Auction in Yorkshire will cast spotlight on extinction fate of once-abundant Passenger Pigeon

Most people are familiar with the sad fate of the Passenger Pigeon, an American species which is said to have gone from 2,000 million birds to extinction in little more than a couple of decade. In 2004, the disaster 'inspired sculptor' Chris Manley (who died two years ago) to create this striking  memento. One of twelve, it stands 39 cm high and is expected to fetch between £300 and £500 at a sale to be held by Tennants auctioneers, of Leyburn in North Yorkshire, on Saturday October 3.  

Starting in Yorkshire Dales, birders Sam West and Ade Edmondson return for new three-part TV series

The first episode of the second series of Sam and Ade Go Birding sees Sam West and Ade Edmondson  in the Yorkshire Dales where they watch hirundines and Swifts and listen to the dawn chorus. There is also a trip to Nidderdale in search of the Curlew, a long-legged, curve-beaked wading species that is declining as a breeding species in Britain. It is light-touch birding but the duo make engaging and  personable company. The programme - the first of three episodes - screens on Channel 5 TV at 7pm on Thursday October 1. 

                                                                   

Few places are as scenic as the Yorkshire Dales

                                                                 

Target species - the Curlew is in long-term breeding decline

          

                                                                  

Uncertain future for staff and customers of Scottish Highlands hotel long popular with Osprey-watchers

Front of the Nethybridge Hotel

AN uncertain future awaits a Scottish hotel popular with birders.

The Nethybridge Hotel is close to the huge Abernethy national  nature reserve and Loch Garten - home to Ospreys, Crested Tits, Crossbills, Capercaillies and more.

But it is one of eight hotels in the portfolio of  Strathmore Hotels Ltd which has entered administration as a result of  financial and other challenges.

On the plus side, all all eight continue to trade while the administrators, Interpath Advisory, seek to find a buyer either of the whole group or the hotels individually.

Other Scottish hotels in the East Kilbride-based group are the Alexandra Hotel and Ben Nevis Hotel and Leisure Club in Fort William, the Ben Wyvis Hotel in Strathpeffer, the Royal Hotel in Oban, the Salutation Hotel in Perth.

In England, Strathmore owns the Cairn Hotel in Harrogate, and the Cumbria in Grange-over-Sands.

In total, the group employs just over 400 staff.

Spacious and grand - inside the Nethybridge Hotel

Entrance to the famous Scottish Highlands nature reserve

The extraordinary lightness of Chinese bird art to be showcased at October auction in Hong Kong

                                                                                         

Chinese bird art is invariably very different from that seen in the west - with the artists often disinclined  to identify the species. There is invariably a light touch to the depictions as can be seen in some of those to be featured at a sale to be conducted by auction house Bonham's at their premises in Hong Kong on October 6. And note also the significance of the calligraphy. All the works pictured here are expected to fetch sums of four figures (in UK sterling) or more. 

    

2026 Wainwright Prize goes to Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane for their 'compendium', The Book of Birds

                   

The 2026  Wainwright Prize has been awarded to illustrator Jackie Morris and writer Robert Macfarlane for their The Book of Birds - described by publishers Penguin as a compendium of 49 species including  Yellowhammer, Cuckoo, Dunnock, Kestrel, Grey Wagtail and Avocet.                                                                  

                                                           

                                                            

                                                  

Captivating images of diving Gannet and perched Great Horned Owl take top honours in global competition

 

Congratulations to Henley Spiers for taking the title of Bird Photographer of 2026 and a £3,000 prize with his study of a Gannet diving for fish in the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the  award for Young Bird Photographer of The Year goes to 16-year-old Parham Pourahmad with his enchanting shot of a Great Horned Owl framed against  full moon.

Frontine birder Chris Galvin delights Grimsby RSPB Group with lively presentation on rare birds of the North-west

                                                   

Chris' superb study of a Leach's Petrel fluttering over the Mersey  

ESPECIALLY  at migration times, uncommon birds can turn up in the most unlikely of places.

Who, for instance, could ever expect to see a Wryneck feeding on the edge of a footpath leading to a Tesco hypermarket in Bolton, Lancashire?

Or a juvenile Dotterel resting on a seaside promenade and apparently oblivious to passers-by including joggers and pram-pushers?

These were  among absorbing experiences shared in an illustrated presentation to Grimsby RSPB by high-profile  birder Chris Galvin, a photographer  and tour guide whose global travels have taken him all over Britain, continental Europe, the United States, Asia and beyond.

He is also regional accounts manager for binoculars and scopes manufacturer Opticron (oh yes, and, like The Prime Minister, he supports Everton FC). 

