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Check your local railway line
I've often found that hedges bordering scrapyards, waste disposal sites, industrial development areas and former railways can produce interesting birding. MJB- MJB
- Post #3
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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How/where to find Dalmation Pelicans on Shkodra Lake
I've hired a small boat and boatman at the western end of Shkodra/Skadar Lake in Vizpara, Montenegro. Vizpara lies between the lake and the M2 highway, the entrance being at the P16 access road; a few metres down the short P16 is a sizable car park sharply on your left. You can go to the visitor...- MJB
- Post #2
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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Question about Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
This paper provides a hypothesis: Schweizer, M, V Warmuth, NA Kakhki, M Aliabadian, M Förschler, H Shirihai, P Ewels, J Gruselius, RA Olsen, H Schielzeth, A Suh and R Burri. 2019. Genome-wide evidence supports mitochondrial relationships and pervasive parallel phenotypic evolution in...- MJB
- Post #7
- Forum: Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature
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Pipit ID. Shirza, Iran
I was referring, perhaps too broadly, to the IUCN/BirdLife map showing that its wintering grounds reach Myanmar, northern Laos and the border with northernmost Vietnam. That wintering area also includes south-central China. The Asia Society declares: "Southeast Asia consists of eleven...- MJB
- Post #6
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Angus Hills and Glens
Got it Delia! Thanks! I wonderwhy Noranside was inkling away at the back of my mind... It closed in 2011. I think it specialised in young offenders and low-risk adults. MJB -
Sparrow / Azerbaijan
I've seen exactly the same contrast in a flock of House Sparrows in Cyprus, though in my case it was even darker with almost a black chest. MJB- MJB
- Post #6
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Pipit ID. Shirza, Iran
The taxon ID, as you say, isn't clear. The expected ssp on migration in southern Iran (Shiraz being in the northern part of that region) is blakistoni, though migrant coutelli from its eastern wintering population in SE Asia may well be encountered on its way to breed in the montane habitat...- MJB
- Post #3
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Angus Hills and Glens
Unfortunately, Glenley doesn't appear on Google Maps... I was trying to retrace your journey to see if I had been round that way over 60 years ago! MJB -
Acrocephalus (?) Warbler from Oman
Possibly it's taxon fuscus, a fairly common passage migrant and winter visitor to Oman (Oman Bird Report 7). Known informally as Caspian Reed Warbler, its taxonomic identity is in limbo because of lack of knowledge of the distribution of many populations and their relationships in what IOC have...- MJB
- Post #3
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Pratincole in Tajikistan today...possible first national record?
For your information, Phil, your sighting is 400 km north of the IUCN mapped summer breeding distribution at the western end of the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan. Congratulations! MJB- MJB
- Post #5
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Pied / White Wagtails? (Cyprus - March 2024)
Single Cyprus record 13 May 2007 (Colin Richardson). MJB- MJB
- Post #6
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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The Highlands and Islands Thread
Tentatively, one Curlew Sandpiper just coming into summer plumage, just below the most central Oystercatcher and perhaps a few Dunlin near the front. MJB -
How Do You Pronounce ____________?
Not even the most elided 'R', Andy... MJB- MJB
- Post #143
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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How Do You Pronounce ____________?
The 'Sprag' name actually rhymed with 'drag', 'hag' or 'rag'. However, the rich Devonian accent makes the 'a' sound much longer than in 'Prague'! MJB- MJB
- Post #142
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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2024 ABA Checklist update
But if any of those individual birds subsequently make it to a landlocked state...? MJB- MJB
- Post #15
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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Two people break 10,000 species, and on the same day? Can it be?
You're going all quantum on us, John...! Another aspect, photon/electron quantum tunnelling, initiates a reaction below the minimum energy level required to initiate that reaction - that, could be interpreted as removing a virtual probe from a system to change the functioning of that system...- MJB
- Post #410
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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How Do You Pronounce ____________?
Sprague is a Devonian name from Old Middle English. I knew someone in the RAF whose surname was Sprague - he came from Devon and had a quite broad accent: his pronunciation was 'Sprag', but with a long 'a' sound... I'm told that other versions are available... MJB- MJB
- Post #129
- Forum: Birds & Birding
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Latest IOC Diary Updates
Except for Kashmir Nutcracker N. multipunctata... MJB- MJB
- Post #2,485
- Forum: Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature
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Which Kite? Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan, Jan. 2024
It does seem to have some aspect of Black-eared Kite Milvus (migrans) lineatus, but current research (eg mapping by Andreyenkova et al 2021) indicates the existence over a large area from Iran to Central Asia of various hybrid forms whose ancestry, especially in Afghanistan, links to migrans x...- MJB
- Post #4
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Pin-tailed Snipe ?
Has the OP changed the text as a result of your comment, John? "Ankara 10/2020" I interpret as Turkey in October of that year... MJB- MJB
- Post #4
- Forum: Bird Identification Q&A
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Sulidae
Howell & Zufelt 2019 treat Brown Booby as a 3-species superspecies, Brewster's Brown S.[l.] brewsteri with ssp etesiaca, Atlantic Brown S.[l.] leucogaster, and the widespread Indo-Pacific Brown S.[l.] plotus. How much traction plotus has with other taxonomic sources...? At ssp level, I presume...- MJB
- Post #26
- Forum: Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature
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Sulidae
Peter, I don't have access to this paper. Can you tell me if the proposed Sula brewsteri includes ssp etesiaca? MJB- MJB
- Post #22
- Forum: Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature
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Poll - Do you agree or disagree with the AOS's recent decision to abandon the use of eponymous bird names?
Worthy of Sir Humphrey Appleby indeed! MJB- MJB
- Post #681
- Forum: Birds & Birding