It's Green, not Great Spotted! Auction house changes woodpecker identification just hours before sale

Name that species! The bronze artwork

AN auction house re-identified a woodpecker species after being alerted to its mistake by this blog.

Salisbury-based  Woolley and Wallis at first remained insistent that a bronze sculpture by Geffrey Dashwood depicted a Great Spotted Woodpecker rather than a Green Woodpecker as claimed by The Wryneck.

But just hours before the sale on June 2, the firm acknowledged its lapse and changed the ID of Lot 332 to Green Woodpecker which is a scarcer species.

In the event, the  piece - which  measures 19.2cm x 11.2cm x 6.2cm - sold for a handsome £3,810.

This was an excellent result for both auction house and sculptor because the pre-sale guide price was that the hammer would fall at somewhere between £2,000 and £3,000. 

Message from new Scottish Highlands movie: 'even a bad day in nature is better than a good day in the office'

 

Glad to be in the great (and wild) outdoors - Chris (Bart Harder) and Lluis (Carles Pulido)

                                       

ANYONE who enjoys birding in wild landscapes will warm to The North, a film that  is currently  being screened in some UK cinemas before its release in the United States this September.

The star of the film is Nature - particularly the Highland Way and the Cape Wrath Trail in the Scottish Highlands.

The action follows two old pals, Chris and Lluis, on their trek in mostly challenging conditions as they reconnect with one another, not always happily.

But considering the majestically scenic backdrop, it is perhaps surprising that birds seldom feature.

We have to wait for an hour into the movie before the first - a Great Spotted Woodpecker - is heard drumming.

Later to be  heard are, for instance,  Long-tailed  Tit, Song Thrush, Carrion Crow and Redshank, but is not until near the end before we see action in the form of swooping Herring Gulls and Arctic Terns plus, distantly,  a couple of shorebirds, possibly Sanderling, Ringed Plover or Knot.

There are no soaring Golden Eagles - that would be too simplistic for director Bart Schrijver - but perhaps sightings of a few Curlew might not have come amiss.

This is an excellent film which seeks to remind its audience that, as one of the minor characters declares: "There is nothing like a long walk in nature to bring out the truth in you."

Cast and crew take a breather from filming 

Filming in Milnavie at the start of the walk 

The majesty of the Scottish Highlands

Chris tries to catch a glimpse of the drumming woodpecker

Filming on the  beach at Cape Wrath as the action draws to its  close

Bumper grant announced to conserve and protect habitats on vital cross-border migration route

 

White Storks on the move along the African-Eurasian Flyway - photo: BirdLife International

BIRDLIFE International has this week welcomed a £7.5-million grant towards habitat restoration and protection work in Romania, Bulgaria, Iraq, Jordan, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Over three years, the money will be allocated along the migration route known as the African-Eurasian Flyway.

Says BirdLife International's chief executive, Martin Harper: "This grant is a major milestone in our efforts to unite and strengthen conservation across borders.

"Working with our 80 partners on the African-Eurasian Flyway route, we are keen to ensure that an ecologically coherent network of sites is protected, managed and restored to make sure that birds can fly free from harm. 

" We will do this by mobilising finance, restoring critical habitats and ensuring new infrastructure is safe for nature."

 We are incredibly grateful to ERF for supporting our ambition of a world where migratory bird populations are thriving, connecting and inspiring people across countries and continents."

 

The monies are coming from an organisation known as the Ecological Restoration Fund.

RSPB announces two Scottish island acquisitions to expand its portfolio of 200-plus reserves

                                 

The RSPB today announced that it had acquired two seabird-rich islands off the East Coast of Scotland. Bass Rock (above)  is famous for its huge colony of nesting Gannets, while Craigleith Island (below) is where thousands of Puffins breed each year. The society has not disclosed how much it paid for the two islands but is has thanked the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, plus various individual donors, for their contributions. The vendor of both islands is Sir Hugh Dalrymple. Pictures: RSPB.

                                                              

How to encourage Western Reef Herons to roost in North Wales - plant plenty of coconut trees!

                                                    

Western Reef Heron - this slate-grey morph example was snapped in Bahrain by Charles J. Sharp - photo via Wikimedia Commons 

IT is not quite clear whether it is  Simon Hugheston-Roberts or Lewi Burgess who takes the honours for having detected Britain's first Western Reef Heron at the weekend.

Some might fancifully describe  the moment as  the ornithological equivalent of being the first man on Mars.

