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
The next club meeting is on Friday 9th April 2021, 7.30 pm, entry from 7.20 pm, using the Zoom video platform ' Three Craws Sat Upon a Wa’ by David Jardine - see more here
This talk is a comparative study of three crows occurring in the Inner Hebrides (Chough, Raven and Hooded Crow) exploring our knowledge of their breeding, population biology and differing conservation issues.
David Jardine is a retired forest manager who has served on the boards of BTO and the RSPB and is the current chair of the Argyll Raptor Study Group. He is a ringer who has worked on a range of species during his many visits to the islands of Colonsay and Oronsay.
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.
After 8 years as County Recorder Louise Bacon has passed on the baton to Jonathan Heath. Many grateful thanks to Louise for all her work (and she continues to have several other roles including rare breeding birds). Welcome to Jon.
The Club eBulletin for January (#91) is now available to non-members - containing records, photos, articles and event reminders . Read here
There will be a national 2021 Turtle Dove survey. To become involved in surveying in Cambridgeshire, see here.
The Winter Garden Birds Survey finished on Saturday 6th March, and the Summer Survey is due to start (7th March). Instructions for the summer survey are here, and how to send in your winter records is here.
The Woodland Bird Survey starts in late March. Read more here
The Spotted Flycatcher project has now been written up for 2020 - see more here
Picture of the Month for February is Jonathan Stephenson's Jackdaw - see here
NEW - the revised CBC recording checklist ('2020') 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.
Friday 9th April 2021, 7.30 pm, entry from 7.20 pm, using the Zoom video platform
‘Three Craws Sat Upon a Wa’ by David Jardine
This talk is a comparative study of three crows occurring in the Inner Hebrides (Chough, Raven and Hooded Crow) exploring our knowledge of their breeding, population biology and differing conservation issues.
David Jardine is a retired forest manager who has served on the boards of BTO and the RSPB and is the current chair of the Argyll Raptor Study Group. He is a ringer who has worked on a range of species during his many visits to the islands of Colonsay and Oronsay.
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.
(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
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club Winter Garden Bird Survey 2020-21
This ended on Saturday 6th March. It's time to submit your records to Rebecca. Read here to find out how to do it.
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/
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).
Picture of the month: February
Jackdaw © Jonathan Stephenson, Cambridge, 23rd February
Sue Greenway chose this month's picture. She says, thank you for giving me the opportunity to choose a picture of the month. I have been informed that February can be a difficult month to photograph birds due to the quality of light. I am not a photographer so I am relieved that I only have 10 fantastic photos to choose from. My husband ( who is a photographer) helpfully suggested some subcategories to score each photo on. This still made it difficult to choose but in the end, the one photo that made me smile and keep coming back to was Jonathan Stephenson's Jackdaw. In this photo, I could really feel the character of the bird and the sense of its movement as it shook the water from itself.
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.
