Publisher Scott & Nix recently posted an excellent interview with field guide phenom and birding luminary David Allen Sibley. Enjoy this quick but comprehensive discussion of Sibley’s many projects and interests.

The 10,000 Birds Conservation Club is pleased to announce that the gift certificate for two people to go on a foraging tour with “Wildman” Steve Brill has been given away.  Congratulations to the winner and sorry to those who were not so lucky.  Maybe you should try to win the current contest…

The promised review pair of Intrepid ED 8×42s from Eagle Optics have just arrived here in the UK and on first use they’re astonishingly good for a mid-priced binocular. Full review will go up soon, and then - also as promised - as agreed with Eagle Optics’ Sales Manager Ben Lizdas we’ll be donating them via our Conservation Club to an organisation working on threatened birds. Suggestions welcomed…

Today the Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan to file a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of lead in ammunition used for hunting and in fishing tackle.  From the article in the New York Times:

The petitioners argue that “it is now incontrovertible fact” that lead fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets are “a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals” and a health risk to humans who eat hunters’ kills.

Scientists have found that chronic lead poisoning in birds leads to appetite loss, anemia, anorexia, reproductive or neurological impairment, immune suppression, weakness, and susceptibility to predation and starvation,” the petition said…Michael Fry, a wildlife toxicologist who directs conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy, said that even sub-lethal levels of lead in condors, bald eagles and other raptors can be debilitating, affecting their ability to fly and avoid collisions.

This is a basic, common-sense initiative that will protect wildlife, hunters, and the environment.  So it is likely that it won’t be implemented for years and years and years and even then be watered down.