Articles by Chris Foster - Page 3

Aphids are small, squat, squishy-looking homopteran bugs, and are at first glance an unpromising introduction to insect conservation.

23,661 reasons to be interested in Chris Foster’s A to Z of British insects

The Audubon Society’s ‘Christmas Bird Count’ now involves 60,000 volunteers in over 2000 count areas, providing a vital snapshot of the health of wintering bird populations in North America.

It is, after all, the most bird-heavy festive ditty imaginable, with not only the obvious partridges, doves, hens, swans and geese, but oblique references to blackbirds (four calling birds) and depending on source either goldfinches or pheasants (five gold rings).

Not a bird of garden feeding stations, unless your house backs on to a farm, but one that, when you see or hear one, tells you that you’ve arrived in rural Britain.

The sleek, beautiful waxwing is not usually a British resident, but breeds in northern coniferous forests around the globe, from Scandinavia to Asia to North America.

It’s an unremarkable, streaky little finch, not unlike linnets or redpolls but without either species’ bright red head markings.

They bob up and down almost constantly whilst feeding atop dull yellow legs – a nervous bundle of readiness – before flying off low over the water on stiffly held wings

When I first started my own birding adventures, ravens were still not easy to find, and only partially through inexperience (ID tips in a nutshell: look for a buzzard-sized, flying black cross with a wedge-shaped tail and a guttural croak for a call).