Breeding Bird Survey 2010

I have a few squares available for the BBS this year. It's not a huge commitment and can be very rewarding.

Please contact me to volunteer.

BTO North East England Conference

All members and surveyors should have received information about the conference at Bishop Burton on 10th April. If you haven't seen it, here are some details:

From the Humber to the Tees

Venue - Bishop Burton College, York Road, Bishop Burton, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17 8QG
Date - Saturday 10 April 2010
Time - 0930 to 1645
Tickets - £12 includes lunch & refreshments - in advance from the BTO

All welcome

Talks on:

• Bird Atlas 2007-11 - Dawn Balmer, BTO Atlas Co-ordinator
• Monitoring Forest Birds - Tony Lewis, North York Moors & Forest Bird Study Group
• RSPB Volunteer & Farmer Alliance - Blanaid O'Connell, RSPB
• Raptors & Owls of the North York Moors, Wilf Norman, North York Moors Merlin and Forest Bird Study Groups
• Breeding Bird Survey - Kate Risley, BTO BBS National Organiser
• History of Spurn Bird Observatory - Dr Ian Glaves, Spurn BO
• Breeding Biology of the Goshawk - Garry Marchant, North York Moors & Forest Bird Study Group
• Birds of the Lower Derwent Valley - Terry Weston, Wildlife Consultant
• Notes from a BTO Regional Representative - Mike Denton, BTO RR for Yorkshire (Bradford)

A great chance to get together with other BTO members and fieldworkers from across Yorkshire and beyond, local Regional Reps and BTO staff.

I think the last similar event was in 2003 but was not as local as this.

Drop me an email if you want further information or a booking form.

YOC meeting cancelled

Stop press - I hear that tonight's meeting about The Sparrowhawk has been cancelled owing to the weather conditions.

Bird Atlas maps

There have been some exciting changes to the summary maps that you can see on the Bird Atlas website.

Species richness maps - now with smoothing to counter some oddities from the coverage of the previous atlas - http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/species-richness.html.

Species missing - to show gaps -http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/species-missing.html.

Confirmation of breeding - http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/percentconfirmed.html.

Regional maps - now 2 versions: low and high resolution depending on which way you view them - high resolution make use of Google Maps - http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/mapsyork.html.

You can also see results from other regions by selecting from the drop down list two thirds the way down this page http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/keystats.html.

Have a look and see what you think.

BTO date for your diary

Put the 10th April into your diary for a Yorkshire BTO Conference at Bishop Burton College near to Beverley. More details to follow but there's likely to be a full agenda of talks with a local interest and also some by BTO staff. I expect a talk on the Atlas and the BBS.

YOC date for your diary - The Sparrowhawk

Professor Ian Newton will be giving a talk on The Sparrowhawk at the York Ornithological Club meeting on January 5th 2010.

He is the authority on the species and has written the definitive monograph as well as being BTO Chairman.

The meeting starts at 7.30 pm at the Friends' Meeting House on Friargate, York.

There's a small contribution on the door to cover costs.

Can anyone help a neighbour out?

Our neighbouring region, Yorkshire (North-east), has not had as thorough a coverage of Timed Tetrad Visits. This region covers much of the North York Moors and so is sparsely populated. This means that Mike, the RR, doesn't have as many people to call on as I do.

If anyone fancies taking on tetrads in his area please request them through the Atlas website www.birdatlas.net.

The areas that look to need most help are those immediately north of the York Region: SE58, SE59, SE68 and SE69. It's a chance to visit quite a different habitat to those in the more lowland areas of our region.