Woodcock, by Kevin Du Rose, BPY winner 2011

Many if not most birders now carry a camera when they’re out and about; some have invested in top-of-the-range gear, while others specialise in digiscoping, or opt for one of the portable and versatile ‘bridge’ cameras. What is certain is that bird photography in its various guises has never been more popular and the proliferation of birding websites and blogs reflects this (where it is also clear that the best photographs are not always taken by people with the most expensive equipment!). This popularity is also apparent in the British Birds Bird Photograph of the Year competition which continues to attract an ever-increasing number of entries, many of which are from photographers entering for the first time. We are particularly encouraged by this and urge photographers from Britain and the rest of Europe, particularly those who have not entered before, to submit their best work.

We would like to invite all photographers, both professional and amateur, to submit up to three entries for this year’s competition, and a further three images for the digiscoping competition. The closing date of the 2012 competition is 1st April 2012. Photographs should be of birds taken anywhere within the Western Palearctic region (Europe, North Africa and the Middle East). The winning entries are featured in the August issue of British Birds and exhibited on the British Birds stand at the British Birdwatching Fair.

The competition is FREE to enter and  there are some outstanding prizes to be won. The 2012 BPY winner will receive a cash prize of £1,000 donated by Anglian Water. Other prizes include books from both Collins and Helm/Bloomsbury. In addition, a cash prize is awarded by the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust for the winning digiscoped entry.

All images must have been taken since January 2011 and within the Western Palearctic. Entries will be judged not only on technical excellence, but also on originality, scientific interest, aesthetic appeal and artistic composition.

For further detail, and the competition rules, visit http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/about/bird-photograph-of-the-year

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Red-rumped Swallows ‘sunbathing’ in extreme heat, Andalucia, Spain, June 2011. Derek Moore

On 3rd June 2011 at the Acebouche Visitor Centre in the Coto Donana National Park, Andalucia, Spain, I observed and photographed a group of Red-rumped Swallows Cecropis daurica. The weather was fine and extremely hot, about 35–40°C. As I walked onto a concrete apron by the Visitor Centre I noticed a group of Red-rumped Swallows lying on their sides and backs without apparent use of their legs. Some had their mouths wide open and were clearly panting to lose heat. At first I thought the birds might be dead but on approach some of them took flight. I have observed similar behaviour in other birds such as cormorants and heron species but never by any of the swallows. Angela Turner (in litt.) has commented that this typical swallow sunbathing behavior, but it seems that it is rather rarely photographed.

Derek Moore, Rowan Howe, Gors Road, Salem, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire SA19 7LY; e-mail DerekBirdBrain@aol.com

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I was delighted to take on the task of reviewing this book, but slightly horrified to find that it was over a quarter of a century since Mike Harris had produced his previous monograph on this species. How time flies! I first met Mike Harris in the early 1970s, when the focus of his attentions was on the gulls and Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus of the Pembrokeshire islands. He soon moved north to the Isle of May and has spent much of the last 40 years engaged in a long-term study of breeding (Atlantic) Puffins Fratercula arctica there and elsewhere. My first contact with Sarah Wanless came a decade later, during the first of a series of ten-yearly international censuses of Northern Gannets Morus bassanus.

I have always been a little envious of this couple who have managed to organise their lives to spend their summers living on enigmatic seabird islands carrying out detailed studies of the breeding biology and ecology of such interesting and attractive seabirds. They have shared their findings with the ornithological community through their prolific publication in the scientific literature, and with a wider readership through Mike’s 1984 Poyser, The Puffin, and now in this joint publication with Sarah.

A short introduction leads quickly to the main body of the work, 15 chapters and 186 pages of it. The first five chapters place the world’s three puffin Fratercula species among the other auks, summarise the studies which have been carried out so far, and describe the appearance, development and moult of the (Atlantic) Puffin, and its distribution and status in Britain, Ireland, France, Iceland, the Faeroes, Norway (including Svalbard), Russia, Greenland, Canada and the USA. The book then gets down to the nitty-gritty of the (mainly) breeding biology of the species, with six chapters covering colony attendance, chick rearing and breeding success, behaviour, food and feeding, predators, pirates, parasites and competitors, survival of Puffins, and the Isle of May populations (where much of the research has been carried out by the authors). Finally, there are four chapters which deal with Puffins away from the colonies: the interactions between Puffins and people, other threats to Puffins, an overview of the present situation, and finally some insights to the future for the species.

