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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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    US equivalent of Tit family?

    It's driving me round the bend, I have known this, can anyone help? What is the name of the bird family in the US that is similar to our tit family here in the UK?
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    Florall's 2007 List

    Last year I had a really good year and saw about 40 more species than in 2005, ending up with something like 161 species. I would be surprised if I see so many in 2007, because I’m not planning to holiday in such good places as I chose last year, and we won’t be able to get up to Norfolk this...
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    Autumn in the Lake District

    This is a bit late, because it’s three weeks since we returned from a holiday in the Lake District, but better late than never. We didn’t go there specifically to birdwatch, but simply because we love the area at this time of year. The tree colour was magnificent. There was lots of beech...
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    Sandwich Bay and Grove Ferry, Kent

    18th-20th August 2006 (Not quite a day, but probably not long enough for a vacational trip report.) Friday - sunshine, very strong wind So far, we’ve had a wonderful year’s birdwatching, but we realised fairly recently that we hadn’t seen many waders - never been in the right place at the...
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    My First Ever Twitch - Bough Beech

    Well, my first ever, if I don’t count the Piddinghoe Cattle Egrets, which we went to see two and a half months after they first arrived! Bough Beech is just off my husband’s route home from work and is not all that far from home, but we’ve only ever been once, 15 years ago, when we didn’t have...
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    Stodmarsh/Grove Ferry - bearded tit

    I've heard that this area is good for bearded tit. I hope to be able to go in mid-August, and would love to see bearded tit again (the only other time I saw any was at Minsmere a couple of years ago, when we had wonderful views). Can anyone give me any tips on the best places to concentrate...
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    Northumberland and southern Scotland

    After everybody elses' wonderful exotic holiday locations, this might seem a bit tame, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the birds we saw at the two cottages, in completely different habitats. In the first week, we stayed in a cottage right...
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    Life of Birds being repeated

    In next week's Radio Times, I've noticed that The Life of Birds is being repeated all day and evening next Sunday (28th May) on UKTV History (available if you've got Freeview). Quite looking forward to this, because I've never seen it and I remember a thread on Birdforum quite a while ago when...
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    Florall's 2006 list

    I'm out to beat my own two previous year lists (120 in 2004, 132 in 2005). I didn't go out yesterday, but today I went to my local patch at the River Mole near Gatwick, then for an hour up to some sandpits about five miles away. Little Grebe Great Crested Grebe Mute swan Greylag goose gadwall...
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    Best Garden Bird of the Year

    Not an uncommon bird, but it must be uncommon close to a town centre, one mile from the nearest open country - meadow pipit - which visited me twice this morning. I doubt if I'll get a more surprising bird this year. Also nice, within ten minutes of the meadow pipit's second visit, I had two...
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    Hands on Nature, BBC2 weekdays

    This starts next Monday (28th November) and is on every day next week (3pm). It looks good. It's a guide to UK wildlife hotspots and the first episode has Chris Packham swimming with seals as well as someone else birdwatching. Episodes later in the week have whale watching, bat watching...
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    Water Rail?

    On our local patch last Wednesday night, we heard some very strange noises coming from a patch of reeds. We hung around for a bit, but nothing showed itself, so we went on and forgot all about it. We went back again last evening, and their was a vast repertory of sound coming from the same...
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    My Big Year - Your Challenge

    Okay, I'm not really going to do a Big Year, but next year, what I do want to do is go to as many UK locations as I can to improve my Life List, currently standing at 172. What I would like is your help in choosing the best places to go to see as many species of birds as I can. I have five...
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    Trade in British Songbirds

    Did anybody else see the absolutely sickening report on today's Countryfile about the trapping and trade in British songbirds, particularly finches. They said that they reckoned thousands of birds were trapped every year for the cage bird industry, some sold in this country and others sold...
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    Europe Big Year

    I know that people do "Big Years" in North America (700+ species?) and here in the UK (400+?), but has anyone ever tried to do a Europewide Big Year. If they have, how many species could they potentially see?
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    Gatwick Airport

    I started a thread on this last winter, but unfortunately, it got lost when the site went down in February. I've decided to restart the thread now because I've added a few, not very exciting, birds to the list I had then. The patch is a long narrow strip of land extending for a couple of miles...
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    Simon Barnes, Breakfast, BBC1`

    He's going to be on Breakfast in 15 minutes time (8.40am), talking about being a Bad Birdwatcher. Sorry, this will be too late for most of you, but some of you might be able to catch it.
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    Mahonia and blue tits

    Does anybody else grow Mahonia x media 'Charity'? My six year old plant is in glorious flower now and it is covered in blue tits. It's an extremely colourful sight, which is great considering how dreary the weather is. I remember reading last winter that this plant attracts blue tits, can't...
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    Countryfile

    Next Sunday's Countryfile (3rd October) is in Romney Marsh. One of the topics is whether it's justifiable to build more wind farms there. Should be interesting, and I would think that the birds at Dungeness, Rye Harbour etc. will come into it.
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    Exciting 15 minutes birding

    I intended to spend a leisurely afternoon in my garden in the hammock yesterday, but within 15 minutes of lying down, three large birds of prey had flown over. My garden is in the middle of town (Horley, Surrey), and it never occurred to me that I could see so many BoP from it. The first bird...
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    Bad weather, rotting crops - good for birds?

    Much has been made in the news recently about the crops rotting in the fields because of the poor weather this summer (in Britain). Is this likely to have an impact on the birds? I imagine it will for a few weeks, but of course the poor farmers will have to clear their fields and get ready for...
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    Singing birds

    After several weeks, or even a couple of months, I've noticed that birds are starting to sing again. Green finch for the last two days (or maybe in their case it's just their call, but they have been silent since mid August). I've just been outside and a great tit was singing away. I know...
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    Leighton Moss, Lancashire

    Does anybody know about this RSPB bird reserve? Everything I've read about it produced by the RSPB talks about the birds that breed there, but says nothing about the sort of birds to expect in winter (in my case, November). Would there normally be plenty there, to attract me down from the Lake...
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    What is the meaning of the word "passerine"?

    This is something I've wondered for ages. I've got three dictionaries in the house, no mention of it. Ditto, three bird guides - they use the word but don't define it. It always seems to be used for small birds - is that the correct definition? I would be interested to know the derivation of...
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    Newbie from SE England

    Hi, I'm a new member living near Gatwick. I've been interested in birds for more than 30 years, first watching them in my parent's back garden. For the last year, I've been watching them more seriously since a trip to Minsmere. We (my husband and I) now go out regularly at weekends on...
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