Alfred Beesley published his mammoth volume on the history of Banbury in 1842. In the rear of the book is a list of the birds of the area, along with mammals and plants. This systematic list is one of the first published in the area and is of ornithological interest for the status comments and for the local names in use at the time.

Beesley was not an ornithologist and did not seek out expert opinion to verify the list he published. However, most of these species have been recorded in subsequent years by more authorative sources. The following document is an extract of the species list found on pages 600-604 of his book.

Bird List in The History of Banbury, Beesley, 1842

 

UK currently holds approximately a quarter of the global Curlew population, with estimates for England of about 30,000 pairs. National monitoring data show that this population has been in long-term decline since the 1970s and has almost halved in the UK over the last 20 years. In lowland southern England, the population has declined to about 500 pairs, with many colonies on the verge of local extinction. Read more ...

Uzbekistan:  Birding the Silk Road in Central Asia  -  Alan Peter

A spectacular and little-visited country lying on the famous Silk Road that once connected the East with the West and one of the group of former Soviet republics which border it on three sides - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan while it’s southern border touches Afghanistan. Read more ...

The Long Day Count is carried out by teams of observers in each of the twelve 10km squares recording the number of bird species seen during a maximum of 12 daylight hours on the second Sunday in May each year. Read more ...

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