h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Identifying British Birds - Part 3 - A87916125
Author: Paigetheoracle - U15002949

This third part of my series on British wildlife, concentrates on sea and wetland birds. It mentions those you will normally and easily see, like ducks, swans and geese but also those whose habitat or habits, make it difficult to find them. Some, like The Bittern are naturally reclusive, others like coastal birds, located in hard to access areas, when not at sea feeding.

I will go on here

Again, this Entry should have maybe a more intersting title, some kind of introduction, a conclusion at the end and headers for different sections.

Didn't you have water birds in part 2 already? Shouldn't they all be together? (Kinfisher etc)

Which leads me to another question: how did you decide which bird group goes to which Entry? Is there some kind of system? If not: could there be some kind of system? Would a different order than the current one make sense or is this the perfect order to talk about birds? (just asking, if you say it's the only order that makese sense that's fine for me)

Mallard ducks also make funny noises while flying... just saying. You don't need to add that. Also no idea about other ducks.

'They also have green flashes at the base of their wings, just like Mallards.' but those are blue?

Generally there again is hardly any mention of eggs or nests which in the first Entry is said to be one way to distinguish birds. I also wonder if in general you should say more about sizes and not just colors? Also shape... if I wouldn't know what a heron looks like I probably would not have the right image in my head after reading your Entry. You for instance don't mention the long neck at all. (I could now tell you about how to tell a flying stork from a flying heron but I think that's not important for people in Britain )

All in all ypu gave lots of information in your 3 Entries, well done.

Took a photo of a gull today, resting at the rim of a baroque fountain. It seems to be a Common Gull, which also seem to live in Britain, but as you didn't mention them someone else would have to take a picture for this Entry.

Actually I did mention them but I am not surprised you missed the Greater Black Backed, Herring and Black Headed Gulls as 4,600 words on birds would leave anyone shattered, perception wise (it did me, hence the errors in grammar and spelling, plus failing to follow the guide format); See sea birds in this part

I wanted to keep coastal and wetland birds away from river birds, although ducks can be found in both environments; at least Mallards and up in Scotland, Mergansers as well as Herons everywhere.

I included them where they are also most numerous. Anybody venturing onto marshland, would see a large display of different ducks, so my basis for including Mallards there was to help separate them out from other species of ducks, that observers would notice (comparison study in other words).

makes sense
So if you devided the birds in the Entries by environment you could for isntance call this one 'Identifying British Birds - Coasts and Wetlands' or something similar. I'm not great with titles myself.

Anther informative Entry that is a whistle-stop tour of birds that people might see in the British Isles

Tavaron has mentioned excellent points for improvement, and I just have a few more points to add:

I spotted a couple of typos in the Swans section - it is Whooper Swan, and Bewick's Swan. Is a mute swan's beak pink, or more orange?

I couldn't find a mention of the Common Gull in this Entry either, but they would be worth mentioning as they are common! These days Mediterranean Gulls are more common around the British Isles and they are easy to be confused with Black Headed Gulls... I am getting better at spotting the different head markings but it is a bit of a challenge without someone to point them out to me first!

I think you need to specify Grey Herons, as there are other types that may visit.

Headers would help here as well as you cover a variety of birds (ducks, geese, gulls etc). Maybe the Reed Warbler merits a mention too - I saw one of those for the first time this year, and have heard an impressive number of them too

SashaQ - leave me alone, I've got a headache!

I'd say that it is pink (mute swans) but perhaps some are more orange. As for Whopper* swans, you are probably right - might need to check on Monday. Sadly you are probably right about Bewicks. I think I was probably thinking about Berwick on Tweed and their well known colony of mute swans (no I wasn't really, it was probably because of me spelling it phonetically as I always thought it was pronounced that way)

*Well they are big