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Whatever we think is the cause/s of climate change (carbon/methane emissions, cyclical change that would have happened whether we humans were here or not, a higher being teaching us a much-needed lesson) there surely now can be very little doubt that it is actually happening.

Anecdotal ‘evidence’ like the ‘facts’ that we in the UK don’t [...]

A report on Monagbay.com last month looked at the problem of birds colliding with windows - and provided a very surprising (to me at least) statistic: according to a study by Dr Daniel Klem Jr over a BILLION birds are killed in window-strikes a year in the US (far more than through hunting and by [...]

Regular readers will have noticed (we hope) that 10,000 Birds has become increasingly involved in Conservation issues over the last two years. All three of us here at 10,000 Birds are passionate about conservation, and we’re currently, for instance, supporting a project on the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw in Kenya; we became BirdLife International Species Champions [...]

In just less than a month’s time the British Birdwatching Fair, the ‘Glastonbury’ of bird fairs, will open its gates for the 21st time. An estimated 20,000+ visitors will come to the Birdfair site at Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland Water, UK between Friday 21st Aug and Sunday the 24th. They’ll be greeted by around 300 [...]

Our recent mini-debate on hunting and conservation (eg Mike’s post on Duck Stamps at Time to buy a Duck Stamp…or not, mine on Dove Hunts in Argentina at Fur and Feather Shoot, and a general post about Birdwatchers and the American Economy) has naturally enough stirred up the emotions and brought forth some interesting comments. [...]

In a July 1st post about Duck Stamps (Time to buy a duck stamp…or not) Mike wrote a very telling paragraph: “Yet, when it comes time to draft important conservation legislation or plan the creation a 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps, we non-extractive wildlife enthusiasts are forgotten in favor of the hook and bullet club. [...]

First published in 2000*, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers - a personal chronicle of vanished birds” is named - as many literate visitors to 10,000 Birds probably already know (and as a semi-literate Brit I have to admit to not knowing) - after an Emily Dickinson poem which uses the metaphor of birds and [...]

When we starting thinking about Puerto Rico as a possible ‘theme’ on 10,000 Birds we asked ourselves a number of questions: is it an area that might benefit from coverage on a bird blog (there’s not much point in spending a month talking about somewhere well-known that is already all over the internet), are [...]

In January this year 10,000 Birds featured parrots and the threats they face (both in the wild because of eg habitat loss and as a substantial component of the illegal wild bird trade) in our first-ever ‘theme’ - “Parrot Month“. One month was hardly enough to cover every species and every aspect of parrot conservation [...]

The progress being made by the wool-spinners at the inspirational Njabini Woolshop, a community-led conservation initiative run by the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (Kenya) and supported by a coalition of groups and individuals including - of course - 10,000 Birds, carries on apace.

Samuel Bakari, one of the people most heavily involved with the woolshop (and [...]

Mesoamerican Month at 10,000 Birds has been better for all of us thanks to the photos of my friend from Guatemala, Renato Fernández Ravelo. Renato, a distinguished naturalist, photographer, and author of Birds: Guatemala’s Feathers, has already contributed stellar shots of a Steller’s Jay and Resplendent Quetzal. When I recently received a brief but poignant [...]

Yesterday I wrote what was intended to be a short post about a visit I made last month to the Mugumoini Primary School in Kinangop with Dominic Kimani and James Wainaina. Typically I became more enthused the more I reminisced, and finally ran right out of time before I’d been able to post a series [...]

The bloggers of the 10,000 Birds team are or have been on their travels this week, and as I’m first back - from another amazing day in Nairobi with Dominic and the Friends of Kinangop Plateau - and Mike and Corey don’t have internet access (though Mike has somehow managed to get connected long enough [...]

A Three Month Report on Environmental Education in Kinangop.
October –December 2008.
By
Dominic Kimani.
Zoology Department, Ornithology Department, National Museums of Kenya.
 
Charlie’s Visit to Kinangop.

The month of October 2008 was jubilation as Charlie Moores visited Kinangop, to officially launch the School outreach Project. Charlie started by visiting our Head office in Nairobi National Museums. He was received by [...]

The first major conservation campaign I ever really got involved with was a year-long ‘worldtwitch’ I undertook in 1991. I was trying to raise funds for attempts to protect the Dominican Imperial Amazon/Parrot Amazona imperialis on behalf of what became BirdLife International. I was a little naive, there was no internet to let people know [...]

When I posted about the now extinct Carolina Parakeet yesterday I was very careful to say that it was North America’s only endemic mainland parrot. Similarly when I wrote about the Puerto Rican Parrot I was careful to say that it was the last native parrot still breeding within US borders. I had to be [...]

Many of the readers who visit 10,000 Birds are members of the developed world (more than 50% are North American according to our stats), and it’s fairly easy and comforting when we think of endangered parrots to think ‘third world’ - that supposedly ‘third world’ issues like habitat change and rapidly increasing human populations etc [...]

As we mentioned in yesterday’s intro post to ‘Parrot Month’ the World Parrot Trust’s website states that almost a third of all parrot species are threatened - that’s with extinction, not noise abatement orders or their neighbours by the way! When it came to putting this theme together I relied quite heavily on the World [...]

Last month we posted a short ‘trail’ for a theme we were planning for January about parrots (at Next Month is Parrot Month on 10,000 Birds). We’re not just posting about parrots all month (we’ll have the usual mix of general posts too of course), but it’s time now to expand that ‘trail’ and look [...]

Next month (January 2009) we’re going to be trying something new here on 10,000 Birds by spending 30 days (no-one writes on New Years Day do they?) concentrating on one ‘theme’ in particular: yes, we’ll be looking closely at parrots (the clue was probably in the phrase “Parrot Month” in this post’s title?).

We won’t [...]