Press Releases - July/August 2009
Item 25

No. 2009-07-36
July 2009

British Bird Atlas: the halfway stage!

The biggest ever stocktake of Britain’s birds reaches the halfway mark on Friday 31 July. Over three million observations for the Bird Atlas have been collected so far.

As the fieldwork for the second summer season of the Bird Atlas ends, 16,000 volunteers will be celebrating the halfway stage in this massive project. With the completion of the first two years of this four-year project, this is an ideal opportunity to assess how the survey has gone so far, and to plan the next two years of work, to ensure complete coverage of Britain and Ireland by 31 July 2011.

Volunteers have trekked along the coastline, trudged over moorlands, scaled mountains, walked through villages, towns and cities, visited forests and viewed our lakes all in a quest to map the distribution of birds in Britain and Ireland for both the winter and the breeding season. The statistics are impressive too with 1.6 million Roving Records submitted and another 1.6 million records have come in from the BTO/RSPB/BWI BirdTrack project; and on top of this, timed counts have been carried out in over 97,000 2km x 2km squares by dedicated volunteers.

Dawn Balmer, Atlas Organiser at the British Trust for Ornithology said, “We are on target to achieve our coverage aims, with 68% of our timed counts completed for winter and 65% completed for the breeding season. Although this sounds very positive, there are still many areas that need a considerable amount of effort over the next two years. These tend to be areas where fewer people live, remote areas or difficult terrain to cover. Places in Britain such as Islay & Jura, Shetland, Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Isle of Man, North Cornwall, and Montgomeryshire all need help from birdwatchers. We urge more birdwatchers in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to get involved in the project to build on what has already been achieved here.”
To check out coverage in your local area, see blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/tetrad-coverage.html

Now that the halfway stage has been reached, the BTO want to encourage all birdwatchers to send in any outstanding records for the Atlas, so that the current coverage can be assessed. This will help to inform plans for the remaining two years of fieldwork. Already many changes in species distribution are emerging, such as the spread east of the Raven and the range expansions of Cetti’s Warbler and Marsh Harrier, but some worrying pictures are also coming to light, like the range contractions of Corn Bunting and Turtle Dove.

For more information on how you can help and to see just where help is most needed, visit www.birdatlas.net

Notes for Editors

1. Bird Atlas 2007-11 is a partnership between the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC) and BirdWatch Ireland.

2. To take part in Bird Atlas visit the website www.birdatlas.net and follow links to ‘Taking Part’. Allocation of fieldwork is done locally through a network of Regional Organisers.

3. Bird Atlas 2007-11 will map the distribution and relative abundance of birds in Britain and Ireland during the breeding season and winter. The latest Atlas Newsletter is available for download from:
www.bto.org/birdatlas/atlasnews-sheet

4. Previous breeding season atlases were carried out in 1968-72 and 1988-91. The only Winter Atlas was carried out in 1981-84.

5. Fieldwork will comprise two elements: ‘Timed Tetrad Visits’ to specific tetrads (2km x 2km squares) and ‘Roving Records’, which are records from anytime during the atlas period. Fieldwork starts on 1st November. Two visits to tetrads are required in the breeding season, and two visits in the winter.

6. Results produced by Bird Atlas 2007-11 will form the basis of conservation priorities for coming decades. Maps from previous atlases are available from dawn.balmer@bto.org for use in publications.

7. Images are available from images@bto.org (high-resolution map and photographs). Please quote reference 2009-07-36

8. The BTO has an ISDN line available for radio interviews.

For further information please contact:

Dawn Balmer (Atlas Organiser) or Paul Stancliffe (Press Officer)
BTO
The Nunnery
Thetford
Norfolk
IP24 2PU.
Tel: 01842 750050
Out of hours mobile: 07704847935
E-mail: dawn.balmer@bto.org – paul.stancliffe@bto.org

Brian Caffrey (Irish Atlas Project Coordinator)
BirdWatch Ireland - Midlands Office
Crank House
Banagher
Co. Offaly
Tel: 00353 5791 51676
E-mail: bcaffrey@birdwatchireland.ie