Using vivid extracts from field notebooks and profusely illustrated with
photographs as well as paintings and sketches by wildlife artist
Jonathan Pomroy, the reader is transported to the beautiful North York
Moors National Park. We can share in the excitement as the first Ring
Ouzels of the year return from their winter quarters in North Africa,
witness their courtship displays, the establishment of territories and
the female ouzel painstakingly building her nest and laying her eggs.To
hear the song of the Ring Ouzel carrying for a surprising distance
across the high moorland in the early morning is one of the many
delights of upland Britain. The authors have recorded and analysed both
simple and complex songs in their study area and, following comparison
with recordings from Scotland, Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales, have
confirmed the suspected presence of local dialects.Crucially this book
is much more than a remarkable record of twenty years' fieldwork as it
builds on earlier research elsewhere and relates local findings to the
results of other current studies in England, Wales and Scotland. As a
migrant, the Ring Ouzel faces additional pressures and problems on
passage and conditions in their wintering areas in the Atlas Mountains
of Morocco are described. The importance of Britain as a stop-over and
refuelling area for Fennoscandian birds on passage in Spring and Autumn
is stressed. This milestone publication bring the Ring Ouzel into sharp
focus for the first time.
