MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist Articles
Merry Sol Invictus
2010-12-21 05:30:00 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Credit: Dan Rhoads / http://migration.wordpress.com Details: Taken 17-Feb-2007 in Ithaca NY (USA) Merry Sol Invictus and Happy holidays to you all, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Solstice, or something else. This is a very popular winter bird in North America, and I am American after all, so this choice ... More About: Birding
A universe not made for us
2010-12-20 05:30:00 Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a Cornell astronomy professor and author. Most significantly, in my mind, is his use of the image of Earth from the edge of the solar system, which is partially attributed to starting the modern environmental movement. Simply put, he helped us as humans rethink our place in the Universe . He also ... More About: Philosophy , Carl Sagan , Made
The Final BirdLife Cyprus Trapping Report for 2010 is here
2010-12-15 01:00:00 The report is out: Final Trapping Report Autumn 2010 from BirdLife Cyprus Summary: BirdLife Cyprus?s monitoring of illegal bird trapping activities continued into the 9th year with data gathered systematically in the field (31st August ? 8th November 2010) by a trained team of surveyors. All evidence of trapping was passed to the relevant enforcement ...
White Stork
2010-12-14 10:12:00 White Stork ????????????? Ciconia ciconia Credit: ŠJane Stylianou / Cyprus Birding Tours Details: October 9, 2010, in Meneou, Larnaca (Cyprus) Tagged: birds of Cyprus, photos More About: White
Birding the Divided Land
2010-12-10 21:10:00 My latest beat-writer post is up at 10,000 Birds: Birding the Divided Land Tagged: Cyprus
More anti-trapping efforts
2010-12-09 10:13:00 CYPRUS MAIL: Bases police seize more bird-trapping equipment — ANOTHER successful raid took place by the Dhekelia Sovereign Base police yesterday morning to confiscate anything concerned with the illegal poaching of Blackcaps (ambelopoulia) in the Xylofagou-Ormidhia area. ?Since August there have been almost daily campaigns to combat the illegal trapping of birds,? said Andreas Pitsillides, ...
Murder of Crows
2010-12-09 09:47:00 Have you ever noticed how clever some birds are – especially crows? They’ve long had a place in the myths and legends of many cultures as schemers or scavengers, wise or even godlike, bringers of light and bringers of death. Most often in Western cultures they are regarded as spooky or omenous, probably because we ... More About: Murder , Biophilia
Grey Hypocolios
2010-12-07 07:37:00 Grey Hypocolios Hypocolios ambelinus Credit: Stavros Christodoulides Taken: 05/12/2010, Cape Greco park This is one of those rare gems that birders drive for miles and miles to see. Last Friday (03/12/10), members of BirdLife Cyprus began hearing of a report of a Hypocolios that had been seen in Cape Greco. A very select group of ... More About: Grey , Birding
Poachers in the news
2010-12-01 10:55:00 CYPRUS MAIL: Poacher tries to run over game wardens — A 50-YEAR-old man tried to smash his car into three game wardens yesterday as they attempted to remove nets which he had placed to illegally capture blackcaps (ambelopoulia). The three game wardens and the man were transported to Nicosia General Hospital with minor injuries after ... More About: News , In the News , The News
Poaching in Afghanistan
2010-11-29 21:33:00 Just in case you needed another example of the harm that wildlife poaching can do, now we hear that Birds are disappearing from Afghanistan , leaving pests to flourish. Rahimullah’s frustration came from the awareness that he is fighting a losing battle against the mice and locusts which are destroying his crops. He has tried spraying ...
A Tale of Two Warblers
2010-11-28 09:34:00 My latest beat-writer post is up at 10,000 Birds: A Tale of Two Warblers Cyprus ? attractiveness to traveling birders is largely a result of its endemic species ? the Cyprus Warbler (Sylvia melanothorax) and the Cyprus Wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca). The whole of their populations breed only in Cyprus every year. Happily, they?re not difficult to ... More About: Biophilia
Sociable Lapwing migrations
2010-11-18 12:16:00 Johannes Kamp of RSPB’s International Research Team is busy tracking a Sociable Lapwing (Vanellus gregarius) named Dinara during her migration along the species’ eastern flyway. This is research of some significance, since the Sociable Lapwing is critically endangered, and findings could help designate Important Bird Areas (IBAs) where appropriate habitat can be preserved for this ...
Great Migrations in book form
2010-11-15 13:19:00 WASHINGTON (Aug. 16, 2010)?Whether they crawl, canter, fly or swim, millions of animals undertake epic journeys each year ? some as long as 44,000 miles. For countless species, migration is a dramatic, dangerous and crucial endeavor ? and it is arguably the greatest spectacle that nature orchestrates. The migration story ? what drives animals to ... More About: Great , Book , Biophilia
Plastic debris threatening Sea Turtles in the Mediterranean
2010-11-14 11:52:00 Plastic isn’t just a problem in the Pacific, apparently it’s a problem in the Mediterranean as well. Specifically, in the Adriatic between Greece and Italy. Researchers report having found in a recent study, published in the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, that one in three Loggerhead turtles in the Adriatic Sea has plastic in its ... More About: Conservation , Turtles , Plastic
Ambelopoulia: A problem for Europe
2010-11-12 22:04:00 My latest beat-writer post is up at 10,000 Birds: Why Ambelopoulia is a problem for Europe Tagged: Ambelopoulia, Cyprus More About: Problem
Talking Naturally podcast
2010-11-09 14:08:00 Charlie Moores has posted his interview with me on the Talking Naturally podcast, for those interested in hearing my dulcet tones. I’m a bit flattered by being interviewed really, and only hope that listeners liked it. Tagged: podcast More About: Podcast
Mid-term Trapping Results
2010-11-08 09:36:00 BirdLife Cyprus and Terra Cypria have released the “mid-term” bird trapping report, letting us know that Cypriots are on track to trap over 2 million birds for Ambelopoulia. Although the police have begun routine patrols the trappers continue criminal activities unhidden and in broad daylight even, knowing that even if caught, the penalties are meaningless ... More About: Results
?Hunting the hunters?
