Cambridgeshire Bird Club
CORONAVIRUS - Please uphold the reputation of our Bird Club by strictly adhering to the latest Government policy and advice on all birding activities away from home.
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 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.
If you are unsure of the location of the less well-known birding sites, check our Gazetteer
Announcements
- The picture of the month for June is Simon Stirrup's Cuckoo
- e-Bulletins up to April are now available to non members - records, photos, articles and event reminders . Read here.
- Opened RSPB reserves can be found at https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/stories/coronavirus/reserve-reboot/
- Baby bird queries ? Read here (RSPB) and here (Helpwildlife)
- Our gallery will no longer show site information for each picture while the Covid-19 crisis continues. See more.
- With regret, because of Coronavirus, we have cancelled our meetings until July at least. August's is under review.
- The Photo of the Year 2020 is David Ball's Common Tern. Congratulations to David.
The three Lockdown races of 2020
To see how these played out, look here
Cambridgeshire Bird Club Woodland Bird Survey 2020
This survey resumed after some lockdown restrictions were lifted. Surveys have finished for 2020.
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....... Further information here.
Cambridgeshire Bird Club Summer Garden Bird Survey 2020
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 2020.
We ask that you note the bird species feeding or foraging in your garden from Sunday 8th March – Saturday 3rd October. We will 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 use of the gardens.
Club meetings
- Details of our indoor meetings and summer outdoor trips can be found on our Meetings page. The scheduled field trip to Gamlingay Wood on 10th July was cancelled. The trip to Kingfishers Bridge (14th August) is under review.
Photo of the year: 2019
Congratulations to David Ball for winning the 2019 Photo of the Year competition with his photo of this Common Tern. There was a tie for second place, so in no particular order they were Garth Peacock's fighting Coots and Dawid Banasiak's Short-eared Owl. Click here to view all three, and 2019 Winner and runners up to see all the photos that had been entered.
Picture of the month: June
Common Cuckoo
© Simon Stirrup, 15th June
Andrew Dobson chose June's bird. "There are many photos to admire in June’s photo gallery. The paparazzi were out in full force to record the successful peregrine breeding and produced some superb images. Perching birds are usually easier to compose and capture and I was very tempted to pick the partially obscured Tawny Owl – a chance occurrence for Peter Lawrence in his back garden. What really impresses me are the photographers who not only capture birds in flight but with great detail. Roger Cresswell’s Oystercatcher with earthworm is terrific and Colin Brown’s Swift delightful, but my choice is Simon Stirrup’s female Cuckoo. Never easy to photograph in flight, his photo is taken in gorgeous light showing off the plumage to best effect. It is as if the bird looked at the camera and tipped its wing to you as it flew past."
Found and injured bird? Contact a rehabilitator. Baby birds? Read here and also here
Local bird news from Cambirds and Peterbirder
Recent annual Cambridgeshire Bird Reports
- The Cambridgeshire Bird Report 2018 No. 92 has been published. Copies can be purchased from the Club - see here
- The Cambridgeshire Bird Report 2017 (No. 91) is now available to read online - click here for CBR 2017 or go to Bird Reports
CBC Spotted Flycatcher research 2015-19, linked to the BTO's geolocator project
Michael Holdsworth's excellent study on Spotted Flycatchers can be read at http://bit.ly/SpotFly