An appropriate Scaup

01 Tuesday Nov 2022

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Into the Red, Scaup, supporting Britain's red-listed birds

My sighting of this gorgeous bird during Saturday’s circuit of Cardiff Bay could not have been more appropriate because this is the species I wrote about in the recently released Into the Red, the British Trust for Ornithology’s publication about Britain’s red-listed birds. My piece describes how tricky it can be to distinguish the various species of confusingly brown female ducks one from the other, and tells the story of my pride in identifying for myself my very first female Scaup earlier this year.

221101 scaup

You can still purchase a copy (or copies – they would make perfect affordable presents for the nature-lovers amongst your family and friends) of the book on the BTO website here: www.bto.org/intothered.

221101 into the red

Exciting news

24 Saturday Sep 2022

Posted by sconzani in birds

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bird conservation, birding, British birds, Into the Red, red-listed birds, supporting Britain's red-listed birds

I’m finally able to share some exciting news with you all. Back in June I was utterly astonished and hugely delighted to be invited by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to contribute to their forthcoming publication Into the Red, ‘a collection of words and art inspired by Britain’s most vulnerable birds’. The book focuses on Britain’s red-listed birds, each one the subject of an original artwork and a piece of writing, prose or poetry, by 70 artists and 70 writers, some well-known, some not (like me). Profits from the sale of the book will be used to help these birds, to support the work being done to conserve and restore ailing bird populations.

220924 Into the Red

The official publication date is 4 October but you can see examples of the book’s interior pages right now, and pre-order your copies, by clicking on this link to the BTO website. I know times are tough for many people at the moment but, if you can, I urge you to buy the book so that, together, we can try to bring these vulnerable birds back from the edge of extinction. My sincere thanks!