The lucky recipient in the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” got 23 birds over the course of the holiday season. Hopefully they didn’t live in a studio apartment. In the yuletide spirit, we’re taking a closer look at the birds immortalized in the English folk song, first published around 1780. Seven Swans […]
Tag: Turtle Dove
Turtle Dove at Titchwell
The venue for todays trip was Titchwell RSPB. In the car park we watched a single Turtle Dove as it called and spent some time picking grit from the car park gravel. These birds are becoming scarce as they run the gauntlet of the gun on the way back from Africa and then have to […]
Day trip to Titchwell
We set off early this morning arriving at Choseley Barns at 7.30am where I scoped the Dotterel in the rain without too much help from the Jims who already had the tick from a recent twitch in Herts. Once I found the birds their mood changed and they jumped out to enjoy distant views along […]
More than a quarter of UK birds face extinction risk
More than a quarter of UK birds, including the puffin, nightingale and curlew, require urgent conservation efforts to ensure their survival, according to a new report on the state of the UK’s birds. Since the last review in 2009, an additional 15 species of bird have been placed on the “red list”, a category that […]
Kaziranga explosion
I have a lot of catching up to do, after several wifi-less days in Kaziranga NP, Assam. Our first day in the reserve was incredible. The weather was good, the birds were active and we just saw so many birds. Our guide, Rofikul, did a great job and our daily score was over 170 species! […]
The Vanishing: Europe’s farmland birds
The Head of Conservation for BirdLife Europe & Central Asia explains how intensive agriculture has made farmland birds one of the most threatened bird groups in Europe. Once upon a time, they were all around us – sights and sounds as familiar as the dusky skies their flocks danced in or the wind whistling through […]
It’s a Great Hobby
Pun fully intended! A drive down to Dunge this morning at stupid o’clock gave Jim and I the chance to dip the “red male” Rosefinch reported yesterday but as the handful of readers of this blog will know, Dunge always delivers! A splendid Hobby sat up on a shed at the road side and allowed […]
Great Reed Warbler at Paxton
A 60 mile drive after work this evening delivered another lifer in the form of the Great Reed Warbler at Paxton. The bird could be heard calling above the Nightingales on arrival and was quickly found sitting up in the distant reed bed. The song was loud and distinctive and the sight of the huge […]
