I inherited my ‘other’ BBS square a couple of years ago. I hope that choice of word wasn’t in bad taste as I don’t know whether the previous observer died, moved or gave up. But this is the third year I have counted birds here. It doesn’t feel like ‘my’ square – it feels like…
Tag: BBS
The call of the BBS
I survey two squares for the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey, and for my own interest, and for you. I made the first visit to each of them for 2014 over the weekend. The first of ‘my’ squares is one that I have surveyed for the past nine years. It’s a one-kilometre square of farmland near…
BBS
The BBS report covering 2012 is out – here is the link. The results: the results are the most important part of the report. You should look at them, but here are some of the things that struck me, mostly concerning the long-term trends rather than the 2011-12 changes: there are a lot more greylag…
BBS
I got up early on Sunday morning in order to do the last visits to my two BBS squares. The Rolling Stones had kept me up the night before which was a bit mean of them – at their age they should know better. It’s a whitethroat year for sure – there weren’t many warblers…
Something for a rainy day
The weather forecast isn’t great for the next few days so you might find that you are stuck indoors when you would like to be out looking at waxwings or fieldfares (I must do some winter thrush recording) or geese or holly or ivy. Here are some new maps from the BTO to get your…
Guest blog – BTO science by Andy Clements
Dr Andy Clements was trained as a scientist with a PhD in animal behaviour from the University of Wales, and has spent 30 years as a professional nature conservationist. He is currently the Chief Executive of the BTO. It was great to see science for nature conservation discussed in Mark’s blog last week, and…
BBS 2011
The latest Breeding Bird Survey report is now available – an everyday story of declining farmland birds? Of the 19 species in the Farmland Bird Index, nine increased (grey partridge, stock dove, jackdaw, whitethroat, tree sparrow, yellow wagtail, linnet, goldfinch, yellowhammer) and nine decreased (kestrel, lapwing, wood pigeon, turtle dove, rook, skylark, starling, greenfinch, reed…
A song for Guy
Guy Smith, NFU environment spokesperson asked for the details of species I saw on my BBS visit. I wonder why. I’ll do better than that Guy, I’ll list the species seen on my visit last Saturday and compare them with those seen on my first visit to this BBS square almost exactly seven years ago…