There is a German word, fernweh, which, according to the internet, literally translates to “farsickness,” but it is used to describe the feeling of being homesick for a place you have never been. For me, there are a few places I can think of that I yearn for – although I have never been. One […]
The outside temperature in the shade reads 47 degrees Celsius and I’m about to enter a hide to photograph birds. At times like these, I question my sanity. But I keep coming back for more. It was only two weeks ago that I was on a bleak moor on Shetland and now I wish that […]
As I have mentioned repeatedly over the past months, life this spring has gone topsy-turvy in central Mexico, as we experience what has certainly been one of our driest years in history. So it was with heart in hand that several of us drove one hour downhill to the town of Paso Ancho, to check […]
The Red-crowned Crane is listed as Vulnerable, with an estimated 3000 individuals in 2009. Some populations – especially the Hokkaido one – seem to be doing quite well. On Hokkaido, the number rose from 33 in 1952 to about 1200 now, with the bird presumably benefiting from its symbolic importance for Japanese culture and its […]
I’ve just returned from the Shetland Islands. You might be expecting me to start writing about the amazing colonies of Northern Gannets Morus bassanus or Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica, among others. But no, my story today is about the birds that come in to breed on the heather moorland which dominates the high ground. This […]
Seeing a Black-throated Laughingthrush at Nanhui was a surprise. I listed it on eBird – but my experience (and not only mine) is that the motto of eBird reviewers generally is “If I see it, it’s a vagrant – if you see it, it’s an escapee.” And so it turned out. The Black-winged Cuckooshrike […]
“You don’t like shorebirds?” my birding friend asked me in a tone of surprise, shock, and a tiny bit of horror. We had been talking about summer and I imagine that when she exclaimed happily, “Soon it will be time to go to the East Pond for shorebirds!” my face betrayed me. “I love shorebirds,” […]
“One sunny morning a few months ago, as I stood on a mountain slope among bracken, ling, and furze, and scattered masses of grey rock, watching a small party of grouse near me, it struck me that I had never looked on a more beautiful creature than this bird: – so finely shaped and richly […]
As I write these lines, I am excited and preparing for the start of a Calpe Conference here in Gibraltar. We have been organizing these events annually since 1997 and the conference, which starts on Thursday 4th July, carries the title that I have chosen for this article. “Islands in the Sun” is about Macaronesia, […]
As names go, the Parque Natural Hoces del Alto Ebro y Rudrón isn’t the snappiest. It’s a spectacular area of deep gorges in Northern Spain where the Rivers Ebro and Rudrón have, over millions of years, cut their way deep into the limestone, forming a series of impressive steep-sided canyons (hoces) and gorges, with narrow, […]
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