VIEW THE 2008 BREEDING ATLAS MAPS

VIEW THE WINTER 2007-2009 ATLAS SPECIES MAPS

VIEW THE GREATER MANCHESTER TETRAD ALLOCATION MAP

* Please note that the above 'atlas essential' map, produced by Steve Atkins, is a very large file and may take some time to download, it is also possible to save it to your computer by right clicking on the link and then clicking 'save target as', which will save it to your documents. The map was last updated in November 2008.

 

VIEW THE 2008-2009 BREEDING ATLAS 10km SUMMARIES

VIEW THE 2007-2009 WINTER ATLAS 10km SUMMARIES

 

LOCAL ATLAS NEWSLETTER NUMBER 1 (APRIL 2009)

LOCAL ATLAS NEWSLETTER NUMBER 2 (APRIL 2010)

 

Bird Atlas 2007-11 / GM Breeding Atlas 2008 - 11

 Recording for the third breeding season of the Bird Atlas 2007-11 and GM Breeding Atlas starts on 1^st April, and runs until 31^st July 2010. However, if you have seen evidence of confirmed breeding during March (or earlier), even of common species, please submit the records to the BTO Atlas website. Thanks to the BTO’s support, we have a once in 30 years opportunity to produce our own local breeding atlas. We made good progress in 2009 – see the Spring 2010 newsletter (above) for details. However, to achieve the full coverage of the last GM atlas published in 1984, and enable changes in distribution to be accurately mapped, we do need more of the county’s birders to participate. So if you haven’t taken part in the Atlas so far, please make 2010 the year you do. We need records of even the most common species, especially those which confirm breeding. Provisional distribution maps for the 2008-09 breeding seasons will be uploaded to the website over the next few months.

How you can help.

1. Roving Records - even if you only have a limited amount of time and do not wish to take on a tetrad, any casual records (known as Roving Records), no matter how few, will be gratefully received. Just one record could make the difference between a species being mapped as breeding in a particular tetrad, rather than being shown as not present. This is particularly true of those areas which do not contain any of the county’s main birding sites. Roving Records are required from all tetrads including those already allocated for Timed Tetrad Visit’s (TTV’s). Our aim is to record the highest possible evidence of breeding for all the species that occur in each of the 329 GM tetrads. The TTV’s alone will not achieve this, as only two visits are required to each tetrad in one breeding season. To assist birders in targeting those species and tetrads where as yet we have no records of confirmed breeding, the BTO has produced a summary, by 10km square, of the 2008-09 seasons’ results. We would suggest that you print off a copy of the 10km squares you are visiting and take these with you when going out birding.

 

2. Timed Tetrad Visits (TTVs) – 2km squares, known as tetrads, are allocated to individual birders who carry out two winter, and two breeding season visits. During the survey visits, which last either one or two hours, the recorder counts all the birds seen and heard. TTV’s are designed primarily to map the relative abundance of species. We are aiming to survey all 329 tetrads in GM over the four years of the Atlas. To check on the current availability of tetrads please visit the BTO website   http://blx1.bto.org/atlas/tetrads/open-tetrad.jsp   Please note that the GM tetrad allocation map, which can be viewed here, has not been updated since November 2008.

How to submit records:

If you have not already done so, please register at http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/index.htm so that you can submit your records on-line.

Not only will this save the BTO time and money, it will also mean we have much quicker access to the data. In addition, you and anyone else recording in the tetrad or 10km square, will be able to see immediately which species have been recorded and the highest breeding evidence codes obtained so far.

It is vital that all records submitted during the breeding season contain breeding codes. Without these codes we will be unable to plot the records on the distribution maps.

Details of the breeding evidence codes and full instructions for Roving Records and TTV’s can be found on the Atlas website http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/index.htm

Additional guidelines written specifically for Greater Manchester can be viewed here. Please take a few minutes to read these as they should answer most questions.

Recording at tetrad level

The GM Breeding Atlas will map the distribution of species at tetrad (2 x 2 km square) resolution, whereas the national Atlas will map at 10 km square level. Although the BTO instructions for Roving Records state that recording at tetrad level is optional, it is vital that you include the tetrad suffix letter when submitting your records; otherwise we will be unable to use them in the GM Atlas. For example records from Elton Resr would be entered as SD 70 Z.

When completing the fourth column of the Roving Records on-line form, Tetrad  or placename feature, please use the name on the GM tetrad allocation map. This will help us during the validation of records. So for example if you are submitting records from Pennington Flash, depending on which area you are in, you would enter these as either SJ69P Pennington Flash East or SJ69J Pennington Flash West. If you are uncertain about which tetrad a bird is in use the zoom-in map on the Roving Records log-in page. You need to have logged in first via http://blx1.bto.org/atlas/ to access this.

County Report Records

To ensure the county report continues to meet the high standard set in recent years, we would kindly request that you also submit your records, ideally on the Excel form which can be downloaded here, directly to the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group, as per the criteria outlined in the Bird Recording section of this website.

Contacts  

Should you have any queries please contact one of the following:

Steve Suttill, BTO Regional Representative and Atlas Organiser, Manchester, Tel. 01457 836360 Email suttill.parkinson@virgin.net

Judith Smith, County Recorder, Greater Manchester, Tel. 01942 712615 Email judith@gmbirds.freeserve.co.uk

Steve Atkins, Assistant County Recorder (Database), Tel 01706 645097 Email steveatkins@tiscali.co.uk

Further information can also be found from the BTO on this Manchester Birding website here.

 

The Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group, April 2010