Cambridgeshire Bird Club
Welcome to the club
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club promotes the study, recording and conservation of birds in Cambridgeshire and encourages a wider interest in natural history and the protection of county wildlife habitats.
We record the County's birds in our Annual Report, so we need your records. We have a stunning Gallery, so we need your photos. We do research, we have indoor and outdoor meetings, and we keep you informed with our regular emailed and online bulletins. We have links to active bird ringing groups. And have a look at our Facebook page.
You can see What's About? and we urge you to report interesting, sensitive or confidential sightings to the County Recorder.
We hope you enjoy your visit and come back soon.
Announcements
Club Bulletins
July's bulletin is now available to non members. Read here.
New Checklist order for 2019 records spreadsheet
In February 2019, the BOU brought in a new checklist order. Our records spreadsheet has been changed accordingly.
For those of you who do direct records submissions to the Cambridgeshire Bird Club, could you please use our revised 2019 spreadsheet from now on. (All earlier 2019 records will be converted for you, which is also true for BirdTrack records)...... More details here
The new order will be adopted from the 2018 report.
Club meetings
- Details of our indoor meetings and summer outdoor trips can be found on our Meetings page.
Indoor meetings
Meetings for September - December 2019 will be held at St John's Community Hall, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN. 7.30pm for 8pm start. Club organiser is Vicki Harley vicki@cambridgebirdclub.org.uk
Next Club meeting
11 October: Bird monitoring and studies in Thetford Forest by Greg Conway
St John's Community Hall, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN. 7.30pm for 8pm start
More details to follow.
8 November: Bird conservation and birding in Bangladesh by Rob Sheldon
St John's Community Hall, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN. 7.30pm for 8pm start
Bangladesh is not a regular destination for tour companies with most focusing on India and Nepal. However, the country has many fascinating birding locations and hosts some high profile species on many birdwatchers’ ‘must see’ list. Sonadia Island is one of the most important wintering sites for the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and a range of other shorebird species. And the renowned Sunderbans hosts a good population of the elusive Masked Finfoot. This talk will highlight some the key birdwatching sites across Bangladesh, as well as discuss some of the ongoing conservation work for threatened bird species.
- Rob Sheldon has worked in nature conservation for almost 20 years, including 12 years with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since 2013, he has been the Chairman of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, The Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME). Most recently he has worked for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) as the Director of the King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre (KKWRC) in Saudi Arabia. He now works freelance as a consultant through RDS Conservation.
More on club meetings here
BTO Cambridgeshire Spotted Flycatcher Geolocator Project
For more information on the Project and what we've found out so far go to http://cambridgeshirebirdringing.org/spofl-menu/
And please continue to send in every record from now until October to spofl@cambridgebirdclub.org.uk
Photo of the year: 2018
Congratulations to Neil Bramwell for winning the Photo of the Year competition with his photo of a Hawfinch. In second place was Nigel Sprowell's Spotted Flycatcher, and in third place was a Peregrine Falcon by Simon Stirrup. View here to see all three, and click here to see the photos entered.
Picture of the month: July
Common Sandpiper, Sutton North Fen, 11th August 2019
© Steve Cooper
Matthew Mellor selected this month's Bird of the Month.
There were some really good photos taken in August this year, even if the subjects themselves were some of the more everyday species; and when it came to waterfowl, many were in eclipse plumage. That said, the smart comparison of a drake Garganey with a Mallard by Mike Weedon was nicely illustrated. There were a few striking compositions, not least David Ball's House Martins at the nest, Simon Stirrup's Calder-esque Cormorant along with James Hanlon's atmospheric Black-tailed Godwits and well-caught Little Tern. As ever, Grafham produced some of the most vivacious photos, but it is Steve Cooper's juvenile Common Sandpiper that gets my vote for its excellent capture of colour and pose - one for the ID books.
Annual General Meeting 2019
The 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club was held in the Tony Cooper Suite, Cottenham Village College at 7.45 pm on Friday 8th March. To view the Agenda, click here, and for the Minutes of the 2018 AGM click here. The audited and signed Financial Statement for 2018 can be viewed here.
County peak bird counts and earliest / latest dates
Updated by Mark Hawkes - view them here