From: BTO/RSPB/BWI BirdTrack
14th January 2010
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Subject: BirdTrack Monthly Update Dec.09
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Dear BirdTracker,
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Happy New Year
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GARY PRESCOTT’S ‘BIGBY’
I don't know about you but I usually manage to make a couple of modest New Year's resolutions and then struggle to keep them. Gary Prescott doesn't do things by half-measures though and has set himself a monster challenge for 2010: a Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) that involves cycling, yes cycling to every RSPB and WWT reserve in the UK! His targets are to raise money for the RSPB, WWT and Asthma UK, to increase awareness of climate change (particularly amongst school children) and to see if he can break the Non-motorised Year List record (251 species in Norfolk by Chris Mills in 2005). BirdTrack updates will follow Gary's progress throughout 2010; please do give him whatever support you can.
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Gary's website: http://www.bikingbirder.co.uk/
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Gary's blog: http://bikingbirder2010.blogspot.com/
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Gary's JustGiving site: http://www.justgiving.com/bikingbirder2010
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THE BIG FREEZE
Britain and Ireland's bird are struggling to survive the freezing conditions, as exemplified by the hard weather movements made by some species during the first week of January. An amazing 2,610 Skylarks were BirdTracked heading south over Sunderland on 1 January and thousands of larks, thrushes and other species were observed moving eastwards along the south coast at the end of the week. A recent satellite image of the country makes it easy to see why birds are moving considerable distances.
Frozen Britain: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8447023.stm
Looking back to December, waterfowl arrivals were perhaps already hinting at the weather to come, as large numbers of several scarce species were recorded. Smew were seen at many localities; an impressive 38 at Dungeness was the highest BirdTrack count. There was even a stunning drake on the BTO Nunnery Lakes nature reserve here in Thetford. Great Northern Divers were relatively plentiful too, the BirdTrack reporting rate graph showing an incredible spike of records during the month. More familiar waterfowl were also in abundance, with high counts of Gadwall coming in from Norfolk (550) and Kent (170). As the big freeze tightens its grip, it is really important that birdwatchers minimise the disturbance to wildfowl and waders.
BirdTrack reporting rate for Great Northern Diver:
http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s3-20-09.html
Plea to minimise the disturbance to waders and waterfowl:
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1895
BEWICK’S AND WHOOPER SWAN CENSUS
The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust are conducting the 5-yearly census of Bewick’s and Whooper Swans 16/17 January 2010; please visit one of the links below if you can help.
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust: http://www.wwt.org.uk/research/monitoring/surveys/isc.asp
BirdWatch Ireland: http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/ (Click 'Swan Census 16-17 January 2010')
BIRDTRACKING IN 2009
In place of the regular feature about BirdTrack functions, here is a review of 2009 from the BirdTrack perspective. Coverage was the highest since BirdTrack began; records came in from 2814 10-km squares across Britain and Ireland (from a total of 3879 squares) and 4,348 observers contributed a whopping 1,623,424 records between them. A huge thank you to everyone who entered observations last year! Congratulations to the top ten BirdTrackers of 2009, all of whom submitted over 10,000 records:
1. Graham Rowling 16,601
2. Audrey Turner 14,905
3. Stuart Fisher 13,288
4. Kevin Jarvis 13,268
5. Nigel Garside 13,047
6. Ben Carpenter 12,433
7. Rupert Pyrah 12,189
8. John Wilson 11,194
9. David Cawdron 10,147
10. Robin Borwick 10,089
2009 BirdTrack coverage map:
http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/covmap-2009.html
Last year also saw the highest ever productivity for Chaffinch and Reed Warbler; this and other success stories from 2009 can be found here:
http://www.bto.org/home/successes_of_2009.html
Finally, thank you for all your emails in 2009; lots of exciting BirdTrack developments will be taking place in 2010 so please keep your comments and suggestions coming in.
Kind regards and good BirdTracking in 2010,
Nick Moran
BirdTrack Organiser
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POSTED BY: Steve Halliwell
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