British Birding Association

Just finalising details of this year’s March Israel trip. If we book within the next week, the tour price will be £481 each, fully inclusive of flights, car hire, etc.

Additional to this will be accommodation charges (last year £75 per week in Eilat - 2 sharing), food, any reserve access charges, airport parking, taxis

This will be a FULL Israel tour, taking in Mount Hermon and Hula reserve in the north, the Long-billed Pipit sites, Dead Sea coast, Eilat area and the Negev Desert

About 200 species should be seen, including most specialities, some wintering birds, masses of migrants, seabirds, waders (please ask if specific species required)

Tags: twitcher, bird finder, bird books

Less than ten months after the end of the year, the 2006 Fair Isle Bird Observatory Report landed on my desk this week - one of only a few 2006 bird reports thus far published. Once again, it is a bumper edition, at 160 pages long. A total of 204 species were recorded on the ‘Magic Isle’ in 2006 including one addition - North American Black Duck, whilst other highlights included Eurasian Scops Owl and Blyth’s Pipit. As ever, the daily log recorded the numbers and dates of all migrants, continuing the island’s invaluable 60 year database. The Fair Isle seabirds had a much better year than of late, with a record population of Great Skuas as well as more than 800 pairs of Arctic Terns.

Tags: bird reports, rare birds, scarce birds

Keith Vinicombe has very kindly provided the most recent information regarding Ruddy Shelduck status in NW Europe and further east (although 2007 statistics from Holland and Switzerland are eagerly awaited).

KEV is a prime advisor to the UK400 Club on vagrant wildfowl occurrencies in Britain and his eticulous work has been very much appreciated over the past 30 years. Together,  we have carefully vetted all of the records and the UK400 Club treatment is aresult of his extensive studies.

Tags: twitchers, twitching, birding reports

With the addition of LEAST SANDPIPER (juvenile photographed at Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, on 13th October) and North American WILSON’S SNIPE (on Lower Moors Pool, St Mary’s, Scilly) on 11th to at least 15th October), the total number of species now recorded in Britain and Ireland in 2007 has reached a remarkable 427 species, equalling the previous record high achieved only last year.

Tags: birds, bird finder, rare birds

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Friday 12th October 2007, issued at 2200 hours, and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers (www.rarebirdalert.com) and utilising information gathered from local email groups, regional Birdlines, Birdguides and individual observers.

A North American WILSON’S SNIPE is present for a second day at Lower Moors, St Mary’s (Isles of Scilly), showing intermittently in front of the two hides (mornings seem best). The bird is a well-marked individual and has been excellently photographed (see James Lidster’s images on the RBA website) and represents the latest in a line of records from this archipelago.

Tags: bird books, scarce birds, bird reports

A string of recent sightings of one of South America’s most unusual and secretive birds is giving conservationists hope in regional efforts to save crucial habitat for this and other threatened species.Having not been seen for over 40 years, hope was fading for Recurve-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii. However, successive sightings from Venezuela in 2004 and then Colombia in 2005 and 2007, have led to renewed efforts to understand the distribution of a bird feared extinct by many. With a distinctive up-turned bill, this species gives the impression of having an enigmatic smile; however, it has evolved to rip open bamboo and small twigs to search for arthropods.

Tags: scarce birds, bird reports, bird information

The next generation of conservationists are being sought as part of a global awards scheme giving young people an opportunity to get involved in the conservation of some of world’s most threatened species - many of them in BirdLife Partner countries and territories.

The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP, formerly the BP Conservation Programme) are asking for applications for their Future Conservationist Awards 2008, seeking project ideas from teams of young people with an aim to develop their skills through a practical conservation project.

Award-winning teams will be eligible to receive up to $12,500 worth of funding, with priority given to the highest quality applications.

Tags: birding reports, birding guide, birding

DO YOU WANT TO SEE THEM LIKE THAT ?

The Catalan Government is trying to legalize hunting birds with glue, through a new regulation.

This cruel method is specifically banned by the European laws because is also massive, non-selective and impossible to control properly.

In the name of “tradition” the hunters use electronic appeals and hundreds of thousands of thrush migrating from northern Europe, and about 30% of protected birds, are attracted to glued trees, in closed “barracas”, and killed in the Ebro area between October and November.

Tags: birding holidays, bird finder, birding guide

Birdline East Anglia bird news for August 2007 by Robin Chittenden

It has been a record year for the number of Squacco Herons seen in the UK. The fourth for East Anglia this year was found at Earith GPs in Cambridgeshire 11th-20th. This site is not to be confused with Erith Marshes in London where one was seen this spring. For details of the others have a look at www.birdnews.co.uk

A juvenile Marbled Duck having arrived took a little while to settle down. It was first found at Cantley sugar beet factory lagoons 19th-21st then jumped to Suffolk between Dingle Marshes RSPB, Minsmere RSPB and Normanston Park at Leathes Ham in Lowestoft, where it settled down 24th-31st at least.

Tags: twitcher, twitching, scarce birds

PANEL OF ADVISORS

All matters of identification, taxonomy and occurrence of rare birds is adjudicated upon by the British Birding Association and reported in assorted publications and published. LGRE relies heavily on the wide range of expertise provided by the Panel of Advisors for any decision made by the organisation.

Tags: birding guide, birding tours, twitching