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Celebrating a Waxwing Winter

10,000 Birds

A bird ringed near Helsinki, Finland, in October 1970 was found dead, 18 days later, in the Scottish west-coast town of Stranraer, a distance of 1,800km and a minimum speed of 100km per day. I’ve managed to see them, too, on their breeding grounds in Finland in summer. It’s when the rowan crop fails that they irrupt south.

Finland 208
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Horrible Hybrids

10,000 Birds

Further research revealed the Bird Hybrids blog ( [link] ) has several revealing photographs of this (and many other) hybrids. My most memorable encounter with a non-wildfowl hybrid was some years ago in Finland, when I was taken to a Blackgrouse lek where two c**k Racklehahns were present.

Geese 185
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What the rings reveal

10,000 Birds

Then it’s a matter of doing a little research on the internet to find who rang the bird you saw, and then emailing the details of your sighting. Once again I did my internet research and managed to contact the person who had ringed the gull. With luck you will get a speedy reply, telling you the bird’s history.

Lithuania 130
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Birding Shanghai in February 2023

10,000 Birds

I am not sure about the security situation in Iraq these days but at least some people do ornithological research there – resulting in papers such as one titled “Breeding observations of the Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus (Desfontaines , 1789) in Iraq” Impressive. If you want to signal to your environment that you a.

Iraq 130
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Birding Sweden on the Fly

10,000 Birds

In June of 2013 he embarked on a whirlwind tour of Europe, spotting birds in Iceland , Russia , Finland , and, as you’re about to find out, Sweden: We took a quick flight from Helsinki and arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, arriving at our fourth country on this trip. This is truly a bird-lovers dream-destination.

Sweden 165
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Champions of the Flyway – the Dakar Rally of Birding

10,000 Birds

Tristram believed that his specimen was the same bird and nobody thought any different until over a century later when researchers established that the newly-described species was about 10 percent different from that of the Hume’s owl , a surprisingly large genetic variation. As for the results of the race, it sure was a close one.

Israel 258
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Three Hokkaido Woodpeckers

10,000 Birds

Give researchers an expensive toy such as a Scanning Electron Microscope, and they will use it on anything at hand. One study found that “if the White-backed Woodpecker can be saved in Finland, a suite of threatened saproxylic beetles will most likely be saved as well.”