The osprey is unlike any of our other raptor species. Living almost exclusively on the fish it catches with its dramatic dives, it was extinct as a UK breeding bird between 1916 and 1954. Happily, its natural return to Scotland in the 1950s, followed by successful translocations to Rutland and Poole Harbour, makes it a …
I wrote a while ago about some of our recent bird colonists, including little egrets and ring-necked parakeets. Some of these recent colonisers, though, are actually birds that used to breed here but were driven to extinction before returning. These include some of our most charismatic raptor species. A few raptor species managed to cling …
August 4th is International Owl Awareness Day, so what better bird of the month for August than the barn owl? One of five species of owl in the UK, the barn owl is paradoxically both instantly recognisable and yet rarely seen by most of us. Once encountered, though, they are never forgotten. Their ghostly, silent …
This content contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission. When you think of urban wildlife, you might think of gulls, sparrows, starlings and pigeons. However, once you start to look a bit closer at the wildlife around our towns and cities, you soon realise just …