In Brief....

....and no names.

Turtle Dove Antonio Puigg 

Its my intention to be brief here, but the escalation of bird persecution throughout the world dictates that I should draw attention to visitors to Birds2blog from around the same world to the intention of a couple of companies - one of which is close to my home town of Lancaster -  which are making arrangements to visit foreign parts for the purpose of engaging in the 'sport' of shooting Turtle Doves....I'll just repeat that in case you think I'm hitting the wrong keys on my keyboard....shooting Turtle Doves.

But there is a glimmer of hope here, in that having sent an e-mail to one of these companies expressing my concerns over these trips I received the following reply....

Many thanks for your email.

As a result of the Turtle Dove being put on a ‘red list’ status by the RSPB, we have recently removed these shooting trips from our website and itineraries.

If we can help in any other way, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Kind Regards

And the pics.... 

Killdeer Tim Kuhn

I've recently been in touch with Tim to see if he keeps well, and to check if it is still OK that I use his images on Birds2blog. Thankfully Tim agreed it was and so I decided to post a couple of his images of two waders most of us are never likely to see, though it must be said, both have occurred in the UK and are probably likely to again in the future....who knows. 

The Killdeer is a rare vagrant to the UK the last record of which was of a bird in Co Wicklow, Ireland, in December 2009. 

Least Sandpiper Tim Kuhn

The Least Sandpiper is an extremely rare vagrant to the UK and the last record was at Butt of Lewis, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles in October 2007.

Many thanks for these two excellent images which I appreciate very much Tim. Good to know you are well and keeping up the photography which - in the case of them being on Birds2blog -  are a much needed dash of colour and interest on an otherwise gloomy post for reasons not of my doing.