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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by MJB

  1. MJB

    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
  2. MJB

    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...
  3. MJB

    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...
  4. MJB

    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...
  5. MJB

    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
  6. 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
  7. MJB

    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...
  8. MJB

    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
  9. 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...
  10. MJB

    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
  11. MJB

    Pied / White Wagtails? (Cyprus - March 2024)

    Single Cyprus record 13 May 2007 (Colin Richardson). MJB
  12. MJB

    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
  13. MJB

    How Do You Pronounce ____________?

    Not even the most elided 'R', Andy... MJB
  14. MJB

    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
  15. MJB

    2024 ABA Checklist update

    But if any of those individual birds subsequently make it to a landlocked state...? MJB
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