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.
Announcement
- Details of our summer outdoor trips can be found on our Meetings page. Please note that due to popular demand some trips may need to be booked early to avoid disappointment.
BTO Urban Breeding Gulls Survey 2019
Last summer we successfully contributed to the Cambridgeshire component of the UK breeding seabirds census. This year, there is an add-on project specifically to survey urban breeding gulls
You can chose from randomly-picked urban 1km squares across all the towns in the county - two visits are all you need to do.
If you are interested, please email Louise Bacon, county recorder, with an indication of which part of Cambridgeshire / Peterborough you would prefer. The survey starts soon so please respond now if you if you want to be involved.
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: March
Little Grebe, Fowlmere RSPB, 11th March 2019
© Garth Peacock
Mike Foley has made the selection for this month.
I have always had a soft spot for these tubby waterbirds and so I could not resist choosing this pair for the picture of the month. In second place are Brendon Doe's Cranes, an awesome sight as they fly overhead, and in third place is the elegant looking Iceland Gull in flight showing its underside to the camera, again taken by Brendon.
e-Bulletins
- Our e-Bulletin for January 2019 is now available for reading, click here to view it
10 May: Wild birds in human history: the archaeological approach by Umberto Albarella
Tony Cooper Suite, Cottenham Village College, CB24 8UA. 7.30pm for 8pm start
Many people love birds because of their beauty, songs and overall contribution to our countryside. They also represent a fundamental part of our ecosystems. We love birds but we also need birds and in that respect they are worthy or our care and protection. It is less often considered, however, that birds have also had a fundamental role in shaping our past and that, as such, they are part of our historical as well as natural heritage.
In this talk Umberto Albarella will provide some examples of how archaeologists have studied birds in order to understand past human societies and the way the relationship between humans and birds has operated. He will show how birds have represented food, status symbols, religious icons as well as companions to different people of the past; and also how, unfortunately, humans have historically persecuted birds. Case studies will focus on Britain and Italy, as well as the Roman and medieval periods, for which we have particularly wealthy evidence.
- Umberto Albarella has a first degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Naples (Italy), but he has been interested in anthropology and then archaeology since his undergraduate days. He engaged in archaeological fieldwork in Italy and studied animal bones from urban Roman and medieval sites in Naples. He moved permanently to England in 1993, working at English Heritage, the University of Birmingham, University of Durham and eventually moved to the University of Sheffield, where he is a Reader in Zooarchaeology. Umberto specialises in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites (zooarchaeology). Although his research is predominantly based in Britain and Italy, he has also worked in Armenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Portugal.
More on meetings here
14 June: RSPB Hope Farm, Knapwell
A visit to this 181ha working farm purchased in 2000 by the RSPB to test and develop innovations that work both for wildlife and profitable farming.
Early booking essential
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.