Atlas listing (3 Viewers)

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I finished my winter tetrads today with a bumper crop of three squares. The highlight was relocating the Girdle Ness King Eider at Murcar - quite a good one to get on a TTV. Some good numbers of other seaduck there, particularly the 38 Long-tailed Duck. The Donmouth TTV produced 45 species, which is my best total so far. A good look round Seaton Park was probably the reason, with lots of stuff singing. I also managed a 'summer migrant' of sorts, my first Lesser Black-back in Aberdeen this year.

 

[Jane Turner]

I've just done my home tetrad for the 2nd time. 47 species, the only surprise being a Snow Bunting. Compensation for the Stonechats being 5' the wrong side of the tetrad boundary (you watch them being back here when I do the other tetrad's TTV). Peregrine also sat just out of range.

Got my first breeding codes too, including a two letter one for Feral Pigeon - already with hatched young in my down spout. Stupid birds!

 

[Thing]

I did my second winter visit in my Ealing tetrad last weekend - 3 Redwings being the highlight - but NO Starlings, which is possibly more interesting...

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I finished with two fairly rural tetrads. One did include a large holiday park though where as well as perhaps predictably high Mallard numbers there were also good numbers of Moorhen and a pair of displaying Sparrowhawks. The other was welcome for having 14 Tree Sparrows.

Stephen.

 

[Surreybirder]

Withdrawal symptoms today! But I did see a calling kestrel and a pair of herons in a nest so I was able to enter some roving records.
I don't know whether it's new or whether I hadn't noticed it before but you can see a list of all the birds you've reported during the winter on the Bird Atlas website (with rarities marked in red). Somewhat strangely, my 4 rarities are:
great egret
domestic greylag (!)
yarrellii wagtail (!)
helmeted guineafowl
Ken

 

[Daffyduck]

Hi, we thought we would take a quick look at one of the Tetrad's that we have agreed to cover in Cambridgeshire. We thought it would be pretty barren farmland and it turned up trumps with 5 buzzard (2 conducting a fab courtship display), 8 yellow hammers, meadow pipit, 6 mistle thrush, skylarks with all the other usual suspects blackbird, pheasant etc...we also spotted 3 hares and 1 dead badger! So can't wait til we conduct our 'proper' survey and looking forward to checking out our other tetrad!
Tina

 

[Surreybirder]

I got the newsletter on the Atlas a couple of days ago - as presumably have others. I notice that you are allowed to estimate the no. of a species within a tetrad even if it doesn't show on a TTV... as long as you know the tetrad well. So I'll have to go back to my lists and see if there are any regularly occurring species that I missed on the TTVs. I was told not to include other people's sightings but several people have told me that they saw a barn owl, so maybe I should 'estimate' it as being present!
I've still not heard a chiffchaff yet though I suppose the strong winds may not have helped. I've usually heard one by now!

 

[Mike Cook]

Revised population estimates

Having received the "Bird Atlas 2007-11 February 2008" newsletter, I've just finished updating my population estimates on the basis of extras and roving records. It was not too big a task. For my eight tetrads surveyed so far there were five estimates to add based on extras and thirteen to add based on my roving records.

There are also forty eight roving records for tetrads that I have yet to survey. I've created a separate list of those to help me update estimates for those tetrads, if necessary, once I have surveyed them in future years.

What I have not done yet is to go to Square Summaries > Tetrad Species and look down the bottom at "Additional species seen by other Atlas contributors...". I have no way of knowing how many of each species was seen or who the observer was. Is there value in entering "2" as a likely population estimate for the tetrad? I'm still thinking that one over.

 

[Mike Cook]

Just refreshing this thread to push it back near the top ready for the April/May surveys. I'm hoping to get one in the bag by the weekend. Always a bit worrying trying to sort out pairs like Blackcap/Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler/Reed Warbler when they first arrive, before I've 'got my ear in'. Pity they can't just stay here all year.

Still, at least there won't be too much foliage during the initial tetrads, not up in Northumberland anyway.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Yes Mike good to get the thread back up.

I will hopefully be doing a tetrad in deepest urban Blackpool tomorrow, where warbler song will not be too much of a problem...

Stephen.

 

[StevieEvans]

Just refreshing this thread to push it back near the top ready for the April/May surveys. I'm hoping to get one in the bag by the weekend. Always a bit worrying trying to sort out pairs like Blackcap/Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler/Reed Warbler when they first arrive, before I've 'got my ear in'. Pity they can't just stay here all year.

Still, at least there won't be too much foliage during the initial tetrads, not up in Northumberland anyway.

Hi Mike
Got a couple of Roving records for confirmation of breeding "in the bag", including :-
Blackbird - family of fledged young
Song Thrush - single fledged juvvy
Tawny Owl - pair with well developed young (laid mid January !)
Lapwing - several now incubating
Long-eared Owl - one female just commenced incubating.
Dabchick - nest building
Kingfisher - Excavating

Cheers Steve

 

[Mike Cook]

Hi Mike
Got a couple of Roving records for confirmation of breeding "in the bag", including :-
Blackbird - family of fledged young
Song Thrush - single fledged juvvy
Tawny Owl - pair with well developed young (laid mid January !)
Lapwing - several now incubating
Long-eared Owl - one female just commenced incubating.
Dabchick - nest building
Kingfisher - Excavating

Cheers Steve

Hi Steve,

You're doing well there. All I've got so far is a pair of dippers visiting a nest (in fact a pair of nests about 15m apart :eek! and a pair of nuthatches visiting a nest hole. The nuthatches were seen during a February TTV so I'll try and find the same tree when I revisit.

