Read the responses to Richard Porter’s airing of the subject of an ageing bird survey workforce, with a declining ability to hear certain bird calls, and what that might mean for survey results…
Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1962, I took part in the first year of the BTO Common Birds Census, my patch being in the grounds and adjacent woodland of the National College of Food Technology at Weybridge, in Surrey. One of the commonest birds was the Willow Warbler and most were located by ear. If I repeated the census now, and assuming there had been no population change, my counts would be much lower, as I would be failing to pick up many singing birds. The ageing process!
Following Andrew Harrop’s letter on this topic (Brit. Birds 104: 668–669), we have received correspondence from both of the main protagonists in the debate. The full version of this correspondence is published here, and correspondence on this topic in BB is now closed.
Recently, there has been a debate in some areas – notably David & Gosselin (2008), but also on certain internet forums – about the scientific name of the Willow Tit…
There was an omission in the fine paper ‘Seabirds on Lundy’ (Brit. Birds 104: 139–158) when describing the fortunes of the former Northern Gannet colony on the island…
On 31st January 2011, Frank Blackburn and I were photographing Waxwings at Yateley in Hampshire. The birds were feeding on Cotoneaster berries in their traditional winter habitat – a supermarket car park…
With reference to the announcement concerning changes to the English names that BB uses, my views are probably known already and as a world lister I am all in favor of standard names…
Recent Comments