The text of the main part of the book is enhanced by 28 informative tables and 78 figures – a significant and welcome increase on the 20 and 47 (respectively) in the 1984 edition. I was particularly pleased to see that long-standing Scottish seabird enthusiast Kenny Taylor was invited back to write the chapter on Puffin behaviour, as he did so ably in the 1984 edition. His contribution is invaluable.

What Puffins do during the seven months of the year when they are away from the breeding colonies is still something of a mystery. In the past, most information was obtained from rather few recoveries of ringed birds accumulated over many decades. However, the recent introduction of electronic data-loggers and other devices, which can be fitted on Puffins and retrieved later for downloading accumulated data, has opened up exciting possibilities for finding out more about this part of the Puffin’s annual cycle. Chapter 12 covers preliminary findings from the new technology and shows an Isle of May Puffin spending much of its non-breeding time foraging in the northwest Atlantic south of Greenland and east of Newfoundland. No doubt the third edition of the book will have a greatly extended chapter on this topic!

The book is amply illustrated throughout. Developments in digital photography have inevitably led to an improvement in the quality of the colour photographs used (44, by many different photographers). I am pleased to note that these are used not just to provide beautiful portraits of Puffins, but to illustrate various activities and behaviours of these colonial and sociable little seabirds. Also included are several older black-and-white photos of historical interest. As in the first edition, Keith Brockie has provided many black-and-white line-drawings (and colour illustrations for the dust jacket). While all these are excellent, I have to say that I prefer some of his illustrations in the earlier book.

The 1984 edition contained just two appendices: one listing the scientific names of species mentioned in the book, and the other sources of the counts/estimates used. This edition contains 14 appendices (32 pages), covering the above topics but also a large amount of other data, including measurements of adults Puffins, chicks and eggs, fledging weights, timing of breeding and breeding success, diet, weights of fish prey species. The first edition contained just over 300 references, while this one has 525, which reflects the amount of work published on this species over the last quarter of a century. The reference list appears comprehensive, covering English and other language publications from across the breeding range of the Puffin from northeast Canada to Svalbard and northwest France. I did some random checks on the index and found it was comprehensive and worked well in locating the topics that I was searching for.

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this new edition of The Puffin to all who are interested in seabirds, especially this enigmatic and much-loved species. Those who have the first edition will find it well worthwhile acquiring this edition too, as so much has been learnt about the species in the intervening period.

Oscar J. Merne

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In 2010 Robert Gillmor was invited to design four series of six stamps for the new self-service stamp dispensers – Post and Go. These were issued by Royal Mail between September 2010 and September 2011. His A4 linocut designs are reproduced in this booklet at postcard size along with the final stamp-sized image. They are accompanied by Robert’s text, which describes the processes by which each was achieved along with some preparatory sketches and ideas. The Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus design is used to explain the process, I would have liked to have seen one design evolve colour by colour, just for the magic of it. A must for Gillmor print enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in bird art and design, and of course, stamp collectors. Nicely presented.

Alan Harris

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Was the first Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus in October 2009 really Britain’s first, or the second after Heinrich Gätke obtained a bird that was shot on Helgoland in 1843? And was Germany’s first Cyprus Wheatear Oenanthe cypriaca, recently discovered after a bird collected on Helgoland in May 1867 was re-examined, not a British first instead?

Many British birdwatchers may not be aware of the British history of the tiny North Sea island of Helgoland. During most of Gätke’s active period, Helgoland was British. Only in 1890 was the island ‘exchanged’ for Zanzibar to become part of Germany. The seabird cliffs, with Germany’s only Common Guillemots Uria aalge, Northern Gannets Morus bassanus and sometimes even breeding Pied Wagtails Motacilla alba yarrellii, remind the visitor how close the island is to Britain.

Gätke’s pioneering work led to the establishment of the ‘Vogelwarte Helgoland’ in 1910. Having gathered more than 170 years of bird migration data, Helgoland is considered one of the oldest bird observatories in the world and is famous well beyond Germany as one of the most popular Meccas for birdwatchers in Europe.

