Bulgaria publishes its results on the state of common birds for 2012.

A recent bulletin published by the Bulgarian society for the protection of birds announces summarised trends for the trend categories of common birds for the period 2005-2012.

The publication is in Bulgarian only. Feel free to download and distribute:

State of Canada's birds

A superb publication features the state of Canada's birds. You can download it from here:

http://www.stateofcanadasbirds.org/

Unpacking Bird Atlas 2007-11

BTO published a new Atlas of breeding birds in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Unprecedented work!

"...the magnificent new atlas of British and Irish birds is the most riveting bird book produced in Britain for years".

Mike McCarthy, The Independent

Visit to Latvia

New trip is on its way. This time it is outside Bulgaria. I will be visiting Latvia to meet with colleagues who want to start a new training scheme on bird identification based on a methodology developed by the Nord Trondelag University College in Norway (HiNT). The training aims to increase the number of skillful volunteers in the local breeding bird survey.

Two intense days of discussions and ... birdwatching are coming up. We shall be debating about the process of students recruitment, training implementation, sites selection etc. The discussions will be in the area of lake Engure - rich in birds Ramsar listed area where we are going to be based.

Recently I prepared a report that contains the results from a recent training in Bulgaria. The report will be used as a guideline to other countries willing to undertake identical programmes. Building upon the experience we had in Bulgaria our Latvian colleagues will aim to improve their bird monitoring scheme.

This training is a part of initiatives that I conduct as a part of my professional duties. If interested in implementing a training on bird id in your country please do not hesitate to contact me.

Will report on the meeting outcome and the birdwatching results in later posts.

New paper in Nature advices policy makers

A recent paper published in Nature magazine gives useful advice to policy makers on interpreting conclusions of scientists. It is well known that policy makers and scientists don't quite understand each other. This paper published by Bill Sutherland, a prominent professor by Cambridge university, and colleagues, gives some insight to the topic. The authors have given 20 concepts to policy makers and non-scientists about interpretation of scientific conclusions.

The paper is expected to facilitate the dialogue between the mentioned parties.

You can view and download the paper as a pdf from here.

Snow Bunting observation

The past weekend was pretty quiet for most of its part. General domestic things dominated. However on the Sunday afternoon I went out for a walk to a reservoir not far from Sofia. It is called Ognyanovo.

The road to the place was pretty quiet but a nice flock of 60+ Collared Doves, a couple of Buzzards and two Great Grey Shrikes made the trip  pretty nice and relaxing. When I reached the reservoir I scanned the water for some waterfowl. Pretty quiet. About 70+ Coots, some 40 Mallards and a couple of Great Cormorants. A nice Black-throated Diver made the things a bit more interesting. Flocks of Linnets, Yellowhammers and Goldfinches made it look a bit more lively. Then came the highlight. Approaching the bank on the southern site a small passerine bird took off right under my feet. Flashes of white on the upper wings made me shout out straight away: Snow Bunting. The bird flied away for some time and circled overhead rising higher up in the sky like a soaring bird. Once it got some height it flied away to SW of the reservoir.

This Snow Bunting is the first I see in Bulgaria. It was a female bird and although I couldn't quite have a proper look at the bird to enjoy it, these flashes of white are pretty typical and identifying it is of no question whatsoever. Unfortunately I couldn't photograph it.

This observation made the trip really productive. I recorded all the observation and will upload it in the database of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife Bulgaria.

BBC Natural World 2009 A Highland Haven

Superb video about the lifetime story of a few species from the Scottish Highlands: White-tailed Eagle, Black-throated Diver, Red-deer, Pine Marten and breath-taking landscapes.

Enjoy

The last minutes of the video are about the film. As always these minutes reveal curious information about the film making including how a phone trap was set up :)