THE GREATER MANCHESTER BIRD RECORDING GROUP

Firstly, my apologies for the absence in news from the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group (GMBRG) to its members and interested parties and for the lack of recent County Bird Reports, the reasons for which are complex and now largely behind us and so I seek to look forwards, onwards and very much upwards.

Needless to say, we haven’t just been doing nothing, in fact very far from it! Whilst the county bird reports are of course important to us all, it is the work those individual bird records submitted by county birdwatchers do working tirelessly in the ever-increasing planning proposals and conservation issues which remain the priority of the group and which takes up so much of our time. That and the fact that Steve and I have very full and busy lives outside of birding and the GMBRG! 

Anyway, things are back on track and so, here’s a few items of important news:

Let me put to bed rumours that the county bird report will not be produced and is over (wherever they came from!). The county bird report remains one of the priorities of the group and with the 2012 report soon to go to the printers plans have been formulated to bring the remaining years up to date in as short a time scale as possible with an pretty exciting idea.

A GMBRG members only section of the Manchester Birding Forum now exists, for its members to discuss all aspects of the group openly (including the report) and hopefully to further the group’s purpose within the county. To this end, those who have previously applied for membership to the group with be required to apply again to gain access to the private forum, merely due to the fact that as the group’s primary purpose is to collate bird records from within the county, it is a stipulation of the group and always has been, that its members contribute to that primary purpose in some way. Fact is though that whilst many do and will gain membership, many others don’t currently, but I invite all county birders to get involved, make your bird records work positively within the county and to join the group. Please just get in touch by any means to discuss it with me (including how to submit your sightings to us and becoming a member). Full details of the group can be found on the Manchester Birding website here (click the GMBRG page)

The 2010 and 2011 Annual County Bird Reports are now available to download for free here for all (click the GMBRG page and scroll to the bottom).

We do need more people to get actively involved with the group, initially to assist with writing and editing the county bird report (particularly the catch-up proposal). I know there are several birders out there who have already offered their assistance and I would very like to take you up on that, plus anyone else interested needs only to get in touch to discuss. A separate private report writer’s section of the forum also now exists, so those involved can easily discuss problems, ideas or anything else to do with the report’s production between each other. There may also be positions available with the running of the group if suitable people exists, those with conservation or ecological backgrounds in particular.
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Cheers, Ian
My contact info can be found here