FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

The dunlin is often a good sign of a well-managed peatland, but too few good sites remain (Dunlin by  Chris Gomersall ) From Dartmoor to the Peak District and from the North York Moors to the Lake District, England’s uplands are iconic landscapes that improve the environment, help combat climate change, provide havens for nature and benefits for people, such as clean drinking water. Nowhere is this statement more true than upland peatlands. But today a partnership of wildlife groups and industry is reminding government only four per cent of England’s upland peatlands are in good ‘ecological’ condition, and the remainder is not living up to its potential for providing homes for nature and combating climate change.

The  British Birds  Bird Photograph of the Year 2013 winners were as follows: BIRD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR 2013  Peregrine Falcons  Falco peregrinus,  Norwich, Norfolk, June 2012. (Canon EOS 5D III, Canon 400 mm f4 + 1.4x converter; 1/1250, f8, ISO 320.)  Steven Jefferson Here’s Simon winding up to hand out the prizes… (pic by Peter Baughan)

Here is the RSPB's report on bird crime in 2012 which includes accounts of individual offences against bird legislation. The full PDF can be viewed full screen, with larger text or zoomed in  here .

The recently-published  Bird Atlas 2007–11  has highlighted some very significant patterns and shifting trends in our bird populations over the past 20 years.  For all too many species these findings reveal declines and range contractions; however there are some positive stories too. One of the most remarkable of these has been the colonisation and subsequent spread of the  Little Egret .  As the atlas has shown, this elegant heron is now widespread and is frequently observed throughout the country both during the winter and breeding seasons.  It is therefore easy to forget that it was as recently as 1997 that the first ever nesting record was documented in Ireland, following the first British record the previous year!  These events followed on from a rapid expansion of the Iberian breeding population in the early nineties, and their arrival to these shores throws up all sorts of interesting questions, such as the speculation as to whether their colon...

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.

Eagle Owl (Belfast Telegraph - More info >> ) Vandals have damaged enclosures at an animal sanctuary in County Antrim, releasing birds of prey into the wild. It happened at the World of Owls Centre in Randalstown Forest. It houses 55 birds, 12 of which are now missing. There are fears the escaped birds could starve, as most of them have been raised in captivity and have never known life in the wild. Efforts are being made to locate the 12 missing birds and police are appealing for information. The netting on many of the enclosures has has been cut open and rolled back by vandals, allowing the birds to escape. The sanctuary is located in Randalstown Forest, County Antrim (BBC) After staff at World of Owls appealed for help on Tuesday afternoon, volunteers began to arrive at the sanctuary to mend the enclosures. However, sanctuary staff have warned the public that if they spot birds of prey in the area, no attempt should be made to captur...

Redwing (BTO) Thanks to the efforts of over 1,600 volunteers, our Winter Thrushes Survey covered more than 3,000 different locations in the first year of fieldwork. Over 12,500 visits were made overall, with Sussex hitting the top of the county leader board for core site visits.  Initital exploration of the data  suggest that winter thrushes switch from feeding in trees to ground feeding as the autumn progresses and that this switch may occur at different times for the different species. http://www.bto.org/news-events/news/2013-07/winter-thrushes-survey-update