I am a DPhil Biology student at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford. This year, in partnership with the British Ornithologists’ Club, I’ll be starting a PhD at the Edward Grey Institute, with the aim of developing a better understanding of the many facets of bird behaviour and physiology that lead to incidences of avian collisions with human-made structures. The project will seek to identify common traits between the most collision-prone species, with […]
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BOC Blog
Nils van Duivendijk, ID Handbook of European Birds
An interview with Nils van Duivendijk on his book ‘ID Handbook of European Birds’ published by Princeton University Press. The book is published in 2 volumes. It was Birdwatch magazine’s Book of Year for 2024. Nils van Duivendijk has been involved in birding since his childhood. It was in his younger years when his interest in ID started. Studies of the species of the Western Palearctic (Europe, North Africa and the Middle East) have since […]
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Richard and Barbara Mearns, Biographies for Birdwatchers, The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names
An interview with Richard and Barbara Mearns on their book ‘Biographies for Birdwatchers, The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names’. Privately published in 2022. 2 softback A4 vols with over 250 portraits (396pp & 266pp). ISBN 978-0-9556739-3-1. £69.99 plus P&P, www.mearnsbooks.com. Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 272, March 2024) of the London Natural History Society. Barbara Mearns was born in Greenock, studied in Edinburgh, and then worked for […]
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Conor Mark Jameson, Finding W.H. Hudson: The Writer Who Came to Britain to Save the Birds
An interview with Conor Mark Jameson on his book ‘Finding W.H. Hudson: The Writer Who Came to Britain to Save the Birds’ published by Pelagic Publishing. Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 272, March 2024) of the London Natural History Society. Conor Mark Jameson has written for the Guardian, BBC Wildlife, the Ecologist, New Statesman, Africa Geographic, NZ Wilderness, British Birds, Birdwatch and Birdwatching magazines and has been a scriptwriter for the […]
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Dominic Couzens, A Year of Bird Song
An interview with Dominic Couzens on his book ‘A Year of Bird Song’ illustrated by Madeleine Floyd published by Batsford. Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 271, December 2023) of the London Natural History Society. Dominic Couzens is an award-winning nature writer, with over 40 book titles to his name, as well as many hundreds of articles for magazines and the national press. He has regular columns in Bird Watching Magazine, The […]
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Mike Unwin, Around the World in 80 Birds
An interview with Mike Unwin on this latest book ‘Around the World in 80 Birds’. The book is illustrated by Ryuto Miyake and published by Laurence King. Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 270, September 2023) of the London Natural History Society. Mike Unwin is an award-winning writer of popular natural history books for adults and children. He writes for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa, as well as […]
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