Thursday 24 April 2008

Birdwatch - issue 191 (May 2008): table of contents



















Features

  • Shorrock, G. Moorland crimestop [Report of a recent success in the ongoing war against bird of prey persecution]
  • Vinicombe, K. Black Kite [Which features to look out for when identifying this rare raptor]
  • Grantham, M. Mistaken destinations [More migration mysteries answered in the concluding part of this feature]
  • Harbard, C. Amazon adventure [A trip to a remote corner of Peru]
  • Marven, N. On location – Canopy capers [Birding in the Kruger National Park, South Africa]
  • Young, S. In the frame – Getting white right [Exposure and how to work it out]

Reader holiday – Azores, 7-14 October 2008


Better Birding

  • Find your own ... Dartford Warbler
  • Bird names – Splits, lumps and sex changes
  • Past rarities – May days
  • Tip from the top – Jim Lawrence
  • Must see – Kentish Plover
  • BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch – Gold among thistles
  • What's on - May events
  • Optical events - May guide
  • Birding courses and workshops
  • May high-tide tables for Britain and Ireland


Where to watch birds

  • Williams, J. Orkney
  • McLoughlin, J. Filey, North Yorkshire
  • Hobson, P. Hathersage, Peak District, Derbyshire

News and related items

News digest – volunteers needed for new Priolo Atlas; egg thief jailed; finches flock to gardens; help Seawatch SW in Cornwall; petrel comeback; more help for albatrosses
Fraser, M. ListCheck – updating the world view of birds. [Taxonomic revision: Tristan Bunting Nesospiza acunhae. National list: Britain]


Tools of the trade

Product review: RSPB 8.5x42 WPG binocular; BirdVoice.

Internet: swift connections; one man and his blog; research resources.

Book reviews and previews: Birds of Surrey by Jeffrey Wheatley (Surrey Bird Club); Birds of Napa County by Herman Heinzel (Heyday Books); A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia by Tadao Shimba (Christopher Helm); Cutting Away: the Linocuts of Robert Gillmor (Langford Press); and Book shelf – Sue Monahan’s look at the latest releases.


Accounts of recent rarities in Britain and Ireland

Jones M. Blackpool’s star attraction is a gull [Ross’s Gull Rhodostethia rosea Marton Mere, Lancashire, 31 March 2008]

Walker, D. Dunge does Junco double [Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis, Dungeness, Kent 7-9 April 2008]

Astins, D. Wales welcomes American quacker [American Black Duck Anas rubripes, Pembrokeshire, from 16 March 2008


Monthly highlights summary: March 2008


Recent reports

Monthly round-ups from eight regions in Britain, and from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, March 2008, including photos of Bonaparte’s and Ross’s Gulls Larus philadelphia and Rhodostethia rosea, Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Duck Aythya affinis and A collaris, Ross’s Goose Anser rossii, Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus, White-spotted Bluethroats Luscinia svecica cyanecula, Hume’s Warbler Phylloscopus humei, King Eider Somateria spectabilis and Forster’s Tern Sterna forsteri.


Highlights summary for the Western Palearctic in March 2008, including photos of Black Scrub Robin Cercotrichas podobe, Caspian Plover Charadrius asiaticus and Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptylorhynchus in Israel, Boat-tailed Grackle Quiscalus major in Belgium and Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in the Canary Islands.

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