Over the last 15 years I’ve worked with some fantastic colleagues on the Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius. In the last few months two long-running components of that work have resulted in two recent publications. Back in 2007 we started a programme of work to help us understand the migration routes, stop-over sites [...]
During the coronavirus pandemic the number of people visiting the countryside has soared, and this has resulted in many instances of inappropriate behaviour, including littering, barbecues, inconsiderate parking and so on. Back in the summer I remember seeing various social media messages from many wildlife NGOs highlighting the potential damage that irresponsible visitors were [...]
Back in November Raptor Persecution UK posted an article about a product that Sainsbury’s were selling to their customers that potentially contained toxic lead. The packaging failed to mention that the product may contain toxic lead derived from ammunition – as is typical of such products, retailers more often than not mention the words [...]
Increasingly we live in a world where there is an expectation for things to happen in an instant and with minimal effort. We order our shopping online and it arrives the next day. If we have a question that needs answering, Google does it in seconds. Technology has revolutionised the speed and ease at [...]
Whilst out birding over the last week I’ve been pondering several things that all come back to Jays – bear with me….. I like Jays Garrulus glandarius – Garrulus meaning noisy or chattering and glandarius relates to acorns – an accurate scientific name indeed! I’ve had three above average visits to the Wanstead Park [...]
An excellent report by BirdLife International was launched earlier this week that highlights the number of birds that are legally killed through derogations under the Birds Directive. A key message from the report is that at least 14,000,000 birds have been legally killed between 2009-2017 across EU member states. That seems like a lot of birds, [...]
I came across this on social media and it looks like it could be a devastating piece of research. BirdLife International will soon be launching a report that shows that more than 14,000,000 birds have been legally killed across EU Member States (between 2009-17) thanks to the use of derogations to the Birds Directive. [...]
Last weekend was the Global Bird Weekend and it was an enormous success. More than 7240 different species of bird were recorded by almost 32,000 participants submitting just short of 77,000 checklists. In excess of £20,000 was raised for BirdLife International’s Campaign to Stop Illegal Bird Trade. Team Sociable Lapwing had a great weekend [...]
Yesterday, RPUK posted a blog containing a presentation by John Gregson to the GWCT’s Game 2020 conference - it is an excellent presentation and makes for compelling viewing. Much of what follows in this blog is taken directly from the presentation (hence the frequent mixing of grammar etc). John Gregson is the Communications Manager, [...]
For those Sociable Lapwings using the western route, upon departing Syria the next most likely stop is the north-west of Saudi Arabia. It has long been known that Sociable Lapwings migrate through Saudi en route to Africa (Sudan) during both the spring and autumn migrations. From our historical sightings database there are just three [...]