Since Gätke’s magnum opus, Die Vogelwarte Helgoland, was published in 1891, rather little in the way of an updated avifauna of the birds of Helgoland has emerged, other than a short annotated species list published by Gottfried Vauk in 1972. In the late 1980s, two of the main authors of this new book, Jochen Dierschke and his brother Volker, together with Frank Stühmer, a keen young birder from the island, revolutionised birdwatching on Helgoland. In 1991, the ‘ornithological working group of Helgoland’ was formed, which published regular reports summarising (for the first time) observations on the island that were made outside the observatory. And now, Jochen Dierschke and other authors finally present a full account of the present knowledge of the birdlife of Helgoland.

It is not just about rarities, although they inevitably feature strongly. Chapters on habitats and the extensive history of the island are followed by chapters on the breeding birds, migration and wintering birds, before each of the 426 species recorded on the island to date are covered in single-species accounts. Almost all of these accounts are accompanied by high-quality photographs and by graphs depicting the phenology and changes over years and decades, the latter mostly the work of co-authors Ommo and Kathrin Hüppop, who started work at the observatory in 1988.

The authors have managed to assemble an enormous wealth of data and provide the reader with unique analyses of trend data over 170 years. Odd and always admired rarities range from the Egyptian Nightjar Caprimulgus aegyptius from the nineteenth century and the Pale Thrush Turdus pallidus in 1986 to the Grey-necked Bunting Emberiza buchanani as recently as 2009. However, the real value of the book in my opinion is the trend data. Analyses of changes over the past 50 years provide trends for 66 species, of which 49 have decreased. Among them, not surprisingly, are Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur, Wryneck Jynx torquilla and Tree Sparrow Passer montanus, but also Bluethroat Luscinia svecica. Only ten increased, such as Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus, Wren Troglodytes troglodytes and Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita. Even longer-term trends, made possible by using the accounts from Gätke as well as Rudolf Drost in the early twentieth century, reveal the sheer numbers of mass migration and falls of literally thousands of birds, such as an estimated 2,000 Ring Ouzels Turdus torquatus in one October night in 1934, or thousands of Common Redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus on spring days with a southeasterly wind. There were 1,500 Common Redstarts in May 1940, but such numbers have not been observed since, pointing to overall declines of this once-common species. More intriguing are the fluctuations in numbers of the Shore Lark Eremophila alpestris over the past 170 years. Hardly known from before 1847, the species increased rapidly to thousands in autumn migration at the end of nineteenth century, declining in the early twentieth century but with hundreds again by the mid 1900s. After 1960 the species declined, increased again in the 1990s and has declined since 1999. The book reveals many more intriguing analyses of several species, drawing parallels with British birds, which readers will surely find interesting.

The text is mixed with thematic boxes on various topics and my favourite is the evocative description of nocturnal mass migration, again revealing the sheer numbers that used to be attracted by the lighthouse, at times estimated to be tens if not hundreds of thousands of birds with several thousand thrushes, Common Snipes Gallinago gallinago and Woodcocks Scolopax rusticola collected by the locals on some nights.

The overall total of almost 7,000 ring-recoveries is outstanding. Interestingly, a map of Europe leaves hardly any white spots in the UK. Only in the northeast of Scotland have no birds ringed on Helgoland been recovered.

Although the text is in German, there are extensive summaries of each chapter, each caption and each species account in English. The Helgolandic summary is missing, but most of the common names are listed in Helgolandic.

The stunning photographs, all taken exclusively on Helgoland and several of them with some gentle humour, together with the many references and parallels drawn to British birds make this book a must-read, not only for German readers but all those interested in bird migration in Britain and across Europe. There are inevitably a few spelling mistakes, hardly worth mentioning, and I can highly recommend this book. For its size and the number of pictures and graphs the price of €55.00 is reasonable. If you would like to support the work of the Helgoland Ornithological Working Group, you can order the book directly online from their website.

Christoph Zöckler

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This fully revised edition incorporates the results of the studies of the senior author in particular, conducted over several decades, and now fully up to date (including, for example, the latest results of satellite-telemetry studies – see Brit. Birds 104: 2–15). This impressive work is almost double the size of the previous edition and is now illustrated mainly with colour photographs. There is a comprehensive evaluation of the literature and the bibliography extends to 28 pages. The wealth of material treated, however, must not conceal the fact that many questions still remain unanswered. Very little is known about population density, migration behaviour and wintering, especially of the eastern populations. Only two ringing recoveries have been made in the regions south of the Sahara, even though thousands of individuals have been ringed in Europe over a period of several decades. The reasons for different population trends in different parts of Europe have not been explained yet either: whereas, for example, the population in Britain is increasing rapidly, and amounts to many hundreds of pairs, the population in the Berlin area is in decline.

