Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sonograms

So with Scottish trip next week I thought I'd look into Crossbills (que everyone giving up on this post)


I have a fairly basic microphone that I attach to my iPod touch and will spend at least sometime next week having a bit of a laugh and hopefully chasing round some Crossbills pointing it in their direction!


Quick bit of Internet research and Raven lite sonogram creator is being downloaded from here


5 Seconds of playing and I have manged to produce this from a Great Reed Warbler recording that I made using my iPod and microphone last year.




Just a shame the IQ 40 club haven't split Scottish Crossbill, oh no wait the BOU have. 

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Why I'm a Dude

3 Reasons Why I am a Dude.     


1. I have seen more thunbergi (Grey-headed) Wagtails (15+) than flavissima Yellow Wagtails 


2. I have seen as many Dartford Warblers, as Marmora's Warblers, 1 


3. I have seen as many Great Grey, as Lesser Grey Shrikes, 1 


And I have equally bad photos of each!


Shocking


Dude out.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Uni

A lovely essay I have to do this week...

  Why did Cresser et al. (2008) suggest that the N cycle might be regarded as being the heart of Gaia, and conclude that urbanization and sewage were more of a problem to sustainability than atmospheric N pollution?

If only it was.

Why has Spurn Bird Observatory only had 2 records of white-spot Bluethroat (L.s. cyanecula) and yet red-spot Bluethroat (L.s. svecica) is a scarce passage migrant?

or

Why did autumn 2010 produce record numbers of Lapland Bunting (Calcarius lapponicus) and what is the potential of some of these birds being of the ssp. subcalcaratus?

Oh thats it I'm doing environmental science not Ornithology of the British Isles!

subcalcaratus? Fair Isle September 2010





Saturday, March 19, 2011

Birdforum

Its when you read posts like this, it just makes you think whaaaaaaaaaaaa!


''Has anyone heard anymore about the rumours of the 3 GB's in the brecks or the TO calling in NE norfolk in the last week ?''


Great Bustard and Tengmalm's Owl?! 


Proper Megas! Okay so theres been about 104846 records of GB but not since 1987! 


Tengmalm's only a handful of modern record, suppressed Spurn record sticks out but last twitchable one was 1980.


Will the news of these birds break or are they just rumours?



Already said to Dad that if news comes out then we're going! Both species in a day?! We can all dream!




Or maybe he meant Tawny Owl...

Friday, March 18, 2011

Makes Spring Even More Exciting

''It was interesting, however, that despite initial appearances, the bird could be aged as a first-summer based on the pale edgings to the greater coverts and tertials and it is tempting to speculate that this was a bird that was displaced westwards in the previous autumn and survived the winter on this side of the Eurasian landmass. Whatever its exact route to Flamborough, BOURC members were unanimous in their belief that this was a genuine vagrant and that it should be admitted to category A of the British List''


Any guesses to the species involved?

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Bogeys

So at the moment my life list stands at 264, its BOU (apart from White Wagtail and Black Brant ticked back in the days when I didn't realise they weren’t full species but oh well, I'll pluck up the courage and delete them someday)
Last year, 2010, I managed an impressive 32 lifers manging to shift some of my biggest bogeys. 2011 is now here and so what bogeys need to fall this year?
Well Water Pipit, Nightingale and Ring-necked Parakeet are all obvious ones and so will be my top priorites to try to see those.
A well planned trip to Scotland at the end of March and I could see Ptarmigan, Black Grouse, Capercaillie, White-tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle and Crested Tit with Parrot and Scottish Crossbill as a long shot.
A couple of well timed trips to the East coast and I could see Yellow-browed Warbler and Red-backed Shrike along with a whole host of other possibilities that I won’t bore you with here.
Getting down to the LDV over the coming year a bit more and a bit of luck and I could see some quality birds and getting into Norfolk a bit more than last year (grand total of zero trips) could see Spoonbill and Dotterel fall.
Leach’s Petrel, Roseate Tern and Cirl Bunting are individual trips to known sites at the right time and maybe combine them with a twitch for another species.
Of course the best thing about birding is the unpredictability of it all. Who knows what I’ll see if I manage to get back to Fair Isle or somewhere new?!?!
If you would have told me this time last year that in the next year I would see Marmora’s Warbler, White-tailed Plover, Pallid Swift, American Robin, Pied-billed Grebe, Great Reed Warbler and Arctic Warbler I definatly wouldn’t have believed you! So who knows! Already seen Oriental Turtle Dove, didn't see that one coming!
Which kinda makes this post redundant but oh well.

Also the sharper eyed of you may have noticed some new pages up there at the top ^ let me know what you think of them.