I was back at one of my BBS squares this morning. It was a cold morning and the birds seemed to be sulking a bit. However, there are always birds to be seen, noted and their existence entered online so that’s what I have done. There weren’t many people about either. ‘Best’ birds? Bullfinch isn’t…
Tag: BBS
BBS report for 2019
The 2019 Breeding Bird Survey report has been online for some time (which is very good – things are speeding up) and my paper copy arrived a while ago but I have now read most of what I am ever going to read in it. It’s a very good report – the 25th report covering…
My second BBS visit
This morning I did the first visit of 2020 to my second Breeding Bird Survey square. Although starting in a sizeable village, as usual, there weren’t many people about, and as usual the caged canaries in a shed in a garden made me pause briefly to think ‘What’s that?’. I did meet a man with…
Bird surveys under COVID 19
Advice from the BTO: Not straightforward is it? That’s what it’s like running an international bird survey with different administrations taking slightly different lines on travel etc. Still, you might expect a global pandemic to have some major impacts and this isn’t one of them! Restrictions in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will have to…
My first BBS visit
Travelling a couple of miles by car for a 6km walk is the furthest I’ve been for weeks. But we are in mid-May and the May is out in flower, and this is the time for the first visit to Breeding Bird Survey squares. I can see why the BTO hasn’t yet updated its guidance…
Another BBS visit
Comments Off on Another BBS visit
Last week I completed my second visit to my second BBS square. It was a pretty standard, slightly quiet visit. But one can only record the birds in front of you and I think I did that pretty diligently. I’ve been surveying this square in east Northants since 2012 and it was surveyed by somebody…
BBS
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…
BBS done for this year.
I completed the second survey for my second BBS square the other day. Very few birds on this visit – amazingly few actually. Even few Carrion Crows and few Wood Pigeons. And yet I added a new species to the site (this was my 14th year of surveys here) – a very topical Raven. Maybe…
BBS and birds generally
I did my two Breeding Bird Survey Square surveys a little while back. Both were carried out on gloriously sunny mornings and both were very enjoyable. There is a smug feeling of being virtuous that one gets from being up early for a purpose, and especially if that purpose is volunteering for the public good,…
BBS 2016
This report of bird population trends as measured by the Breeding Bird Survey (and Waterways Breeding Bird Survey) is the result of, first, the voluntary work of around 3000 volunteers (including me) who collected the data, followed by the analytical and presentational skills of BTO staff aided by JNCC and the RSPB. There are two…