This monograph on the Hobby, the most comprehensive of its kind to date, consolidates and summarises the current state of knowledge of the species, and is heartily recommended to all those interested in birds of prey, and with some knowledge of German.

Bernd-U. Meyburg

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There seem to be a lot of World bird lists available now. Between the authoritative ‘Howard and Moore’ (The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, Helm), the widely used ‘Clements’ (The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, Helm), the rapidly evolving IOC World List (www.worldbirdnames.org) and the recent completion of HBW (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Lynx Edicions), not to mention any number of online systematic guides, there is no shortage of taxonomies and reference material available to serious ornithologists and birders alike. Now there is a new kid on the block, with the publication of the first volume of Norbert Bahr’s The Bird Species, covering the Charadriiformes (shorebirds through to gulls, terns and skuas). So what unfilled niche in the market is this planned series of books aiming to fill?

Norbert Bahr was one of the compilers of the Howard and Moore 3rd edition, and the apparent decision to go it alone with a rival publication is initially puzzling. To read the blurb on the back cover, it appears to be modelled on, and is perhaps the heir to, the Peters’ Checklist, published in several volumes between 1931 and 1987. The justification for producing the work as a series of separate volumes is apparently to keep each volume timely, to allow for rapid updating, and to allow space for more explanatory material and other information than is available in a single-volume World list. At face value, none of these reasons really stands up: each volume will date rapidly, it is difficult to imagine new editions being published before the series is complete, and although there is certainly a greater amount of background material and appended notes than are found in, say, Howard and Moore, the extra information does not represent an exponential increase. The book does, however, have a website where updates will perhaps be posted (www.thebirdspecies.com) and, ultimately, I guess that the amount of work involved with a systematic review of the World’s birds is beyond the wit of a single person, no matter how driven, to do well in one go.

This book, and presumably the future series, is undoubtedly the product of drive, knowledge, enthusiasm and a deep conviction that taxonomy and correct nomenclature are central to ornithology. There is a short general introductory section that explains the significant issues relating to species level and higher order taxonomy that have been addressed during the production of the book. Species concepts are summarised, and the relative value of genetic and other classes of data underlying taxonomic changes are discussed briefly. Then follows the main systematic list. Each family is treated in turn, with a short explanation of the main taxonomic issues and relevant recent publications. There is a strong emphasis on new molecular work, without neglecting other morphological studies. The ‘business end’ of the species list is extremely thorough – for each genus, the author, year of publication and citation are given, with the type species and its author(s) named, and any synonyms for the generic name described similarly. Species are listed by current scientific name (with year and citation) and IOC English name, the scientific name under which the species was originally described, the type locality and range statements. Each subspecies gets a similar uncompromising treatment. The list is liberally peppered with explanatory footnotes (nearly 300 of them) offering information and citations relevant to the nomenclature and taxonomy employed.

In general the taxonomy is progressive and up to date and is strongly influenced by recent molecular studies. Whereas the Howard and Moore list is often perceived as being quite conservative with respect to adoption of new proposals, this volume is proving more willing to incorporate very recent recommendations. Not everyone will agree with all the species delineations and generic arrangements (and indeed some of them may, in future, be shown to be wrong), but there is nothing that is not at least defensible on the basis of current evidence. Perhaps the thing that will surprise readers, though, is the split of Calidris into several genera, recreating several unfamiliar scientific names such as Pelidna alpina (Dunlin), Leimonites temminkii (Temminck’s Stint) and Ereunetes minutus (Little Stint), for example.

The text is in both English and German, and there are some typos in the English version. However, the typos are minor distractions from what is, in the end, a comprehensive and extremely useful reference work. There is no indication about how many volumes are planned, or the timescale for their publication – the fact that only one new volume is coming in 2012 suggests this is a long-term project. As a stand-alone book it is an impressive piece of work that will be essential for anyone with a specialist interest in the systematics of this group of birds.

Martin Collinson

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Birds are soaring above the economic downturn. When a recent poll asked the question: ‘Are you cutting back on feeding the birds this winter as a result of pressure on household budgets?’, it emerged that birds bring enjoyment that people cannot live without. Two thirds of respondents to the Omnibus poll fed birds in their garden and, of these, 88% said that they would not be making any cutbacks. Spending commitments of older (66+) garden bird enthusiasts were particularly robust.

