I surveyed my second BBS square on Tuesday morning. It was sunny and there were lots of birds.
This site starts and ends in a village which is packed full of birds; heads out along the River Nene where there are quite a lot of birds; and then before returning to the village traverses some arable farmland where there aren’t many birds.
What were the ‘top birds’? Well, Lapwings were good, there were quite a few Whitethroats, a pair of Red Kites flew over, and there were loads and loads of House Sparrows.
The whole point of these surveys is to monitor change through thousands of randomly chosen sites and I am very happy to play my part. We don’t get paid and we give, very happily in my case, our time (2.5hr in the field and travelling + an hour entering data online) and our expertise (48+ years learning how to distinguish the song of a Great Tit from that of a Sedge Warbler and the sight of a Red Kite from that of a Blue Tit) too.
I like the idea that others are probably out with their ears, eyes, binoculars and datasheets at the same time as I am – and I like the fact that they are doing their best, as am I, to record the birds accurately each time. Our hundreds of thousands of records, each an anecdote really, add up to an accurate picture of the year-on-year changes in bird numbers but only after several years do our records really tell an important tale of trends in bird numbers. This year, whatever the overall results, might be ‘explained’ by the cold spring or some other story, but the long-term trends are real.
I’m looking forward to the second visits to my two BBS squares in a month’s time. Are you?
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Off to do my first ever BBS survey tomorrow morning, more excited than I should be! I spent all last year and this so far learning common bird calls and song so I think I’m prepared unless I get a red billed blue bum or a black naped brown breast.
Ben – good luck. But there are a lot of those species everywhere.
Cheers!
Citizen science; that’s what we’re so good at. And we export it round the world.
Blue Tit versus Red Kite tip: one sings the other doesn’t.
But do Blue Tits sing to the kite like they do to approaching Sparrow Hawks? It’s an odd bit of behaviour. The normal strategy for that sort of threat is high frequency, hard to locate, calling.
This behaviour seems to occur in both sexes. But what is it called? Is it the ‘song alarm’; ‘alarm song’; ‘raptor song alarm’ or the ‘we’ve sussed you, don’t bother’ alarm?
Listen out for it because the response can develop into a wonderful rolling chorus as the sudden onset of singing in one territory triggers one pair after another. If you happen to be in a valley the effect can be like the audio equivalent of a Mexican wave. Look up and scan the sky at the same time; very probably a gliding hawk will appear over the trees.
Occasionally Blue Tits sing to particular types of slow flying light aircraft but, as yet, these remain unidentified. They could be new to science. Who knows?
My first swifts of the year over the garden in Newcastle today. Yayyy!
Our swifts are back again this week, so back up the church tower to check out the nest boxes we put in last year. Also activated the call recording so they know where to look for extra nesting space.
Richard – good luck!
Ours back yesterday in West Yorks. Only seen 4 or 5 though.
Did the first visit of the year to one of my Snowdonia squares today – been too much snow on the upper transect till now!
There’s a cuckoo that calls there and I’ve recorded it but always worried that I’m hearing it from ‘out of square’ down the valley. Finally saw it today calling from a clifftop tree 40m above me but actually within 10m on the map!
Did my first BBS square visit 1 in a cold late April (it was one of the first ever BBS squares, and I have walked it every year since the outset in 1991, it is very average Cambridgeshire farmland). My second square -added around 12 years ago, is tomorrow morning’s treat before a rare days birding. On that square I have lots of horses, which I dislike, but the advantage of public footpaths, meaning I do not have to remember to phone the farmer. I have to do it at weekends as the connecting walk between sections 5 and 6 is along the main commuting route between Cambridge and Sandy and its just too busy to attempt during the week. I also leave it late as it still holds Turtle Dove, although the cuckoo and Spotted Flycatcher have gone. Barn Owls now present in the square, too, and swallows and sedge warblers in a small pool. It is these sort of mornings which make me appreciate what even tiny patches of interesting habitat mean in the farmed or developed landscape of lowland England
I urge any of you who do BBS to keep up the good work, but also to consider doing the Butterfly survey along your survey routes in July and August, meaning you can contribute to our knowledge of Butterflies too, using the same simple approach.
Louise, Cambridge
Louise – thank you and good luck!
The Turtle dove was still there, and the sedge warblers. joined this year by a reed warbler. I sort of marvel at the people who have enough land to make their own private tiny wetland with reeds and willow scrub in it. very envious.
more Wilow warblers on territory locally than for years – wondering why!