As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Birds as Omens and Signs

Birds as Omens

When you learn to listen to nature's language, you start to hear and see things in a totally different light. Nature has messages for us, just as our spirit guides, ancestors, and gods have messages for us. It's just whether we choose to listen or not.

In this particular article, we will learn how to look at birds as omens and signs and how to listen to the messages that they bring to us. We will examine the bird in the house omen, black bird omen, and if there is a bird of ill omen or do all birds bring good news?

For many centuries, our ancestors looked to nature to bring them important information on their health, love, prosperity, and more. Many of our ancestors relied heavily on the messages that birds brought to them, including Native Americans, the Celts, and many more cultures. Why not use the same methods of our ancestors and listen to what nature has to say to us? Birds as omens and signs is not an unnatural concept...nor is it evil.

Something is seriously wrong on the East Coast — and it’s killing all the baby puffins


By Rowan Jacobsen

The new poster child for climate change had his coming-out party in June 2012, when Petey the puffin chick first went live into thousands of homes and schools all over the world. The “Puffin Cam” capturing baby Petey’s every chirp had been set up on Maine’s Seal Island by Stephen Kress, “The Puffin Man,” who founded the Audubon Society’s Project Puffin in 1973. Puffins, whose orange bills and furrowed eyes make them look like penguins dressed as sad clowns, used to nest on many islands off the Maine coast, but 300 years of hunting for their meat, eggs, and feathers nearly wiped them out. Project Puffin transplanted young puffins from Newfoundland to several islands in Maine, and after years of effort the colonies were reestablished and the project became one of Audubon’s great success stories. By 2013, about 1,000 puffin pairs were nesting in Maine.

Now, thanks to a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, the Puffin Cam offered new opportunities for research and outreach. Puffin parents dote on their single chick, sheltering it in a two-foot burrow beneath rocky ledges and bringing it piles of small fish each day. Researchers would get to watch live puffin feeding behavior for the first time, and schoolkids around the world would be falling for Petey.

Continued

Monday, 2 June 2014

Spotted in Writtle: Do you recognise this rare bird?

A BIRDWATCHER got these snaps of a warbler, seen only once before in Essex, perched in Writtle scrubland.

Glyn Evans had wandered just 150 metres down Highwood Road, off the A414, into farmland at about 3pm on Saturday when he spotted a Blyth's reed warbler.

The passerine bird, typically no longer than 14cm, is more akin to Eastern Europe and Asia, and in the winter, in India and Sri Lanka.

The 51-year-old Essex Birdwatching Society member and former Chelmsford schoolboy, who was visiting family in Chequers Road, said: "It's another of those "Little Brown Jobs" which are often difficult to distinguish from several similar species.

"To find one this far inland was remarkable."

The birds are known to appear in the UK in the spring and autumn seasons, but usually just along the coast.

Rare harpy eagles -- 'unicorn' of the Amazon rainforest -- caught on camera


A team of nature photographers recently hit the wildlife jackpot: the group spotted one of the rarest winged creatures in the Amazon rainforest.

"Its so rare, it's like seeing a unicorn," Jeff Cremer of Perunature said in a press release.

Cremer and two other wildlife photographers of Tropical Herping were lucky enough to get up close and personal with the pair of birds and their chick during a hike this month.


Rare sighting of cuckoo in Erith Marshes

11:28am Tuesday 27th May 2014 in NewsBy Heloise Wood

Despite the grim weather, it appears Spring has definitely sprung.

A cuckoo has been snapped in Erith, bringing joy to local bird-lovers, as the species is declining rapidly.

Experts have blamed a reduction in the large caterpillars which the cuckoos feast on with a loss of habitat in their African wintering grounds.

Twitter user @MikeFRobinson, who records wildlife sightings across south east London, posted the snap of the beautiful bird today (May 27) after originally seeing it on Friday.

He said: “The cuckoo, first seen on 23 May, still on the Erith Marshes four days later.”

The adult birds normally arrive in late March or April and depart in July or August and the younger birds leave a month or so later.

The Erith Marshes - near the Crossness Sewage Treatment Works - contain a huge and varied wildlife including the threatened water vole, birds, plants and invertebrates.


'Loved-up' pheasant leaves behind his bullying ways

The male bird had been attacking 'everyone and everything' on a farm in Cambridge - until he found a female partner

Saturday 31 May 2014

They say that love conquers all – and that was certainly the case for a “terrorist” pheasant causing chaos at a farm in Cambridgeshire.

The male bird, who was once prone to chasing “just about everyone and everything”, has changed his ways after catching the love bug, according to his owner.

Anne-Marie Hamilton told the BBC that the pheasant turned up at Wood Farm, in Hail Weston, in March and proceeded to attack her, the dog, visitors and vehicles.

“He has pretty much had a go at everyone and was becoming a real pain,” she said.

But then something rather lovely happened.

Ms Hamilton told the broadcaster: “We were seriously thinking how to get rid of him, but last week he turned up with a hen pheasant.

"We've been terrorist-free for three days and I think it's her influence."

RSPCA appeal after Thamesmead thugs 'destroy' swan's nest and 'kill' mother

11:29am Saturday 31st May 2014 in NewsBy Dan Keel


Thugs appear to have destroyed a swan's nest in Thamesmead and killed the mother bird.

News Shopper has received multiple reports of youngsters being seen throwing rocks at a mute swan's nest in Southmere Lake on Wednesday.

It appears the female adult swan was killed and the eggs destroyed in the alleged attack.

Chris Waite, who took this picture, posted on Facebook: "Just sickening, why throw rocks at swans eggs...no need for this at all, the mother swan is also dead...well done — at Southmere Lake."