “extraordinary hypocrisy” from the Countryside Alliance. The RSPB recently criticised the licenced destruction of buzzard eggs and nests to protect a pheasant shoot and said a cull of lesser black-backed gulls should be halted. But on Thursday the charity revealed […]
Government approved cull of endangered birds on Duke of Westminster’s Estate
Tens of thousands of endangered birds have been shot, trapped and poisoned on one of England’s largest shooting estates with the approval of the government agency responsible for protecting the species, a Guardian investigation has found. The government has licensed an annual cull of lesser black-backed gulls on the Abbeystead estate on the Bowland Fells […]
A Quiet Morning…
This morning I thought I would check out a few places for spring migrants. Firstly I went to Kabashima and later to Karako, both in Nagasaki prefecture. Although there were a lot of birds calling at Kabashima, very few were showing well – most were either skulking or very flighty. That said, there seemed to […]
Humans killed over 10 percent of the world’s bird species when they colonized the Pacific Islands
Around 4,000 years ago intrepid Polynesian seafarers made their way into an untamed wilderness: the far-flung Pacific Islands. Over a thousands or so years, they rowed from one island to another, stepping on shores never yet seen by humans. While this vast colonization brought about a new era of human history, it also ended the […]
Wildlife in a Suburban Garden
It’s interesting to note that the common tit species in the UK and Europe have beaks of slightly different lengths and shapes. This enables them to co-exist in the same habitat and even in the same mixed species flocks. Coal Tits for example, although smaller than Blue Tits, have a longer and proportionally longer beak. […]
Bosque del Apache NWR by Don Getty – Part 3
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is a premier location for winter birding and bird photography. November and December are the best months. Bosque is located in New Mexico about 95 mile south of Albuquerque. The small community of Socorro, 19 mile north of the Refuge, offers a good variety of hotels and restaurants. When […]
Wildlife Slaughter in South Dakota
Imagine my amazement this morning to see a Google advertisement inviting me to hunt wildlife in South Dakota – and I live in Switzerland! It seems that South Dakota is being promoted as the ideal tourist destination for wildlife hunting. So I clicked on the advertisement and within a few minutes realized that wildlife hunting […]