SURVEYS

This page is intended to inform county birders of local and national surveys in which they can participate, membership of the organisation concerned is not necessary. For more information, please contact the respective organisers direct.

Mrs A. Judith Smith, 12 Edge Green Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan WN4 8SL Tel. 01942 712615 Email: judith@gmbirds.freeserve.co.uk

Fieldwork for the first breeding season of the GM Breeding Atlas and national Bird Atlas 2007-11 starts on 1^st April and runs until 31^st July. We hope that all birdwatchers in Greater Manchester will want to contribute their records to these important projects. The GM tetrad allocation map (best viewed using the zoom-in tool) shows in green the tetrads which have already been allocated for Timed Tetrad Visits (TTV’s) in 2008. As you will see we have already made an excellent start to our aim of surveying all 329 tetrads in GM during the breeding seasons 2008 -11. The last GM atlas published in 1984 achieved this with presumably fewer active birdwatchers than we have today.

See the GM tetrad allocation map here. * Please note that this '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.

How you can help.

In addition to carrying out TTV’s we also require as many Roving Records as possible from all tetrads including those already allocated for TTV’s. Our aim is to record the highest possible evidence of breeding for all the species that occur in each of the tetrads. It is unlikely that the TTV’s will achieve this as only two visits are required to each tetrad in one breeding season. Details of the breeding evidence codes and full instructions for Roving Records and TTV’s can be found on the Atlas website www.Birdatlas.net

If you have not already done so, please register 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 will be able to see immediately which species have been recorded and the highest breeding evidence code obtained so far.

Recording at tetrad level

The GM Breeding Atlas will map the distribution of species at tetrad (2 x 2 km square) level, whereas the national Atlas will map at 10 km square level. Although the BTO instructions 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. When completing the third column of the Roving Records on-line or paper forms Town, village or feature in tetrad/10 km square please use the name on the GM tetrad allocation map. So for example if you are submitting records from Pearson’s Flash you would enter these as SD50W Wigan Flashes. However records from most of Scotman’s Flash, which falls into the adjacent tetrad, would be entered as SD50R Worsley Mesnes.

County Report Records

To ensure the county report continues to meet the high standard set in recent years we still require records to be submitted 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, 01457 836360 suttill.parkinson@virgin.net

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

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

For more information about the national atlas, and to see which tetrads are available in your area, visit: www.Birdatlas.net or www.bto.org , further information can also be found from the BTO on this Manchester Birding website here.

IF YOU CAN ONLY DO ONE SURVEY, THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION YOU CAN MAKE TO NATIONAL RECORDING AND CONSERVATION.

The BBS is an annual survey that monitors the breeding populations of more than 100 widespread bird species in the UK. 3799 randomly selected 1km squares distributed throughout the UK are available to be surveyed.

Method: 3 visits initially, the first to make a recce of the site, set up counting routes and record habitat details (this visit may not be necessary in successive years if there is no habitat change), The remaining 2 morning visits are carried out between early April and late June to record all birds and mammals seen and heard along the 2, 1km transect lines (usually 2-3 hours each visit). Visits must be a month apart.

Skill level: Observers must have a good knowledge of the songs and calls of most widespread bird species. A free tape or CD is available for new BBS observers and an additional tape/CD for upland observers (below).

Local involvement: at present there are 83 squares in the BTO Manchester region.

If you are interested, please contact Judith Smith on 01942 712615. Have a look at the count summary on the BTO web page at www.bto.org/bbs/results/index.htm

All known heronries are counted annually by regular observers, but this is an expanding species and if you know of a new heronry then please contact the BTO Regional Representative (see below) so that it can be registered.

Logging information about nests found, number of eggs and nestlings observed. Contact: Carl Barimore (Nest Records Officer). carl.barimore@bto.org.

Nest recorders monitor the breeding attempts of one or more species on defined monitoring plots, ideally all breeding attempts of the study should be recorded. The main difference from the nest recording will be that the plot covered will be kept constant form year to year and that habitat data, search effort (e.g. numbers of hours in the field) and a count of the number of pairs present of each study species would be required. Contact: Dave Leech at BTO HQ (address above)

Mapping territories of birds along canals and rivers (riparian species only); 9 visits during March to July (approximately 2 hours each visit).

Observers make BBS-style (see above) transect visits (but of 500meters rather than 200meters) to randomly selected stretches of waterway throughout the UK; data for other stretches are only required if they are also covered by WBS observers, who will generally work independently.

Year round nationwide survey of birds in gardens using weekly logs of birds seen. Each participant also supports the project financially though an annual contribution of £12 for which they receive the quarterly colour magazine Bird Table, count forms, advise on feeding and attracting garden birds. All new joiners will receive a free copy of the 128 page BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Book.

This is an on-line bird recording scheme which follows on from Migration Watch. Unlike it's predecessor, BirdTrack uses data from your observations all year round. You can use BirdTrack to store your own records and at the same time contribute to a national collection of data on bird numbers and movements. Any of your bird records can be submitted (not just rare and scarce species) but of greatest value are complete lists of birds seen at sites you watch regularly.

BirdTrack is still in the process of development and County Bird Recorders will be able to access all records submitted for their area (if you have consented to this, which I would urge you to do so). However it is probably best to inform County Recorder Judith Smith, when sending her your records, if you have also sent the data to BirdTrack. Contact: www.birdtrack.net

Monthly counts of waders and wildfowl on lakes, rivers and other wetlands in the county of Greater Manchester, September to March.

14th September
19th October
16th November
14th December
18th January
22nd February
15th March

To take part, contact the WeBS Organiser: Adrian Dancy, Flat 5, Kensington Court, Bury New Road, Salford M7 4WU Tel. 0161 278 5381 Email: a.dancy@ntlworld.com