The bird was firstly seen feeding in  Foryd Bay, Caernarfonshire, then in nearby Caernarfon in the shadow of the castle.

Since then it has been watched by hundreds of twitchers whose arrival has brought a boost to the local tourist industry including hotels, guesthouses, pubs and restaurants. 

With no historic British ornithological literature to provide context, description and perspective, where better to turn to than an article in the 1987 edition of the  journal of the Bombay Natural History Society whose authors focus on the bird's habitats in Western India?

The authors write: "The Pithalpur colony located in an agricultural farm  was the biggest colony in this area. 

"The farm comprised of a farm house, couple of barns and a crop field and had about 250 coconut trees  planted on its border. 

"The farmer told us that they first nested in the farm in 1978, and since then they have been nesting every year. 

"During one of our visits in winter we found that many reef herons were roosting on the same coconut trees. 

"Because of the birds’ nesting and roosting activities, there was considerable loss of flowers and young coconuts. 

"The coconuts were also damaged by the birds’ excreta dropping on them.

"We saw that the birds’ excreta had dripped down the surface of most of the coconut fruits. 

"The farm owner estimated that he lost about 50 per cent of his coconut crop every year because of the herons.

"Despite the heavy loss of income, the farmer and his family tolerated the birds and did not molest them in any way. 

"The herons and their broods on top of the tall coconut trees were almost free from predation."

The sharp-eyed authors, R.M. Naik and B.M. Parasharya, continue:  "At another location,  New Port,  we found the biggest concentration of the nesting Reef Herons

"The port area is fenced  and human entry to it is severely restricted. 

"The area includes docks, warehouses, administrative and office buildings but no residential quarters. 

"The birds nested on Mangroves, Peepul, Peeper, Tamarind, Casuarina, Mesquites  and Portia trees growing on the roadsides close to  buildings 

"Although most of the herons' nests were low and the port area was buzzing with activities during certain hours, the herons remained apparently undisturbed.

"The birds would readily come down from the nesting tree to the ground to pick up nest material. 

"They were actively protected by the dock workers and no one would dare to molest them. 

"The dock workers had even nursed a large number of herons that were stunned by shock and cold during the cyclone which hit Saurashtra in November 1982. 

"Occasional predation of the herons' eggs and chicks by the domestic cat and the House Crow occurred.

"White Ibis was a serious competitor of the herons for the nesting sites. 

"The ibis came into breeding condition later than the herons and occupied the heron nests after ejecting the nest contents. 

"The ibis, however, preferred to nest on top of the tall trees, so that the heron nests built lower in the same trees, and also those on short trees, were not affected. 

"Another reason for the success of the New Port colony is that the nesting birds had rich and extensive feeding grounds available close to the colony. 

"During the low tide, the mudflats, except the channel dredged for an approach of ships to dock, became exposed almost up to the horizon, and birds avidly fed on the mudskippers and other fish from the mudflats and tidal pools."

But back to the star visitor to Wales. 

It will be a while before the record is confirmed by the various  authorities pending which time there is always a chance that some spoilsport will deem the Western Reef Heron to be a sub-species of the Little Egret with which it sometimes hybridises.

                                  

Caernarfon Harbour and Castle - photo A.J. Marshall via Wikimedia Commons

Delightful painting of water-feeding birds sells for more than double pre-sale estimate at Salisbury auction

                                                  

Seaby's study was one of star Lots in Salisbury auction

THIS unframed watercolour-on-linen, said to be of two Water Pipits, sold for more than double the highest estimate at an auction held earlier this month by Salisbury-based Woolley and Wallis.

Including the buyer's premium, the price achieved was £610 compared with a pre-sale estimate of £200 and £300.

The artist was Allen William Seaby (1867-1953), best known as an ornithological painter and printmaker who was also professor of fine art at the University of Reading.

It was he, too, who provided the illustrations for two Ladybird books - British Birds and Their Nests (1953) and A Second Book of British Birds and Their Nests (1954).

Seaby was the grandfather of another wildlife illustrator who became even more celebrated - Robert Gillmor.

Flamingoes and other wildlife under threat from Albanian tourism development backed by country's premier

Residents in Albania  have taken to the streets of the capital, Tirana, to protest against a  £1.2-billion luxury tourism development that  will destroy precious wildlife habitat including the Narta Lagoon area on the western coast which is home to Flamingoes and well over a hundred other bird species, many of them rare. Foreign investors, including President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, are understood to be involved with the venture which also has the backing of Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama. 

*Photo: PPNEA (The Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania)