news
Carol Barrett art exhibition and talk
"African Journey" is a collection of drawings and paintings by Carol Barrett, mostly inspired by animals seen along the Chobe River in northern Botswana. On show at Waterston House from Saturday 6th February until Wednesday 31st March, the exhibition is open daily from 10am to 4pm.
Click the image on the right to see the exhibition poster.
To mark the opening, Carol will be at Waterston House's gallery on the 6th Feb from 12 noon to 4pm. She will also be giving a free illustrated talk about some of her experiences in the African bush, from 2 to 3pm on Saturday 6th March.
(added 11 Nov 2009)
unusual bird behaviour
Jimmy Maxwell, co-editor of Scottish Birds, is keen to hear from any SOC members around the country who have witnessed highly unusual bird behaviour in these extreme winter conditions. Only a small factual note is necessary, and a photo would be a bonus (but please try to limit the file size to a maximum of 500KB). If received in time, these will hopefully feature in the Scottish Bird News section of our March edition.
Please send your notes, ideally by email, to the SOC at Waterston House. Thanks!
(added 8 Jan 2010)
new Dumfries & Galloway Bird Report
The latest Dumfries and Galloway Bird Report covers the years 2007 and 2008. It's now available priced £8, and only £6 for SOC members.
See the Dumfries & Galloway recording area page for more information.
(added 7 Jan 2010)
Fife Bird Atlas available on CD
The Fife Bird Atlas is now out of print. However, a CD with the entire contents is available for the price of £5 including p&p. Enquiries should be directed through The SOC at Waterston House. Please make cheques payable to "Norman Elkins".
(added 23 Aug 2009)
BBMS leaflets and newsletter
As part of the Building Bird Monitoring In Scotland project, the BTO has produced three leaflets and a newsletter to promote bird recording.
Bird Atlas 2007-11, Recording Birds in the Uplands, and Why Record Birds? can all be downloaded in PDF format from the BBMS leaflets page.
The latest Birds in View newsletter can be downloaded from the BBMS newsletter page.
The BBMS project is a partnership between BTO Scotland, The SOC, SNH, and The Gillman Trusts.
(added 23 Aug 2009)
review of Yellow-legged Gull records
A note from SBRC Chairman Alan Brown:
Review of Scottish Records of Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis by the Scottish Birds Records Committee
Many birders will know from personal experience that the safe identification of Yellow-legged Gull in the field is not straightforward and can be a significant challenge. That is why, in February 2008, the SBRC published a set of criteria which should be considered when identifying and describing the species. In June 2009 the SBRC similarly published criteria relevant to Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans and made some minor changes to the criteria for Yellow-legged Gull. (See the main SBRC page for links to these these documents.)
At a recent meeting of members of the SBRC, it was decided that the Committee should undertake a review of all earlier records of Yellow-legged Gull in Scotland in view of possible past inconsistency in their assessment prior to the publication of the criteria referred to above.
The results of the review will be published on this website in due course.
(added 21 Aug 2009)
identification of Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls
The Scottish Birds Records Committee has published the criteria that should be considered when identifying and describing a Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans). It has also made some minor changes to the criteria for Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis), originally published in February 2008. Both documents can be downloaded (in PDF format) from the SBRC web page.
(added 2 Jun 2009)