A walk with a purpose

My early morning walks through the forest have taken on a new purpose. In addition to exercising my dogs (and indeed myself) I am now helping to chart the distribution and status of our birds. Along with many thousands of other birdwatchers I am participating in Bird Atlas 2007-11, a mammoth undertaking to map breeding and wintering bird populations within Britain and Ireland. The last time that this was done was nearly 20 years ago and much has changed since then. Buzzards have expanded their range to the east and are now breeding in Norfolk, making them a far more familiar sight in our skies than they were just a decade ago. Other species are known to be in decline and it is likely that we will see a contraction in the range that they occupy within the county, or a thinning in their numbers.

The project is being coordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and has two different components. First, a series of survey squares have been selected across the country and these will receive intensive survey visits from volunteer birdwatchers, twice in the winter and twice in the summer. I have taken on two of these squares, one where I walk my dogs and the other out near East Harling. Information from timed visits to these survey squares will be collated and then used to determine the abundance of different species across the country. We might find, for example, that Norfolk’s corn buntings are now concentrated in the fens or that our green woodpeckers are most abundant on the sandy soils of the brecks.

The second component has been termed ‘roving records’ and involves collecting simple records of birds from anywhere in the country. The song thrush or bullfinch that you see in your garden could prove to be an important record and can be submitted on a simple roving record form (available from Bird Atlas 2007-11, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, IP24 2PU). A record in winter of a fieldfare or a redwing will help the BTO to map winter distribution, while a summer record of a nesting long-tailed tit will reveal the breeding range. These roving records should be particularly useful for supplementing information from the more intensive, but time-restricted, counts made in the selected survey squares. Taken together they will supply the information needed by those addressing the conservation needs of our birds, providing an audit of bird populations and highlighting those species in need of additional conservation resources. So if, like me, you get out into the countryside (or a town or just watch the birds in your garden), why not get involved and make your contribution to Bird Atlas 2007-11.