The recent cold weather has also seen sales of bird food spike. Compared with mid January, total sales at Ernest Charles, for example, a leading mail-order bird food company, rose more than 70% over the past week. Latest figures from Gardman, one of Britain’s largest bird food suppliers, also show a sharp rise in bird food sales.

This increased spending has followed a huge influx of birds into gardens, charted through the simple, weekly observations of BTO Garden BirdWatch survey participants. Big rises in numbers of Fieldfares, Redwings, Blackbirds, Wrens, Bramblings and many other species have been noted over recent days.

Tim Harrison, BTO Garden BirdWatch, commented: ‘These resilient sales figures show the deep affection that people have for garden birds. This is why, as a country, we spend hundreds of millions of pounds on bird foods and feeders every year.’ For a free BTO Garden BirdWatch enquiry pack, email gbw@bto.org, tel. 01842 750050, or write to GBW, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU.

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- to trial a series of management measures, supplemented by interpretation and dissemination, which demonstrate the role of MPAs in delivering fully sustainable marine management;
- to demonstrate the relationship between a fully functioning marine environment and the socio-economic stability of peripheral coastal communities;
- to meet a requirement of the Council of Europe in the form of a condition on the renewal of the Council of Europe Diploma for Fair Isle.

Wildlife tourism makes an essential contribution to the Fair Isle economy and the island residents are concerned about recent seabird trends and other signs of stress within the marine ecosystem, as much for the negative impact on the social and economic well-being of the community as for environmental reasons.

The Fair Isle MPA proposal is available at http://www.fairisle.org.uk/FIMETI/Reports/MPA/FAIR_ISLE_MPA_Proposal_Parts%20I&2_smaller.pdf

Nick Riddiford, Coordinator, FIMETI

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• June 7, 2011 -- Funds for Henderson Island rat eradication secured

The trial, which began in April 2011, pits the owners of three adjoining glass office buildings – Consilium Place Towers – against two environmental groups – Ecojustice and Ontario Nature. Those groups claim that the buildings, whose exterior faces are almost entirely glass, have been responsible for the deaths of about 7,000 birds in the last decade, making them the most deadly in the entire Greater Toronto area.

’Bird-friendly construction is a concept that builders in the USA are increasingly paying more attention to. San Francisco has passed a law mandating bird-friendly construction for certain buildings; so has Minnesota, and other local governments are considering them as well,’ said Dr Christine Sheppard, Bird Collisions Program Manager of American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the leading bird conservation organisation in the US.

Menkes Consilium Inc., Menkes Developments Ltd., and Menkes Property Management Services Ltd., along with three other companies, have been charged under Canada’s Environmental Protection Act with discharging a contaminant – light reflected from the glass – that causes harm to animals. In addition to possible fines under that law, the companies also face a maximum fine of $60,000 under the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act for causing birds to be in distress. The lawsuit followed lengthy, failed attempts to negotiate a settlement between the parties.

According to ABC, even small areas of glass can cause bird fatalities. The amount of glass in the built environment has been rapidly increasing, as new technologies make huge sheets of glass available for applications from home picture windows to skyscrapers. A study from 2006 estimated that 100,000,000 to a billion birds were killed by collisions annually, in the USA alone. It now seems likely that a billion may be an underestimate. As part of a national-level program to reduce the massive and growing number of bird deaths resulting from building collisions in the United States, ABC recently released American Bird Conservancy’s Bird-Friendly Building Designs.

http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/BirdFriendlyBuildingDesign.pdf

The 58-page publication contains over 110 photographs and 10 illustrations and focuses on both the causes of collisions and the solutions, with a comprehensive appendix on the biological science behind the issue.

Birds are killed when they try to fly to sky, trees or structures reflected in the glass’ mirror-like surface, or when they try to fly through what they perceive to be a tunnel through a building. Light emanating from a building or its landscaping at night attracts birds, further exacerbating the problem.

’Many of us have at one time or another, walked into a glass door, so we know how jarring that is to our bodies just at walking speed. Try to imagine hitting that same pane at 30 mph. It’s not surprising that so many bird collisions prove fatal,’ Sheppard said.

According to the Canadian non-profit group FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program), each year in Toronto, over one million birds are killed in collisions with building windows in the city, the majority during spring and fall migrations. Toronto is located in a major migratory bird corridor and as of January 2010, designs for new construction and significant renovation in Toronto must be bird-friendly.

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