Even his own modest-sized garden in urban Liverpool once attracted no fewer than four over-wintering Blackcaps, which were happy to feed on pyracantha berries.

Meanwhile, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrushes, Fieldfares and Redwings  are regularly attracted on snowy days in winter by windfalls from his apple tree.

And from this time of year until November, skeins of migrating Pink-footed Geese are regularly to be seen and heard overhead as he steps out of his front door. 

One species Chris reckons he can "never get enough of" is the Waxwing which he has occasionally seen - sometimes dozens at a time -  in a car park at B&Q store not far from home.

One such bird he snapped in October 2004 had a colour ring on its left leg, attached after having been trapped following its flight from Scandinavia across the North Sea to Aberdeenshire. 

Later that winter, this  same bird was to be spotted again - first In Exeter, Devon, then in Arras in northern France.

                                          

Chris Galvin - lover of Waxwings

Some birders in the north-west lament that that their patch of the UK  seldom shares the benefits of drift migration that regularly brings vagrant passerines to the East Coast of Britain.

But are their woes justified? Not based on Chris' portfolio which includes fabulous shots of  such rarities as Woodchat Shrike, Bluethroat, Rose-coloured Starling, Pallas' Warbler (the so-called "seven-striped sprite")  and Booted Warbler, all seen within relatively short driving distance from his home.

Another highlight of Chris' long birding career, which began in his early teens, was one spring visit to Seaforth Nature Reserve where, feeding alongside Dunlin, was none other than a breeding-plumaged Wilson's Phalarope which, in normal circumstances, should have been on some wetland in Texas.

Three days later at the same spot, what should turn up but an even rarer White-tailed Lapwing that, by rights,  probably should have been in Kazakhstan!

"How much better than that could things be!" enthused Chris who, to this day, gets as much pleasure as birding his own patch as he does travelling to more exotic overseas locations.

Chris revealed that he had once been paid as much as £3,000 for one of his photographs - a Common Tern feeding a small fish to its mate. This more than justified his expenditure of £2,000, just a few days earlier, on the high-definition lens with which he had captured the shot.

Yet he seemed even more proud of his flight study of a Leach's Petrel which editor Roger Riddington put on the front cover of the November 2008 edition of the prestigious monthly journal, British Birds 

Leach's Petrel is something of an autumn migration speciality at the mouth of the Mersey but you have to be prepared to face Force 8 north-west squalls for the best prospects of sightings of the birds as they are blown towards shore.

Chris is a super-knowledgeable and observes birds, including common ones, in closest detail - but he wears his expertise lightly.

Among the most intriguing sections of his presentation were those where he explored the finer plumage details of birds such as Lesser Scaup and five gulls species - Little, Mediterranean,  Sabine's, Laughing and Ross's.

Are there any downsides to birding? 

Chris was not best impressed when he came across birders feeding scraps of stale bread to an Iceland Gull at one beachside location, nor when he discovered that fellow-photographers (who should have known better) had caused a pair of Long-tailed Tits to desert after they had cut away an ivy branch to enhance the view of their nest.

"That made my blood boil," said Chris who said he seldom took nest shots for fear of sparking  similarly unhappy consequences.

As you would expect from a Liverpudlian, Chris peppered his talk with humour - not infrequently at his own expense.

Early is his talk, he recalled one slightly discomforting Sunday-morning encounter with a couple of traffic bobbies after he had pulled up on  double yellow lines on a dual carriageway near home for the purpose of  photographing feeding Fieldfares.

After a somewhat frosty 8.30am exchange of words, he agreed best to move on - after all, he had no wish to spend the rest of the weekend in police custody (nor  longer term in Strangeways prison).

In the question-and-answer at the end of his talk, he described one unforgettably miserable May morning experience when he climbed Pendle Hill in Lancashire in what proved to be fruitless quest to find a trip of resting  Dotterel.

A heavy raid-laden mist engulfed him, such that he was totally drenched from head to toe by the time he returned to his car.

"I stripped off all my clothing, turned the heater on full blast and drove the whole way home just wearing my boxer shorts," he recalled with a rueful chuckle.

This was the 40th birthday meeting of the RSPB and the evening also included a video message of congratulation from TV wildlife presenter Iolo Williams, a roll call of early officers of the group, some of whom were present,  and the distribution of slices of a birthday cake ceremonially cut by Malcolm Crawford, the group's first treasurer.

To conclude, RSPB Grimsby Group leader Martin Francis thanked the 50 or so present  for a most enjoyable evening.