Webcam – Oystercatchers are back!

As well as last year, a pair of Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) started nesting on the building of our University building roof this April again. I wrote a little about the roof nesting Oystercatchers in the article Roof-breeding Oystercatcher – webcam where you can refresh some facts. If you want to watch the actual nesting, play the video (including sound!) at the following link:

Spring is back to Bergen!

Yes! The spring is back here in North again! It still recovers slowly from the loads of snow that unusually long and tough winter left behind, but it can be felt in the air, days are getting longer and temperatures stay above freezing point! It is almost exactly one year today since I wrote “The past week I also saw first Oystercatchers of this year in the harbour while walking to the work. So the spring is really here…” and the Oystercatchers, like as they could hear my wishes, they appeared at exactly the same place today again! For me they are messengers of spring here – the birds that together with Starlings arrive amongst the first species. I would not be surprised if the birds I saw today were exactly the same pair as one year back… Welcome spring!!!

Huntsmen poaching

This article in Czech version focuses on the problem of Poaching among the Huntsmen in Czech Republic – it describes the case from the end of 2009 when 2 Huntsmen were accused from hunting down many protected mammal and bird species for purposes of taxidermy and illegal sale. Among the shot and stuffed species there were many Woodpeckers, raptors, passerines and owls including one Barn Owl with the ring! It appears that this is great problem in Czech Republic, especially because the hunting has powerful lobby between Czech politics as well as Police...

Birds evolution on-line

The finches that helped Charles Darwin to define his Theory of Evolution almost 200 years ago play significant role again! The scientists studying these birds on small Galapagos islands during last 30 years observed the natural selectiuon within one bird species. Thanks to the harsh weather conditions in last decades the large-billed individuals of the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) increased in the population at the expense of the finer-billed individuals. Dutiny following years the large-billed birds prevailed in the population and scientists are now surprised how fast the evolution can run in the nature...

More informations in the links below:

The Continuing Saga of the Galápagos Finches

Darwin's Birds: Evolution and DNA in the Galápagos

New web section – list of bird pictures A-Z

Bird photography using car as a hide

When I met a Danish bird photographer with the nickname John Fugl (John Bird) at the Norwegian island Runde last year during my late winter visit, one of the interesting information I have learned was that one of the most efficient ways how to approach birds while not disturbing them was using the car as a hide. At that time I still thought that the best and only way how to get close to the birds was to lie down on the ground covered by masking net; soon after that I realised John was true…

Roof-breeding Oystercatcher - webcam

Christmas Eve has come…

Im not very old to be retrospecting but even I already remember the freezing and snowy Christmas in the times when I was a little boy. Today at Christmas Eve I went out to search for a bit of peace but insted of that the noise of ATV (quad-bike) distracted me from not far away. Christmas is supposed to be a time of calm and peace but not everyone is happy at this time – from behind the hill I could hear the noise of hunting-gun shooting – deer is not safe even at Christmas time! There is no snow around and as I remember this is not an exception in the recent years...

Birdwatching

Photography and watching of birds are close-knit but it is very difficult to do both activities properly at the same time – either you focus on bird photography to get the best shot of one species with many birds you simply pass over or you are a real birdwatcher but seldom make perfect picture of the bird....

STOP SHOOTING BIRDS

This new project of authors Jan Veber and Marie Cibulková touches a delicate issue of illegal trapping and shooting of birds in Mediterranean. Although this activity on Mediterranean islands is as unlawful as in other countries of European Union, every year about half million of birds of passage terminates sadly their pilgrimage there...