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
The August e-bulletin is now available to non members - records, photos, articles and event reminders . 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.
Next indoor meeting
Friday, 11th October at St John's Community Hall
Cambridgeshire Winter Garden Bird Survey 2019/20
The Winter Garden Survey resumes on 6th October. If you have a garden and you like to watch the birds in your garden, we would like to invite you to take part.
We ask that you note the bird species feeding or foraging in your garden from 6th October 2019 – 7th March 2020.
We will discover which species of birds make most use of gardens in the county during the winter months, find out whether new species are coming into gardens and whether the regular species are making less use of the gardens. For further details, read 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
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: What have we learnt from 12 years of bird studies and monitoring in Thetford Forest? by Greg Conway
St John's Community Hall, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN. 7.30pm for 8pm start
Friday's talk will cover Nightjar & Woodlark predation study, forest breeding bird monitoring 2008 - 2017, Tracking studies on Nightjar, Tree Pipit and Goshawk, and Firecrest surveying. Since 2008 research has been directed towards the bird communities of Thetford Forest on the doorstep of BTO. The Forest and surroundings, supporting nationally important populations of Woodlark, Nightjar and Stone-curlew, have been covered by national monitoring schemes. However, there are substantial numbers of other nationally and regionally important species (eg. Goshawk, Firecrest, Siskin and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker) as well as general bird communities, that have received little attention. Much recent work, using surveys and tracking technology, has been undertaken to monitor the populations and understand their habitat requirements, and how these may be affected by forest management.
- Greg Conway is a Research Ecologist at the BTO (https://www.bto.org/about-bto/our-staff/greg-conway) where he has worked for the past 22 years on a diverse range of bird research and surveys involving terrestrial and marine species. More recently he has used tracking technologies to investigate migration and detailed summer habitat use for a wide range of species, including Willow Warbler, Goshawk, Tree Pipit, Nightjar, Whinchat and large gulls.
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
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: September
Little Stint, Grafham Water, 9th September
© Ian Dawson
Pam Peacock has made this month's selection:
Choosing the photo of the month is a good excuse to desert the list of jobs and spend a pleasurable time browsing the website. A good start on September 1st is the autumnal Redstart by Mike Weedon, Garth Peacock’s Great White Egret in flight caught the light beautifully and the Hobby in flight by Brendan Doe is a crisp image. But my choice is the neat Little Stint parading along the water’s edge at Grafham by Ian Dawson.
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