#SciFri: Birds and Us at the Linnean Society of London
On the evening of the 14th July last year, I attended a lecture at the Linnean Society of London being presented by Emeritus Professor Tim Birkhead. He has published a number of books in the past on various aspects of…
#SciFri: The wonders of dissecting owl pellets
Did you know that many birds such as owls produce pellets? Pellets are formed of all of the indigestible material they’ve consumed such as bones, teeth, feathers and fur. This is then compacted in the gizzard and regurgitated as a…
#SteveReviews: Birders
When it comes to conservation it is clear that nature doesn’t care about our geographic borders, after all they are only lines on a map. Most borders do not have a physical barrier to prevent the movement of animals or…
#SteveReviews: Dancing with the Birds
Netflix has taken a plunge into wildlife film making in recent times. Last year we had the moving Our Planet narrated by Sir David Attenborough but 2019 also gave us Dancing with the Birds (which is also produced by the…
#StevesLibrary: Cuckoo – Cheating by Nature
One of the last books I read was Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature written by the talented Nick Davies from the University of Cambridge. I’m not one to often read books about birds (I like to keep things nice and broad…
Visiting the Orokonui Ecosanctuary
Whilst visiting Dunedin for the World Congress of Herpetology, I was lucky enough to have visited the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. As you can probably guess by the name, it ecological wildlife reserve that has been developed by the Otago Natural History…
#StevesLibrary: The Feather Thief
First of all I must congratulate Kirk Wallace Johnson for writing such a thrilling true-crime narrative, that in truth is stranger than fiction. I’ve been aware of the Tring heist executed by Edwin Rist in 2009 for some while, thanks…