A climate-friendly aproach to ornithology
By Javier Caletrío Letter originally published in British Birds December 2019 Vol. 112, pp. 760-761. I am writing to express my concern about the role of the British Birdwatching Fair in normalising high-carbon holidays. Wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists have a moral duty to contribute their fair share to the commitment of the Paris agreement to …
By Javier Caletrío In March 2018 British Birds published my article entitled ‘Are we addicted to high-carbon ornithology?’ I would like to share a few reflections on the origin of the article and how it has been received. Some climate and sustainability scientists had been discussing the need to align their academic practices with climate …
By Javier Caletrío Climate Matters is a group of scientists and data analysts working with journalists to communicate climate change. One of their initiatives has been to build stories about climate change that TV weather forecasters can tell their audiences every time there is an extreme weather event. I read about this successful initiative shortly …
Continue reading "A modest proposal: birds, weather and climate communication"
By Dominic Martin Thursday morning, my phone is vibrating. A quick look on the screen and a notification from the Swiss Bird Alert app is telling me that a Lesser Yellowlegs was spotted at Klingnauer Stausee—the first time this American wader has been observed in Switzerland. Exciting! I haven’t got the time today, but tomorrow …
By Robert Fletcher, Wageningen University Costa Rica has long been considered something of an “ecolaboratory” wherein cutting-edge conservation strategies are tested and refined for emulation elsewhere. One of the main strategies developed in this way has been nature-based tourism, leading ecotourism guru Martha Honey to indeed label the country “ecotourism’s poster child.” As throughout the …
Continue reading "Costa Rica: Lessons from the ecotourism laboratory"
By Finley Hutchinson What do you think of when I say 'nature'? Or 'biodiversity'? I reckon that most people in the UK would picture rainforests full of monkeys, birds and tree frogs. Or maybe a remote river bursting with kingfishers, multi-coloured fish and dragonflies. Granted, that may be largely the less 'wildlife-orientated' members of society …
Matt Phelps It’s barely light. The sky is gunmetal grey tinged with indigo, while a ribbon of fiery pink stretched across the eastern horizon warns of inclement weather ahead. For now, it’s dry and bitterly cold as I crunch my way along the frozen riverbank from home to my local patch, Pulborough Brooks. There’s a …
By Peter Moore My relationship with my local patch at Swineham in Dorset sometimes reminds me of the joke by the late comedian Sean Hughes about why he wasn’t into one night stands: ‘too much commitment’. In my defence, living within what has been claimed as the most biodiverse 10km square in England, it would …
By Joe Parham In October 2020 I was appointed a Youth Representative of the British Trust for Ornithology, with the goal of increasing access to and knowledge of birds among young people across the country. Pondering how I might initiate this, I thought that green patch birding would be worth promoting—it is an accessible form …
Fifty autumn postcards from forty birdwatchers—a fraction of the growing number of individuals who are thinking more carefully about why, where, and how they travel to watch birds. As these accounts show, there is no single or perfect way of understanding and doing low-carbon birding. Some of these birdwatchers live in bird-rich places, others in …
