Collingwood Ingram (1880 – 1981) was a BOC member for 80 years, a record unlikely to be beaten. He joined at the age of 20 in 1901 and remained a member until he died aged 100. His first note in the BOC Bulletin, in 1901, reported a Scops Owl in Broadstairs; the last, in the same journal in 1981, put forward his view, later to be disproved, that Magpies were responsible for the decline in […]
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BOC Blog
Predicting bird collision risks through visual field analysis, obstacle avoidance and flock behaviour
Progress Update. 23rd April 2026 Sam Thompson; BOC/EGI Case Student Six months into my PhD and things are really starting to take shape. For my first couple of terms at Oxford—Michaelmas and Hilary as we call them here—one of my primary focuses has been brushing up on the literature surrounding avian vision, obstacle avoidance and flock behaviour. It is a fascinating field and much of our understanding of it is a result of work conducted […]
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Andrew Richford, Birds of Africa
An Interview with Andrew Richford, the Commissioning Editor of the first six volumes of the Birds of Africa published by Academic Press. Seven volumes of The Birds of Africa were published between 1982 and 2004. Originally begun with Academic Press, volume 7 was published by Christopher Helm. The series editors were C. Hilary Fry, Stuart Keith, and Emil K. Urban. The principal artist was Martin Woodcock with key artistic contributions from others including Ian Willis. […]
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Richard Sale & Steve Watson, The Peregrine Falcon
An interview with Richard Sale & Steve Watson on their book ‘The Peregrine Falcon’ published by Snowfinch Publishing. [Reproduced with permission from the June 2023 issue of the Quarterly Newsletter (No. 269) of the London Natural History Society] Richard Sale Steve Watson Richard Sale has co-authored several books on raptors including the Poyser ‘The Gyrfalcon’ and ‘The Snowy Owl’. He has also co-authored self-published books on ‘Steller’s Sea Eagle’, and ‘The Eurasian Hobby’. He also […]
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Richard Grimmett, Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, Second Edition
An interview with Richard Grimmett, lead author of ‘’Birds of the Indian Subcontinent: Second Edition’, published by Bloomsbury in the Helm Field Guides series. Richard Grimmett is a keen birder who has visited southern Asia many times. He has co-authored numerous identification guides to the Indian Subcontinent and its constituent regions, mainly in collaboration with Carol and Tim Inskipp. Richard has worked for BirdLife International for more than 40 years and was in charge […]
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Dale Forbes, Habitats of Europe
An interview with Dale Forbes, lead author of ‘Habitats of Europe’ published by Princeton University Press. Dale Forbes is a lifelong naturalist and conservationist with an MSc in Biogeography. He works in strategy and marketing at Swarovski Optik, is a member of BirdLife International’s Advisory Board, and is the regional coordinator for eBird in Austria. He loves creating soundscapes that capture the essence of being immersed in nature https://soundcloud.com/capepolly Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne interviews Dale […]
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