Best wishes

Mike

 

[Surreybirder]

There are a few birds on eggs here: grey heron, mute swan, great crested grebe + and a few nest building: rook, little grebe, coot. I find that the smaller birds take more finding! I watched a pair of marsh tits for several minutes but as far as I could tell they were just touring the local wood.
I'm not doing any TTVs until more of the summer visitors arrive. Early May will do nicely. (I've only seen chiffchaffs, one blackcap and a few sand martins and one wheatear of the SVs so far.)
Ken

 

[Dawn Balmer]

Yep, the breeding season is now underway and recording does on until the end of July. Already over 5000 Roving records have been entered online in two days and 53 tetrads covered - an impressive start. I think I'll leave my Timed Tetrad Visits for another 10 days or so, just to let a few more migrants arrive.

Still plenty of tetrads needing coverage across Britain and Ireland and time to sign up for this breeding season - take a look at the atlas website www.birdatlas.net

Looking out for breeding evidence certainly adds another dimension to birding. I'm looking for birds carrying nesting material at the moment - surprising how much you can record just around home.

Anyway, enjoy the atlas fieldwork and hope it gets you to some new places locally. Never know what you might find!

Best wishes
Dawn Balmer

 

[Mike Cook]

First spring survey of tetrad NZ29V (provisional)

Did my first spring/summer tetrad today, NZ29V comprising a wooded river valley, a village, and agricultural land (all arable). This will hopefully never be entered in the database as it is a 'banker'. I agree with Ken about surveying in May when most migrants are in.

I'm not doing any TTVs until more of the summer visitors arrive. Early May will do nicely. (I've only seen chiffchaffs, one blackcap and a few sand martins and one wheatear of the SVs so far.)
Ken

Unfortunately, I've a few tetrads to do this year and I am on holiday during part of May (North Norfolk Coast). I also have to squeeze a BBS square in some time. If the weather is good in May, I'll do the other tetrads and then repeat NZ29V. If the weather is bad and I get desperate for time, I'll pull today's data from the file and enter it. At the moment only Chiffchaff are in (they are everywhere!). Other highlights were a Buzzard soaring over the wood and a very nice Marsh Tit singing away on top of a bush.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

My first tetrad in the heart of Blackpool was never going to be big on migrants, but rather ironically the results were arguably distorted by a small fall of Goldcrests which appeared to have been grounded by mist.

The 490 feral pigeons were presumably not migrants...

Stephen.

 

[Xenospiza]

There are a few birds on eggs here: grey heron

I heard the young call at Amwell, so they're well off their eggs already!
I have signed up for three tetrads around my home (will start shortly). I guess I should start to make work of my roving records.

 

[JoanT]

I heard the young call at Amwell, so they're well off their eggs already!
I have signed up for three tetrads around my home (will start shortly). I guess I should start to make work of my roving records.

In Herts down to the 2K tetrad level please as we are doing our own more detailed atlas.

Just tried to put in a Northern Wheatear and it won't allow Wheatear or Northern so have given up for the moment with that species- comes up with incorrect name with either option!!

Joan

 

[Mike Cook]

Just tried to put in a Northern Wheatear and it won't allow Wheatear or Northern so have given up for the moment with that species- comes up with incorrect name with either option!!

Joan

Hi Joan,
Not sure what's going on here. Is this a Roving Record or a Timed Tetrad Visit?

For a TTV you shouldn't have to enter a name. It should just be there, part way down Page 3, ready for you to enter a count. Can't try myself though as I haven't recorded one yet and I don't know how easy it is to get rid of the date etc if I put in a dummy TTV. The species is on the paper form. Maybe they forgot it when they were creating their data entry screens.

I've just tried adding a species to one of my winter tetrads and when I typed 'whe' into the Species Name field, it gave me a list of species to choose from, with Wheatear second from the top. If you already have the rest of your species in your TTV record, try editing it and click on 'Add a species'.

I just created a dummy Roving Report and when I typed 'whe' into the Species Name field, it gave me a list of species to choose from, with Wheatear at the very top.

If you can't make progress, email the Atlas Coordinator at the BTO.

Good luck

 

[JoanT]

Hi Joan,
Not sure what's going on here. Is this a Roving Record or a Timed Tetrad Visit?


I just created a dummy Roving Report and when I typed 'whe' into the Species Name field, it gave me a list of species to choose from, with Wheatear at the very top.

If you can't make progress, email the Atlas Coordinator at the BTO.

Good luck

A roving record

I did get as far as you suggested clicked on Wheatear after partial typing and then it told me later that it wasn't a valid species...

I will e-mail later

Joan