Christmas photography

A brief trip for Christmas took me to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Here are the first images from the early morning sessions:

State of birds in Spain 2012

The end of the year is the time for reporting. After Great Britain and Bulgaria, Spain also published a report on the state of its birds.

The report covers all the monitoring schemes of the Spanish BirdLife Partner - SEO. These schemes are Sacre programme (bird trends in spring), Sacin programme (Bird trends in winter), Sacre / Sacin (Common bird trends in National Parks), Noctua programme (Nocturnal bird trends), Paser programme (Bird ringing in spring), Birds and climate (Bird phenology), Migra programme (Bird migration), Census (Bird population size), Waterbirds (Census of aquatic birds in winter), Atlas in winter / Atlas in spring (Bird distribution).

Here it is:

You can download the report from here.

New report on the state of common birds in Bulgaria published today

Bulgarian society for the protection of birds released a new report today. It features the trends of common birds in the country for nine year period 2005-2013. Some of the birds in decline are Lesser grey Shrike, House sparrow, Goldfinch and Quail. The report is both in bulgarian and english so feel free to download it and read it.

The state of UK's birds 2013: new report published

The latest State of the UK’s Birds report is published today, revealing that many of our most familiar countryside birds are undergoing plummeting populations.

A lovely addition to the new report is the data from the recently published Atlas of breeding birds in the UK and Ireland that features the trends in birds' distribution range.

Here are some of the worrying negative trends:

• Willow Tit has declined by 82 per cent since 1995 and halved its range over the last two decades;
• Turtle Dove endured a 95 per cent decline in numbers since 1995 and 51 per cent decline in range over the last 40 years;
• Common Cuckoo numbers have halved since 1995. Although its range has contracted by just eight per cent over the last 40 years, there are marked declines in abundance in the south and east of Britain;
• Whinchat has declined by 60 per cent since 1995 and by 48 per cent in range over the last 40 years;
• Starling's population has decreased by 53 per cent since 1995. The atlas reveals that its range has contracted by five per cent over the last 40 years with a steep decline in abundance in Britain;
• Wood Warbler underwent a 69 per cent decline since 1995 and range contraction of 34 per cent since the 1970s;
• Yellow Wagtail had a 45 per cent decline in numbers since 1995. The atlas reveals that the species' range has contracted by 32 per cent;
• Northern Lapwing suffered a 41 per cent population decline since 1995. The atlas reveals that their range has contracted by 18 per cent over the last 40 years, with the greatest losses in western Britain and Northern Ireland;
• Common Snipe's breeding range has shrunk by 31 per cent over the last 40 years;
• Grey Partridge has declined by 53 per cent since 1995 and range contracted by 40 per cent over the last 40 years;
• Corn Bunting has declined by 34 per cent since 1995. The atlas shows that the corn bunting’s distribution has contracted by 56 per cent over the last 40 years; and the species is now extinct in Ireland.