Hunters will be banned from shooting a rare and beautiful duck under new proposals to halt the decline of six British wild birds. The new rules would restrict the shooting of species including the distinctive woodcock, and the striking pintail, goldeneye and pochard ducks, all of which are classed as under threat and have seen […]
Tag: Wood Pigeon
France’s birds start to show signs of recovery after bee-harming pesticide ban
Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe. Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after […]
Easterly winds and clear skies are cue for charismatic waxwings to cross to UK
By November in the UK, autumn bird migration is more or less over. Our summer visitors, such as warblers, chats and flycatchers, are far to the south in Africa. Meanwhile, many winter visitors – mostly waders and wildfowl – have arrived from their breeding grounds to the north and east. Nevertheless, as the British Trust […]
As British Bird Count Records Low Numbers, Conservationists Urge Gardeners to Ditch Pesticides, Let Lawns Grow
During the last weekend of January, participants in Britain’s Big Garden Birdwatch are asked to keep track of the number of each avian species they see at their location over a one-hour period. The counting and recording is usually done in gardens, but parks and other green spaces work too. Participants in this year’s Birdwatch […]
Colorful Birds of Kruger Park
Watching Wood Pigeons and Blackbirds digging in the snow out of my window now, but my head and heart are still in South Africa. Luckily those images keep the memories fresh and warm. On February 16th we drove around Satara, to the south and to the east. We left very early, especially for big mammals. […]
Twite in the sun
The weather today was gorgeous and I was down to a t-shirt before noon. But days with blue skies are generally speaking poor for birds and today was no exception. I stuck to Maridalen where I hoped some raptor migration might save the day but the only I raptors I had (Sparrowhawk, Goshawk and Buzzard) […]
Good stuff
Yesterday was cloudy and warm(ish) but clear skies overnight with a resulting heavy frost were going to cause a big change in bird activity this morning. The fields and marsh areas in Maridalen were covered in ice and there was hardly a thrush to see. With the clear skies any viz mig was so high […]
Common wood pigeon
This bird was about 45 meters from me but with the 500 mm lens plus the converter 1.4, I managed these fairly decent pics, although far from competition quality: Pigeon ramier ou Palombe dans le sud-ouest: Avec une focale de 700 mm (500 mm + convert 1/4) plus l’effet ‘petit capteur’, je suis parvenue à […]