'A great destroyer of chickens.' Author and illustrator did no favours to the reputation of the Red Kite

  

Coloured engraving of a Red Kite in Albin's book 

VERY few birders will have heard of  Eleazar Albin but, as both writer and artist,  he was one of ornithology's pioneers.

Thought to have been born in Germany in 1680 and to have spent part of his childhood in Jamaica, he then  lived most of his adult life in Piccadilly, Central London.

His chief interest seems to have been in painting studies of spiders and insects, but he was also the author and illustrator - possibly assisted by his daughter, Elizabeth - of A Natural History of Birds which was published in instalments between 1731-38.

The text concentrates mainly on the plumage and anatomy of  his chosen species, but unfortunately his narrative offers no clue to the extent of their distribution.

For instance, in his account of the Red Kite, he offers no clue as to whether persecution was, even in his time, leading to its decline.

However, he probably contributed to their unpopularity by writing: "They are a great destroyer of chickens, ducklings and goslings, being so so bold as to come and take them out of the gardens or courtyards of houses."

                                    

               From the same book: Kestrel (above) and Sparrowhawk 

                                   

                                   

           

Annual county bird report casts spotlight on importance of Lincolnshire's military airfields to breeding Curlews

                                          

Wayne Gillatt's handsome study of a juvenile Goshawk in a North Lincolnshire woodland graces the front cover of the 2024 Lincolnshire Bird Report which has just been published   

THE importance of  Ministry of Defence airfields  to breeding Curlews is explored in the recently-published 2024 Lincolnshire Bird Report.

A survey conducted by members of the Lincolnshire Bird Club and the RAF Ornithological Society - with support from the BTO and Natural England - put the number of  pairs in six airfields "in the order of  30 pairs".

By way of context, the total population of breeding Curlews in this large lowland county may number no more than 35 pairs.

The advantage of airfields as nesting habitat for ground-nesting birds is that perimeter fencing excludes foxes, dogs and unauthorised human visitors, thereby reducing disturbance.

On the downside, the birds - especially in flight - pose a potential collision risk, so historically they have been culled. 

More recently (as outlined in this new survey), their eggs have been taken from the nest and used in a captive rearing programme known as 'head-starting'.  

Says the survey's author, Phil Espin: "Without some kinds of intervention,  one has to wonder what the Lincolnshire Curlew population will be by 2030."

"One thing this survey shows is that the resilience and persistence of the species in the face of adversity.

"It has hung on here over the last century, and let us help it to continue to do so if we can."

Edited by county recorder Phil  Hyde, the bulk of the Lincolnshire Bird Report consists of a systematic list of the individual species recorded in 2024.

However, there is also space in the 240 pages - plus covers - for other fascinating features  such as one on probable breeding of Firecrests at a site in the north of the county and another on the first Black-faced Bunting to be recorded in the county.

The report can be purchased for £10, plus 2.80 post and packing from Bill Sterling, 5 Carlton Avenue, Healing, N.E. Lincs DN41 7PW.

The mouse that got away! Unusual study of kindly owl expected to fetch bids of £8,000-plus at West End auction

                                                                       

                                          

Entitled Bird of Prey With A Mouse, this unusual gouache-and-pencil painting by Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) is expected to fetch between £8,000 and £12,000  when it goes under the hammer at an auction of Modern British and Irish Art to be held by Bonhams at their saleroom in  New Bond Street, London next Wednesday, June 24.

Starring role for Swift campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor in penultimate episode of Jeremy Clarkson farming show

                                                                   

Jeremy Clarkson and Hannah Bourne-Taylor talk birds in a scene from the programme

AUTHOR Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who is best known for her high-profile campaigning for Swifts, has a main role in the penultimate episode of the last series of Clarkson's Farm on Amazon TV.

She helps him to track down - by sound - species such as Garden Warbler and Blackcap whose songs she likens to speeded up versions of Maria Carey.

There is also delight for her when, elsewhere,  she locates both Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer.

During the course of the series, Clarkson has become increasingly fascinated by  birds such that he is keen to encourage them - especially those, such as Skylarks, in decline because of changing farming practices (including those used on his farm).

At one point, Hannah finds herself at loggerheads with the presenter's farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, who is insistent on taking two silage crops per annum - a practice that is thought to be destructive to nesting larks many of whose eggs and chicks fall victim to the heavy duty grass-cutting machinery.

There is also a sequence where Clarkson engages the services of a drone operator with thermal camera in an attempt - unsuccessful - to locate by heat-spot potential nesting site for Skylarks.

The programme is fascinating but requires  a subscription to Amazon Prime  to be viewed on home TVs.

                                        

Delight for Hannah when she spots a Corn Bunting 

                                        

                                        

It should have flown away! Politician found it amusing when his off-the-lead dog killed goose in London park

                                        

Greylag Goose - common species in many parks

IF a senior politician allowed his off-the-lead dog to savage a goose to death, there would today be a public outcry.