2010-11-07 12:17:00 In the Cyprus Mail: Hunting the hunters — THEY say ?the early bird catches the worm? but what they don?t tell you is how early you have to be up to catch the bird. And, as I discovered last Saturday, you have to be up even earlier to catch the bird-hunter. This was the first ...
Restoring Mesopotamia
2010-11-05 16:14:00 There are some places in the world that are hotspots of biodiversity, providing habitat for an amazing number of plant and animal species. Indigenous people of such regions depend on these areas for their livelihoods, and even for city-dwellers these places provide clean air and water as well as natural beauty. One of these hotspots ...
Bearded Reedling
2010-11-01 09:01:00 Bearded Reedling (alternatively, Bearded Tit or Bearded Parrotbill) ?????????????????? (Panurus biarmicus) Credit: Wolfram Riech / wolframs-naturfotos.de There was a major twitch this weekend, which was also a lifer for me. Bearded Tit has only been seen 9 times previously since 1994 in Cyprus, the last time being in 2004. To make it even better, it ...
Visit me on 10,000 Birds
2010-10-29 19:10:00 My first post for 10,000 Birds is up… Don’t get your flyways crossed. Here’s a taste: What corner of the globe is Cyprus tucked away in? I?m sure a lot of people don?t know. Well, for the uninitiated, Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, in the far northeastern corner by Turkey and ... More About: Biophilia
Martin Hellicar interview on Talking Naturally
2010-10-29 15:35:00 Charlie talks with Martin Hellicar, Campaigns Manager for BirdLife Cyprus. Martin has been working with BLC since 2003 and is a tireless advocate for Cypriot birds. Among his concerns is the huge and illegal slaughter of birds (mainly Blackcaps Sylvia atricapilla ? in 2009 some 3/4 million Blackcaps were sold for ?5 each) for a local (and illegal) ... More About: Interview , Talking
State of the World?s Vertebrates
2010-10-27 21:51:00 Published in Science Magazine: The Impact of Conservation on the Status of the World ?s Vertebrates: Using data for 25,780 species categorized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, we present an assessment of the status of the world?s vertebrates. One-fifth of species are classified as Threatened, and we show that this ... More About: The World , State
Lesser Kestrel
2010-10-27 07:34:00 Lesser Kestrel ????????? (Falco naumanni) Credit: Chris Gomersall / naturepl.com The Lesser Kestrel is a Vulnerable species across its range and especially in its Eastern European breeding range. It’s also very similar to the Common or Eurasian Kestrel in appearance, even though genetic analyses show that the two are not closely related members of the ...
10,000 Important Bird Areas on one map
2010-10-25 17:42:00 The world’s key sites for conservation, on one map: Bird Life has published a map showing the location of over 10,000 of the world?s most important sites for birds and biodiversity, and their protection status. The map, to be presented for the first time at COP-10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, shows ...
Cyprus Grass Snake
2010-10-25 08:31:00 Reported by early taxonomists to be common in Cyprus , the endemic subspecies Cyprus Grass Snake (Natrix natrix cypriaca) was thought to have been driven extinct by 1960. Only in 1992 were a small number rediscovered, localized to a small number of streams and dams where its main food source – frogs – are also found. ...
Great Migrations
2010-10-23 08:46:00 Reposted from Christy Wilcox’s Observations of a Nerd, just because it looks so good. On November 7th, National Geographic Channel airs the first of a seven-hour spectacle called Great Migrations. The series takes us on the paths of the world’s most epic wanderers, from the small and delicate butterflies which travel thousands of miles from ...
Rounding up the poachers
2010-10-20 15:46:00 Yesterday the Cyprus Mail reported that the Game Fund authorities arrested one man for bird trapping. Only one. It sounds as though this one guy just had a bad day and was stumbled upon by the one Game Fund patrol for the year. I don’t know what else to make of it: BirdLife Cyprus staffers ...
Keys to quick bird identification
2010-10-17 13:17:00 Via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Many people are always amazed that we birders can so very quickly recognize a bird species. A glimpse of movement, darting across the path, is often all we need. The secret is easy: each species has it’s own distinctive profile (its size and shape). The bird’s voice, habitat, ... More About: Quick , Birding , Bird
Photos from Malta
More articles from this author:2010-10-15 14:05:00 BIRDLIFE MALTA — BirdLife office inundated with shot protected birds and illegal hunting reports: This Barn Swallow was last Monday recovered shot from Rabat and handed over to the ALE for rehabilitation. Photo by Paul Webb. Following an influx of falcons and kestrels, this Common Kestrel was recovered with severe gunshot injuries from Bahrija on ... More About: Photos , Conservation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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