Next week I’m going to have to do my two ‘late’ BBS visits before the end of June. The combination of poor weather and rushing around has pushed them off the agenda but time is running out.
I’m also going to have to finish the data entry for the English farmland bird surveys I carried out over the winter. What a pain!
And I need to read, properly, the latest BBS report.
There’s an interesting snippet about the potential effects of released long-tailed poultry on the Grey Partridge population in it:
“Both Grey Partridge and Nightingale have reached a new population low… There is also some suggestion Grey Partridge can be
burdened with caecal nematodes, passed on from farm-reared Pheasant…”
I have managed to finish my BBS this week, too. Well, apart from the one behind construction fencing whilst the National Trust turn one field (sections 1-5) into a new carpark. It might improve it. Have had to suspend that square this year. I have also signed up for the Upland Rover BBS for a change – I visited 2 squares in NW scotland in early May, a tough 3 days of cycling and walking but Black throated divers, goldenplover and greenshank made it worthwhile. I will do 2 different squares in Argyll next week, with the luxury of a vehicle to get me near the start point…. both in an area with which I am familiar. Lookign forward to it, as it really makes a psychological difference to slogging round east anglian farmland BBS.