But leaf back to April 6, 1996, when just such an incident occurred while Roy Hattersley, deputy leader of the Labour Party under Neil Kinnock, was walking Buster, his German Shepherd-Staffordshire bull terrier  cross, in London's St James Park.

In view of passers-by, Buster - an adoptee from the Brent Animal Centre  - seized a Greylag Goose in its jaws and killed it.

There was not a whisper of anger from anyone.

The incident was noted by police, and Hattersley, who died earlier this week aged 93, was subsequently prosecuted and  fined £75 by magistrates.

But later, he made light of the incident, expressing no regret and blaming the goose for not flying away.

Later, the politician made capital of the episode, referring to it in a book called Buster's Diary which sought to present a light-hearted dog's-eye view of life.

The section reads: "I was not alone in the rhododendrons for long.

"Suddenly a goose appeared.

"Geese are supposed to be frightened by dogs and fly away, but this one barely seemed to notice that I was there.

"It just fluttered its wings a bit and went on pecking the ground.

"Naturally, I was offended so I gave it a nip on the back of the neck.

"It waddled off and I went into my stalking mode, but, when it flopped over the fence between the park and the pond, I lost interest."

Some time later, Hattersley - and Buster - accepted an invitation to open a new police station in the same park.

                                  

The former politician regarded the incident as matter for humour

 

Chris Packham's 'barmy' parakeets documentary hits raucous note with newspaper's TV critic

LAST night's Channel 4 TV documentary, Invasion of The Parakeets,  did not best impress Anita Singh, the arts and entertainments editor of The Daily Telegraph.

What galled the critic was the apparent suggestion by presenter Chris Packham  that those who expressed dislike for the birds might be racist.

In today's edition of the paper, Ms Singh describes the programme as "a barmy documentary which draws a parallel between green parrots and asylum-seekers".

She continues: "Thankfully, the xenophobia argument took up only a small proportion of the documentary.

"Mainly, Packham wanted to provide us with evidence that the species isn't doing great harm either to native bird  populations or to crops."

She adds: "Racism claims aside the programme was quite jolly and even-handed."

Bygone birding: tame Puffin waddled about unmolested by cats and dogs which feared its 'tremendous' bill

                                              

The following is an extract from The Birds of Iona and Mull (1890) by Henry Davenport Graham.

As their mode of nesting differs from the Guillemot’s and Razorbill’s, Puffins are more local in their choice of breeding places. 

Many of the islands, however, provide suitable spots for them. Some, like Staffa, in holes and crannies of the rock.

Others are crowned by banks of soft, unctious soil, grown over with grass and sea-pink, which are honeycombed by burrows of the puffins which have inhabited them for generations and have reared their young within sound of the ceaseless roaring of the surf which ever rolls under the feet of the frightful overhanging crags. 

When intruded upon in these their dangerous haunts, they show little signs of timidity. 

The old birds remain sitting on their eggs, with their grotesque faces and formidable bills protruding from the doors of their holes, prepared to guard their nest and administer a most formidable bite to any intrusive fingers. 

Others continue flying uneasily past the intruders which they do in a very swift and undeviating line of flight, their wings vibrating with insect-like rapidity, their red legs and paws sticking out behind, wide spread in a most ungraceful fashion. 

They sweep past, close along the face of the cliff, within a few feet of the visitors; then, swooping out seaward, they make a circuit, and so pass and repass again and again. 

This they all do in the same direction (with or against the sun), and they never cease all the time you remain, giving the appearance of an aerial Puffin procession. 

They never, however, come actually over the land,so that though any amount may be shot, they all go whirling down the abyss into the ocean beneath where they may be picked up by your comrade in the boat. 

They are certainly the most eatable of their tribe, and, in St Kilda, form an important part of the islander’s sustenance. 

At Lochgilphead, I saw little of the Puffin, though they came early in May in thousands which scattered themselves over Loch Fyne, all disappearing by the end of the month. 

These were only a division of the grand army progressing north. 

At this time, I often observed them, towards evening, fly in small flocks right up Loch Gilp; then, reaching its head, they make a sweep round it and stand out to sea again. 

At this point, Loch Fyne branches out into two arms like the letter Y. 

One runs up 30 miles to Inveraray; the other, a truncated one only of three miles, now terminates at Lochgilphead, but before the pre-historic fall of the sea-level ran through Glen Crinan and joined the Western Ocean. 

Engineering has re-united it by means of the Crinan Canal, but it seems to me that the Puffin’s instinct forbids them to fly across the few intervening miles of dry land, and the attempts of these pioneering parties at discovering a north-west sea passage are futile, and so the great host must turn south again to double the Mull of Kintyre.

I have reared  young Puffins successfully.

One became very tame and attempted to follow me. He was unmolested by cats or dogs when he waddled about, as they had a proper respect for his tremendous bill.

 Before he entirely lost all his down, his appearance was, if possible, more comical, as a tuft adhered to his head like a chancellor’s wig.