British Trust for Ornithology - October 2009

Dear BirdTracker,                    October 2009

Winter thrushes
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A substantial arrival of Redwings occurred in the second week as BirdTrack had
managed to predict for Chris Packham on the BBC Autumnwatch blog. Over 32,000 were
logged at The Pinnacle in Bedfordshire on 13th, an incredible number for an inland
site. In the final week, a large arrival of Fieldfares saw the reporting rate climb
above 15%; interestingly the pattern matched that of 2008 extremely closely with the
same apparent plateau in the third week of October.


Redwing reporting rate: http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s377-20-09.html.
Fieldfare reporting rate: http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s375-20-09.html.

Autumnwatch blog:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/autumnwatch/2009/10/latest_migration_news_16th_oct.html.

Snow Buntings
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The BirdTrack animated map for Snow Bunting shows that birds started to appear along
the east coast from 13th September; the reporting rate for this species had reached
a three year high by mid-October. Although no birds were reported from the Scottish
Highlands after 19th September, these breeders don't usually descend below 1000m
until the first substantial snowfalls of autumn, suggesting that the east coast
birds are from more northerly populations. A bird at Worcestershire Beacon in the
Malvern Hills from 20th September was a good inland find; a great image of it
quickly appeared in the BirdTrack flickr pool (which had surpassed 50 members by the
end of the month).

Snow Bunting reporting rate:
http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s512-20-09.html. 

BirdTrack flickr image of the Worcestershire Beacon Snow Bunting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43056828@N03/3968019125/in/pool-birdtrack


Researchers fly south to Africa
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BTO and RSPB scientists have teamed up on the largest research project of its kind
to understand more about our breeding birds that winter south of the Sahara desert.
The researchers have already begun monitoring birds such as Cuckoos, Nightingales
and Wood Warblers in a range of habitats along a corridor from Ghana's Atlantic
coast to northern Burkina Faso. The project is also training local people in
research skills such as ringing.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-231732


Red Kite success
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The Scottish Red Kite population soared to 149 pairs this year, the highest it has
been for 150 years, a testimony to the success of the twenty year reintroduction
programme by RSPB Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage around the country.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-232809


BirdWatch Ireland e-newsletter
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BirdTrack partner BirdWatch Ireland launched their e-newsletter 'e-Wings' this
month. If you're interested in birds and bird-watching on the Emerald Isle, sign up
or read archived e-Wings here:
http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Publications/eWings/tabid/949/Default.aspx


Did you know that BirdTrack can
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This month saw another major development in BirdTrack. Our web design team gave the
'Manage sites' page an overhaul so that all site information is now in one place and
more importantly, if you spot a mistake with the grid reference for a site, you can
now edit it yourself by clicking on the offending grid reference.

Good BirdTracking,

Nick Moran      BirdTrack Organiser

PS. Have you registered yet to use and make use of our NEW website Forum?
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Posted by Steve Halliwell

Newcomer to our Partner's Page

Having failed to do what I'd promised to do, I'm putting this new website to our Partner's Page under the Latest News page as well  for a week or two. Keith Russell is a relative newcomer to bird photography, but his website is well worth a visit:

                       http://www.krbirdphotography.co.uk/ .

Posted by:  Steve Halliwell

"BIRD ISLAND - ANTARCTICA" with John Critchley of Chorley

The next in our series of winter talks sees a first visit for John Critchley, who is to give a talk about a small island off the coast of South Georgia in the Antarctic Ocean.
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The digital photography will hopefully be accompanied by sound recordings made of such things as the seal colonies. All in all it should be an entertaining evening.
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The talk starts at 7.30pm on Monday 9th November in the large hall at St. Mary's Church Hall, Cop Lane, Penwortham, Preston. There is parking at the hall itself and at the school directly across the road from the hall.
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Non-members are welcome, £2 pay on the door.
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Posted by:   Steve Halliwell

VISIBLE MIGRATION (a.k.a. VIS-MIG)

There will be many readers for whom this is a new expression. There will be others who will have heard of it, but are uncertain about what's involved. Well, all that is to be remedied!

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Vis-mig itself is undertaken by a few hardy souls who, mainly at dawn or dusk, will station themselves at suitable sites (##)  during the migration periods, in order to monitor the species and their numbers as they pass through the skies.

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(##)  Suitable sites tend to be on higher ground with unobstructed all-round vision, and away from noise. The latter is to help facilitate the hearing of call notes of each species in order to positively identify them.

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It is my intention to have somebody come and speak to us about the subject, but it is likely to be in the 2011 - 2012 series of Winter Lectures - we have no vacancies until then!

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In the meantime I would encourage you to visit :-http://vismig.blogspot.com/

Where, apart from anything else, you will find links to about 160 similar sites, many, or most of which relate to the same subject. By the time the lecture comes round we should be conversant with the subject and be able to appreciate it all the more.

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It's a fascinating subject - take a look.
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Posted by:   Steve Halliwell