Breeding Bird Survey

It's that time of the year when we start to think of the forthcoming Breeding Season. This year, of course, there is the Bird Atlas fieldwork on which to concentrate when the recording opens again in April. However, don't forget the BBS.

The BBS will continue as usual during the Atlas period. I have the forms now and am checking with my regular surveyors whether they can continue or not. I do have a short waiting list but will have some spaces this year if you wish to take part.

Please note that all your BBS records will automatically be passed to the Bird Atlas 2007-11 in the form of Roving Records. However, if you confirm breeding for a locally scarce species whilst carrying out the survey it would be worth reporting the record online at www.birdatlas.net or on a Roving Record form.

Atlas website

You may have noticed that the Atlas website was slow, especially since Christmas. However, there has been an upgrade to the hardware - this took place on 23rd January - and there have also been some coding and database changes to improve performance. I hope you will notice the difference now.

Like the BTO, I have had technology problems, hence I have only just picked this message up and seen the improvement myself.

With the poor weather at weekends during January, only about a quarter of tetrads have had a second visit. Hopefully February will see most of the tetrads being done this winter finished off. It is desirable that both of the visits should for should be done in the same season so please make every effort to get that second visit done this month. Many thanks.

Happy New Year - belatedly!

Happy New Year to all readers.

Bird Atlas
A great effort so far in the Region; almost 90 tetrads have been visited and recorded online. I expect the actual number will be higher as several surveyors will be returning data on paper and there may be some who intend to submit online but haven't entered their results yet.

Now we're in 2008, it's time to think about the second visits to these tetrads to complete the winter counts. I know some have already been done.

Please keep the Roving Records coming in too.

BBS
The Breeding Bird Survey will continue as normal during the Atlas period. Data from this will also be used to feed the Atlas.

I expect to be sorting out volunteers and paperwork for this survey during February. Let's try to beat last year's record coverage.

Breeding Plover Survey
Forms have now all been returned to the BTO for analysis from last year's survey. 20 sites were visited and 5 Little Ringed Plover pairs were found.

Atlas Update

Have you seen the latest news pages on the Bird Atlas website? Some really interesting information on progress of the project there. Over 5 million birds counted at the time of writing!

So far in the York Region first visits for 38 TTVs have been completed online, which is a great start after a month's fieldwork. Let's try to double that by the end of the year. Roving Records have come in for 12 of the 15 10-kn squares in the region too.

TTV allocation as it stands should give above minimum coverage in most of the 10-km squares. SE57 and SE73 need a couple of tetrads to meet this level. Tetrads are available still in other squares too so please volunteer. Perhaps you could take on another? If not this year, book one for next.

Remember that you only need to cover the tetrad for one pair of visits in winter and one pair in spring. This means the tetrad is fully covered for the TTV to get abundance data after one year.

Bird Atlas Breeding Evidence Codes

The Atlas website allows entry of breeding evidence codes during the winter period to allow for those few species that may nest early or even all year.


Please consider carefully whether these really apply if you wish to use the codes. Only use them when the birds are showing signs of breeding behaviour during the winter. Once we move on to the Breeding Season then their use will become the rule rather than the exception.

Bird Atlas TTV - let's get them covered!

11 out of the 15 10-km squares in the region now have at least a minimum number of tetrads allocated for TTVs. The others need one or two tetrads to get them up to this level.

Do you live in, watch in or would like to have a look at the following: SE57, SE64, SE73 or SE75? Let me know if you can take on a TTV or two in any of these, please.

The Atlas has begun!

The Atlas fieldwork has now started. The Bird Atlas website now supports online data entry for TTVs and Roving Records. Note also the links to and from BirdTrack - you can register tetrads as sites on this system so your data can be used by both surveys.

Six of the 10-km squares now have at least 8 tetrads allocated for TTVs. Four are one tetrad short of minimum coverage and two need two tetrads. SE64, SE66 and SE76 are lagging behind though. Do you live in one of these, or do they contain your local patch? Perhaps you'd like to visit a new area? Please help to get coverage in these areas.

I am giving a talk about the Atlas after the York Ornithological Club's AGM on Tuesday evening, 6th November. The meeting starts at 7.30 p.m. and the venue is the Friends' Meeting House, Castlegate, York.