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 want your photos. We have field projects, we have indoor meetings and trips, and we keep you informed with our monthly emailed and bulletins. We have links to active bird ringing groups. And have a look at our Facebook and our Twitter sites.
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
Picture of the Month for April is Neil Bramwell's Bearded Tit - see here
The next club meeting is on 2nd July: Gamlingay Wood, an Ancient Woodland site - and Sugley Wood. 18.30 start. more here
Congratulations to Nigel Sprowell for winning the Photo of the Year competition 2020 with his Sedge Warbler. See this and the two runners-up on this page.
The Club eBulletin for February (#92) is now available to non-members - containing records, photos, articles and event reminders . Read here
It's not too late to join in with national 2021 Turtle Dove survey. To become involved in surveying in Cambridgeshire, see here.
The Woodland Bird Survey started in late March. Read more here
The Spotted Flycatcher project has now been written up for 2020 - see more here
The revised '2020' CBC recording checklist should be used from now on, view and download here
Club Bulletins back to the first issue in 1951 have now been digitised and added to the website - read them here
Twitter feed: many thanks to Brendon Doe for setting this up.
Picture of the month: April
Bearded Tit © Neil Bramwell, Ouse Fen RSPB, 22nd April 2021
Tim Watling has made the April selection: "A difficult decision between two pictures and I have chosen this Bearded Tit. It is centrally positioned in the frame, all in focus and brightly lit. The plumage detail is well defined with bright white-looking specs on the chest, the wing colours are all picked out and the long tail is showing to two points. The bird’s size is shown by the scale against the reed background. What a lovely bird."
Next Club outdoor trip: 11th June: ‘From ploughed field to wildlife heaven’ Dunkirk, 6km NNW of Ely TL514859 . Early booking essential.
In April 2007 a 3ha scrape was created and flooded in farmland and within weeks was occupied by breeding waders, including avocets. Since then the site has been expanded including providing home to a thriving colony of Sand Martins. Tony Martin, who owns and created the site, will host the visit. We will visit each area, including the hide and the Sand Martin colony in groups of five from 18.30 onwards and finish the visit with an overview by Tony on his Fenland rewilding project.
(c) Les Bunyan rspb-images.com
National 2021 Turtle Dove Survey
As the fastest declining UK species, the Turtle Dove is one of the highest conservation priority species for the RSPB. Between 1995 and 2018, we lost 95% of our Turtle Doves, and with such low numbers, monitoring through BBS is becoming increasingly difficult. Thus, surveys can support monitoring of the Turtle Dove national population, and the results can better target where urgent conservation action is needed to prevent extinction.
Our county has about 150 1km squares which need to be checked as part of this valuable survey. If you want to help and survey one or more squares, read more here
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club Summer Garden Bird Survey
If you have a garden in this area and you like to watch the birds in your garden, we would like to invite you to take part in the Cambridgeshire Bird Club Summer Garden Bird Survey 2021.
We ask that you note the bird species in your garden from: Sunday 7th March – Saturday 2nd October
Please then, each week, mark off the species on the list available to download from this website.
By the end of October, send it in to: gardenbirds@cambridgebirdclub.org.uk
From this survey you will be able to discover which species of birds make most use of gardens in the county during the summer months, find out whether new species are coming into gardens and whether the regular species are making less or more use of the gardens.
The details are here
Rebecca
Cambridgeshire Woodland birds survey 2021
In 2003 the Club carried out a survey of woodland birds focusing especially on the scarce and declining species such as Marsh Tit and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and it's time to do this again.
We hope to cover as many woodlands as possible across the county, with three visits; late March, late April and late May, and the objective is to make a species list and estimate numbers of territories (singing in the same-ish area on 2+ visits). Read more here
Spotted Flycatcher project, 2021
The project has now morphed into a study of adult survival and return-rates, following the fortunes of individual birds.
Michael Holdsworth will be continuing work on Flycatcher communities and adult survival into 2021 and we would still like all records to be sent to
spofl@cambridgebirdclub.org.uk
There's a 2020 project report at: http://cambridgeshirebirdringing.org/spofl-finding2/
Photo of the year: 2020
Congratulations to Nigel Sprowell for winning the 2020 Photo of the Year competition with his photo of this Sedge Warbler. In second place was David Ball's Grey Wagtail, and in third place was Nigel Sprowell's Beard Tit. Click here to view all three, and 2020 candidates to see all the photos that had been entered.
If you are unsure of the location of the less well-known birding sites, check our Gazetteer, which also provides standardised names to include in recording checklists for the Club's database and Birdtrack. Check the Grabagrid map which provides precise site grid references, and also shows pop-up vice-county boundaries (confirm boundary using the OS map if site very close to boundary).
Avian Flu
AVIAN FLU: The Angling Trust’s Voluntary Bailiff Service reported on 5th Dec that avian (bird) flu was confirmed in fenland swans. They advised, "Please be aware that you may see dead swans on the Nene or Drains. Dead swans may be found elsewhere too. Please under no circumstances go near or touch them. Phone Defra: 0345 933 5577, option 7: 'all other enquiries'. They will direct you to the correct local swan rescue (recovery ) people as all dead swans must now be collected for investigation". Email: defra.helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk and provide details. More info at Avian influenza (bird flu) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
For sick swans, the RSPCA is the first place to contact and they will give help as to who should be informed.
The three Lockdown races of 2020
To see how these played out, look here
Lists and facts
County birders life lists, individual record year lists / record day lists, garden lists and other records - view them here
Found and injured bird? Contact a rehabilitator. Baby birds? Read here and also here
Local bird news from Cambirds.
