FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

Common Scoters sleeping by   Graham Catley Of all the research projects carried out by RSPB Scotland, perhaps one of the most puzzling has been the case of a disappearing duck: the common scoter.

Feb 18th 2016, 16:00, by Roger Riddington A Yelkouan Shearwater  Puffinus yelkouan  seen off Berry Head, Devon, on 29th July 2008 has finally been accepted, and becomes the 600th bird on the British List.  The bird was seen by Mike Langman and Mark Darlaston while looking for a similar species, Balearic Shearwater  P .  mauretanicus . Balearic (above) and Yelkouan Shearwater (below), Castellon, Spain, December 2014. This side-by-side comparison reveals the larger size and bulky, pot-bellied structure of Balearic, and the slimmer, more attenuated appearance of Yelkouan. Pic by Victor Paris. The Yelkouan Shearwater breeds on islands and coastal cliffs in the Mediterranean Sea, mainly in the east. The majority of the Yelkouan population moves east outside the breeding season to winter in the Black Sea, but small numbers (presumably of the westernmost breeding birds) are known to move west and enter the North Atlantic to find food during ...

Puffin in flight  ( Chris Gomersall ) Excitement is building for the re-opening of one of Northern Ireland’s most iconic tourist destinations, the Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre. Rathlin Island is Northern Ireland’s only inhabited island and is also home to one of the UK’s largest seabird colonies.

It's unbelievable to think that, just a couple of decades ago,  Yellow-legged Gull  ( Larus michahellis ) was, for many, an irrelevant yellow-legged 'form' of our familiar  Herring Gull  encountered only while on holiday in the Mediterranean. Following its elevation to full specific status and the popularity of gull-watching dramatically increasing throughout the 2000s, the prominence of Yellow-legged Gull as a British bird has risen greatly to where it is today. Yellow-legged Gull is a regular non-breeding visitor across the bulk of England, with notable exceptions being the far north and northwest — Yorkshire is about as far north as the species is regularly seen, and it is particularly rare on the west coast north of Cheshire. It is rather scarce and localised in its appearance in Wales, while it remains a genuinely rare species in Scotland. Its strongholds in England are across the Midlands, East Anglia and the South-East, where it may appear in considerable ...

Kittiwake by   Grahame Madge Birds and Climate Change, a new book released today (July 1, 2014), shows that recent climate change has already had a significant impact on bird populations around the world. These impacts are projected to become much larger in the future, increasing the extinction risk for many species. However, the book gives reasons for cautious optimism. We have a window of opportunity to reduce the threat that climate change poses if action is taken now. To address this, we need to reduce the future amount of climate change. Increased use of renewable energy can help, although if not deployed carefully, it can also cause unintended but significant problems to many bird species. The other type of action is to adapt existing approaches used to counter threats to bird populations so that they also deal effectively with climate change.

Black-throated Diver by  Chris Gomersall A pioneering project to recreate ideal breeding habitat for one of Scotland’s rarest birds on some Scottish lochs has met with remarkable success. The black-throated diver, a species that only breeds in freshwater lochs in the north-west of the country, is benefitting from the scheme to create special floating rafts that provide the necessary conditions to breed and raise chicks.

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News, Valencia, Spain Guillemot eggs have special structures on their shells that make them self-cleaning, according to new research. Guillemot (BBC) The study began after scientists noticed the liquid-repelling properties of a batch of eggs that had water spilled onto them. Further analysis revealed tiny cone-shaped structures on the eggs' shells were responsible for this property. The findings were presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Valencia, Spain. Dr Steven Portugal from the Royal Veterinary College in London who conducted the research told BBC Nature that the project started with a "minor spillage" in the lab. "I accidentally spilled distilled water over a batch of eggs," Dr Portugal recalled. "And I noticed that the eggs from the guillemots stood out in terms of how the water droplets reacted on the surface. "They formed little droplets - th...

Bird Song & Call Identification : Listen to & identify bird songs, calls & sounds. Divers / Loons  (Gaviiformes)  - Divers / Loons Red-throated Loon   Gavia stellata Black-throated Loon   Gavia arctica Pacific Loon   Gavia pacifica Great Northern Loon   Gavia immer Yellow-billed Loon   Gavia adamsii

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