Previous club Projects

2016 - Turtle Dove Survey

The Turtle Dove is one of the UK's fastest declining birds, with Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data indicating a 91% population decline during 1995–2013, and the recent Bird Atlas showing a 51% decrease in occupied 10-km squares in Britain between 1968–72 and 2007–11. The species has been on the Red list of Birds of Conservation Concern in the UK since the first such assessment in 1996, and was recently classified as globally threatened (‘Vulnerable’) in the 2015 IUCN Red List.

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2015 / 16 – Cranes, towards a better understanding of their post-breeding movements and survival

The Cranes at Lakenheath Fen RSPB in Suffolk have had a good breeding season – both pairs reared young to fledging. We know from previous years that Cranes wander and sometimes congregate in the Cambridgeshire fens during winter and these can include the Lakenheath birds. Birds from further afield such as Somerset also turn up, although these are colour-ringed, unlike our birds.

Cranes keep their young with them until late winter, so finding family groups is a key to understanding their movements. Counts of adults and their accompanying young, and any observations on feeding behaviour will be of particular value towards understanding their movements during autumn and winter. An important part of this project is to identify individual adults so that we can map individuals as they move around. Thus we welcome careful observations of adults’ bustles and note their shades of grey – a feature which should distinguish between individuals. Some individuals will require significant observation to be certain of their identification. Photos may be useful if the birds are captured in varying poses.

Bustle characteristics – if you come across a group of cranes, please note if the bustles are either pale grey (like wood-ash), mid grey (like lead), dark grey (charcoal?), or are black. The bustle-tips are always black.

Pairs should remain with young until mid-Feb 2016. Please send counts of adults and family parties, together with any field notes on plumages of the adults, to Louise Bacon at cbcrecorder@gmail.com.

Further details and sketches of plumages of more adults will appear in this section as individuals become identified.

The sketches by Norman Sills of the two Lakenheath Crane pairs and a third pair all with young currently visiting Cambridgeshire demonstrate the observable differences. The distinctive features of the Lakenheath pair A2 and pair B are:

Male A2 – dark grey/brown bustle with black tips.

Female A2 – paler forewing than male but same upper breast grey as male.

Male B –large, jet-black bustle, broad neck band, noticeably larger than female.

Female B – paler upper breast than male, narrower neck band and overall paler than male.

In 2015 pair A2 produced 2 fledglings; pair B produced 1 fledgling.

Pair C has one young. The adults are essentially pale bustled.

Male C – (slightly larger) has a pale grey bustle a touch darker than his back, and no bold spots or bars on either flank. Female C – fawnish pale grey bustle, a touch darker than her back. On her left flank only are three black spots which, when in normal pose, form two blobs (the right flank also has black marks but in a different form).

A fourth pair of cranes with young have appeared in the county - we do not know where they bred

Crane sketches ©Norman Stills

Swift surveys

2014 – Distribution of Breeding Swifts in Cambridgeshire

This was a continuation of the survey that started in 2013. Cambridge City Council in partnership with Action for Swifts and CPERC sought records of breeding swifts in the City, towns and villages of Cambridgeshire. Bird Club members were encouraged to note the address and exact breeding site details of all breeding pairs, colonies and screaming parties either in that year or from previous years, and to record them at the Living Record Cambridge Swift Survey website. Birders were asked to register on Living Record and to tick 'Swift Survey' on the options page, then to open the Records page and follow the notes on how to add new records.

This website allows detailed descriptions and precise map based plotting of nest site locations. It was hoped that such records would build on our knowledge of the distribution of the species in the County, allowing local authority officers to identify nest sites at risk from planning proposals and seek appropriate retention or mitigation. Guy Belcher, Cambridge City Council's Conservation Officer, was available to provide further information on this project.

2013 – Cambridge City Swifts

This was not a project organised by the Bird Club but members were invited to take part. It was organised locally by Action for Swifts. The objective was to trial a 10-minute point-count of screaming and non-screaming swifts conducted twice during the summer. Cambridgeshire was among several counties to trial the method in collaboration with the RSPB who proposed the project. The main aim in 2013 was to assess the point-count method and to gather feedback on its practicality, the hope being that the method could be refined and calibrated to produce a measure of change in Swift abundance over time for a particular town or city. The data were presented to the RSPB for their database.

2008 - Survey of Screaming Swifts in Cambridgeshire

People were asked to record the locations of low-level screaming Swifts, in addition to colonies in their localities. These locations were plotted on this Google Map. Mapping was continued in 2009.

2006 - Screaming Swifts Survey in Cambridge City

This was a follow-up survey to the City Greenways survey in 2001 to locate breeding Common Swifts within the Cambridge city, with partial success. A Report appeared in the Cambridgeshire Bird Report 80 (2006), pp 160–164.

Cambridgeshire Bird Atlas: 2007 – 2011

For this Cambridgeshire Bird Atlas, almost a thousand contributors – from professional ornithologists to ordinary birdwatching members of the public – provided details of the birds they saw, either during timed visits to specific Ordnance Survey squares, or as roving records through the seasons. Species have been mapped at a closer level of detail than for the national atlas – at the 2 km square level; there are just short of one thousand such squares within the county boundary. Records were received from 90% of these squares. The project was part of the national survey organised by the BTO.

Information on the Cambridgeshire Atlas can be viewed here.

2004 - 2006 Breeding Owl Survey

A county-wide, 10km-square based survey was undertaken for all owl species. About sixty surveyors covered much of the county for the presence of owls during the breeding season. We did this survey partly on the basis that the forthcoming full breeding Atlas would not fully address owls due to the methods employed. Overall the survey was very successful, and a paper was published by Louise Bacon, Peter Herkenrath and Doug Radford in the Cambridgeshire Bird Report (81), 2006, pp 160–165.

It showed that the county had healthy populations of owl species, with Barn Owl expanding its range, and Long-eared Owl probably expanding its range slightly. Tawny and Little Owls were still widespread. Short-eared Owl is an irregular breeder, last confirmed in 1992.

2002 - Yellow Wagtails nesting preferences amongst crops in Cambridgeshire

The survey aimed to estimate the population densities in the Fens and the chalk areas and to identify which crops were preferred for nesting. Ten tetrads were selected from both areas and five crops were chosen for surveying – peas, winter cereal, sugar beet, potatoes and oilseed rape. In total 26 pairs were found in the Fens and 10 pairs on the chalk. The most preferred crop type in the Fens was peas followed closely by cereal /potatoes; on the chalk it was potatoes then peas, with only a single pair in a cereal crop. Crops of sugar beet held moderate numbers but no pairs were found in oilseed rape. In a simultaneous independent survey in the Melbourn area, territories were also found in field beans and onions. The results of this survey were published by Bill Jordan in the Cambridgeshire Report, 76 (2002), pp 153–155.