The Not So Happy New Year Has Arrived....

....Well at least the first bit of bad news for 2013 has come to my attention, and in using Birds2blog as my platform I'd like to share it with you just in case you didn't already know.

But please note this is going to be brief, and several hundred words shorter than it could be. I also have no intention of naming names, or slagging off political parties....not this time anyway!

Hen Harrier. Copy Permitted.

By the end of March funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) may well come to an end, but to be positive about this 'people power' has won the day before and can hopefully do so again if we all protest to this withdrawal of a paltry £136,000 to help the law to protect our birds/wildlife. I've written to an MP about this to ask if he has signed the Early Day Motion (EDM) on this issue and I'll post negative replies on here if I get any. 

I've always strived for, and wanted to be referred to as a birder in the true sense of the word, and I wondered if you - most visitors to Birds2blog are birders, though I appreciate not all are - would follow me and contact your MP to ask if he/she has also signed this EDM. If you have a tendency to follow and support the policies of the Conservatives I think you'll find he/she hasn't signed it, the last time I looked just three had done so, a bad start to the campaign to stop this funding to the NWCU but....check it out  HERE 

I did say at the top of this post that I wouldn't be slagging any political parties off or naming names, but in a polite and diplomatic tone I'll have to break that promise and the truth of the matter here is that D.Cameron and Co are not known to be a bunch of countryside lovers in the full sense, probably more akin to some of the other 'Guardians of the Countryside' I'd say and who will be rubbing their hands at the sound of all this funding withdrawal giving them an even freer hand to slaughter birds and other wildlife which gets in the way of their 'trade'.

Well, I did say I'd be brief, and at least I've kept that promise, so here endeth the first lesson. But do please try to help by making your voice known. Lack of action on wildlife persecution will become even more lacking, and crimes against it will become even more undetected, prosecuted, and punished for the sake of a mere share of £136,00 funding....Our wildlife/birds need us. 

Robin Isidro Ortiz  

A Robin sings regularly in our garden - it is also on the verge of feeding out of the hand - last night it sang full song in the dark at 4.45pm. I recall John Leedal once telling me the Robin sings the whole year round, but yesterday I also heard a Coal Tit singing....Lots to learn about birds yet, and learning something new every day. Thanks for your 'Spanish' Robin Isidro....Excellent and much appreciated.

Siberian Chiffchaff. Chris Batty.

This Siberian Chiffchaff represents the second excellent record to be collected recently, it was in the same garden the Pallas's Warbler took up residence in mid-October last year, another Siberian Chiffchaff and a Little Bunting are also to be added to this list in the same garden....Some garden, some 'on the ball' observations, numerous birds like this must go unnoticed in the UK annually.    

Thanks to CB for allowing all this on Birds2blog.