Greenshanks

Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, Maimie Nethersole-Thompson

• Publisher: T & AD Poyser
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781408137338
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781408137352
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Desmond Nethersole-Thompson has been studying his favourite bird, the greenshank Tringa nebularia, since May 1932.

This book, published in 1976, owes much to the interest, almost an obsession, of the Nethersole-Thompson family. The two girls and four boys, as well as both parents, now work as a team in the wild and beautiful north-west Highlands of Scotland. Greenshanks has drawn heavily on the team's field notebooks.

In the gneiss country of Sutherland, so different from the forest bogs of Spey Valley, Fennoscandia and the Soviet Union, they have particularly concentrated on the greenshank's displays and breeding, food and feeding behaviour and its remarkable voice.

There can be few long-term projects on waders to equal this made by the Nethersole-Thompsons, and there are valuable specialist contributions by other eminent ornithologists. Greenshanks is a major contribution to bird studies and takes its place beside Desmond Nethersole-Thompson's four earlier monographs.

The illustrations in colour and monochrome by Donald Watson have all the veracity and atmosphere that one has come to expect of this gifted artist.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of tables
• List of appendices
• List of plates
• List of figures
• Preface
• Authors’ preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 The Greenshank
• Chapter 2 The Family
• Chapter 3 Greenshank Country
• Chapter 4 Nest Hunting
• Chapter 5 Individual Greenshanks
• Chapter 6 Groups, Populations and Breeding Density
• Chapter 7 Voice
• Chapter 8 Territory and Dispersion
• Chapter 9 Courtship and Displays
• Chapter 10 Nest
• Chapter 11 Egg, Clutch and Laying Season
• Chapter 12 Brooding and Hatching
• Chapter 13 Young
• Chapter 14 Feeding Habitats, Feeding Behaviour and Food
• Chapter 15 Predators
• Chapter 16 The Breeding Habitat of The Greenshank in Scotland
• Chapter 17 Distribution, Numbers and Movements
• Chapter 18 Progress
• Bibliography
• Tables
• Appendix 1 Description of nesting territories
• Appendix 2 Nest sites and nest linings (D. A. Ratcliffe)
• Appendix 3 Egg-laying notes and observations
• Appendix 4 Analysis of unhatched greenshank egg
• Appendix 5 Food (Glutz 1977)
• Appendix 6 Ringing recoveries (R. Spencer, BTO)
• Appendix 7 Ectoparasites
• Appendix 8 Endoparasites (Parasitic Worms)
• Appendix 9 Hut diary for 21 May 1977
• Appendix 10 Note on the interpretation of the sound spectrograms
• Appendix 11 World breeding and wintering ranges of greenshank T. nebularia and greater yellowlegs T. melanoleuca
• Colour plates
• Plates