Monday, 26 May 2008

We have moved back to www.birdwatch.co.uk

Stories from the Birdwatch Newsdesk are now being posted direct to www.birdwatch.co.uk, the relaunched website of the magazine - please bookmark it in your browser and be sure to visit it regularly for news and reviews, features and much, much more. This blog will remain online for the time being as an archive of news stories published since June 2007.

Birdwatch - issue 192 (June 2008): table of contents




















Features

  • Jones, G. Roof-tops for redstarts [Report on the creation of new roof-top habitats for Black Redstarts breeding in Manchester]

  • Harbard, C. The twilight zone [Tips on finding birds which
    are active during the hours between dusk and dawn]

  • Jones, G. Protecting the Pennine finch [Documentary of the
    alarming decline of the English Twite population and measures being taken to
    conserve it]

  • Elsom, S. Bravo Brazil [Highlights of a birding trip into Brazil’s
    bird-rich Atlantic rainforest]

  • Marven, N. On location – On the woodpecker trail
    [Woodpeckers, scarce waders and leopards are tracked-down in South Africa’s
    Kruger National Park]

  • Young, S. In the frame – Lighten up and manipulate
    [Salvaging underexposed photos]

Better Birding

  • Find your own … Golden Oriole

  • Other wildlife – Moth magic

  • Past rarities – June jewels

  • Tip from the top – John McLoughlin

  • Must see – Woodlark

  • BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch – Get spotting with Great Spots

  • What’s on – June events

  • Optical events – June guide

  • Birding courses and workshops

  • From dusk to dawn – special events to find European Nightjars, owls and moths

  • June high-tide tables for Britain and Ireland

Where to watch birds

  • Parnell, E. The Brecks

  • Mitchell, D. Durness, Sutherland

  • Barthorpe, I. Suffolk coast

  • Drewitt, E. Bristol

Competition

Win £1,000 worth of Hawke binoculars as prizes


Reader holiday – Azores, 7-14 October 2008


News and related items

News digest – proposed Wash barrier condemned; raptor persecution targeted; Malta hunting ban; seabird slaughter

Fraser, M. ListCheck – updating the world view of birds. [Potential splits: Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti, Subalpine Warbler Sylvia cantillans, Golden-winged Grosbeak Rhynchostruthus socotranus. National lists: Colombia, Papua New Guinea]


Tools of the trade


Product review: Hawke Frontier 8x42 binocular.

Brochure watch: Birdquest 2008-09.

Internet: Image processing software.

Book and CD reviews: The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside by Steve White, Barry McCarthy and Maurice Jones; Where to Watch Birds in North West England and the Isle of Man (third edition) by Allan Conlin, Dr JP Cullen, Pete Marsh, Tristan Reid, Chris Sharpe, Judith Smith and Stephen Williams; Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by Martin Kenefick, Robin Restall and Floyd Hayes; and Book shelf – Sue Monahan’s look at the latest releases.


Accounts of recent rarities in Britain and Ireland


Offord, S. Central Asian invasion! [Black Lark Melanocorypha yeltoniensis, Winterton Dunes, Norfolk 20-21 April 2008]

Reid, J [Caspian Plover Charadrius asiaticus, Fair Isle, 1-2 May 2008]

Bellamy, A. Crake expectations [Little Crake Porzana parva, Exminster Marshes RSPB, Devon, from 9 April 2008]

Monthly highlights summary: April 2008


Recent reports

Monthly round-ups from eight regions in Britain, and from
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, April 2008, including photos of Pallid Swift Apus pallidus, European Bee-eater Merops apiaster, Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis, White-spotted Bluethroat Luscinia svecica cyanecula, Firecrest Regulus ignicapilla, Subalpine Warbler Sylvia cantillans, Pallas’s Warbler, Phylloscopus proregulus, Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus, Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus, White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, Ross’s Gull Rhodosterhia rosea, Calandra Lark Melanocorypha calandra, Caspian Plover Charadrius asiaticus, Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, White-billed Diver Gavia adamsii, Great Egret Ardea alba, Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola and Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius.

Highlights summary for the Western Palearctic in April 2008, including photos of Two-barred Greenish Warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides plumbeitarsus on Madeira, Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus in Greece, Basra Reed Warbler Acrocephalus griseldis and Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel in Kuwait and White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus and Trumpeter Finch Bucanetes githagineus in Sardinia.