Recently I was in Bani Saad and stopped along the roadside at a nice looking area of market garden fields with crops. This area had once held Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak where birds were seen sitting on a roof in Bani Saad but unfortunately I have never seen them in the built up areas. I did […]
Tag: starling
Poll: Should the mass-killing of starlings with pesticides be allowed?
Land owners surprised to discover tens of thousands of dead birds across the high desert are criticising the federal government over a mass killing of starlings in northern Nevada. The US Department of Agriculture said a pesticide was used to destroy the birds to prevent the spread of disease to dairy cows. Some area residents, […]
RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch confirms many species still declining
The number of backyard researchers in the world’s biggest citizen science survey was up this year, but participants found populations of many bird species continued to decline. More than 585,000 people took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch. The survey took place over a January weekend, as it has for the past 36 […]
Wildlife Licences: Can’t Shoot Robins, but Egyptian Geese are Game
Landowners wanting to be allowed to shoot robins, pied wagtails, starlings and other favourite birds seen eating their crops have been rebuffed by the government. But shooters will be able to legally kill or destroy the nests of Egyptian geese and trap and release protected birds like song thrushes, blue tits and dunnocks found foraging […]
Alarming disappearances among our familiar countryside birds
The latestState of the UK’s Birdsreport, published today, reveals many of our most familiar countryside birds are undergoing sweeping changes with some experiencing ‘plummeting population declines’, compared with the 1990s. It is now known that in some parts of the UK these birds have disappeared completely. A section of the report looks at the UK’s […]
Purple Martins Building a Nest in a Woodpecker Hole in a Dead Snag
The Purple Martin (Progne subis) is a well known and popular bird in eastern North America where it breeds almost entirely in human-made martin houses. Only a few records of natural nestings east of the Rocky Mountains have been reported during the twentieth century1. Here in western North America however, where Purple Martins are less […]
Starling Takes a Bath
This is a European Starling,Sternavulgaris. An occasional bath helps it maintain its glossy splendor. I came upon a starling splashing at the edge of a pond in Brooklyn, in New York City. After getting wet, he flew into a tree and shook and preened methodically for a few minutes, pictured below. Click on the photos […]
Migration across to Europe
It’s quite a long photo post this week and please scroll down and enjoy the views we’ve been having. I’ve been quite busy and wanted to write up more but I was out in the field most days and had lots of emails and other office work to do. Black-eared Wheatears continued to show up […]