Hello Fellow Surveyors,
I hope you have all been able to enjoy this burst of summer and have been able to get out birding as well as all the other activities which good weather encourages. Can I ask everyone who has outstanding results to enter to put them in on-line or send them on paper to me as soon as possible.
Since this next year is the final one of the Atlas, Dawn, the co-ordinator has contacted me about the priorities for the winter survey. As you can see we still have considerable gaps in our coverage in the southern part of the county. Where minimum coverage of 8 tetrads per 10km square may not be achieved, Dawn will try to put in BTO staff members to try to fill in. This is not easy and has to be arranged well in advance. Obviously it is not possible to wait to discover they have not been done.
She has asked me to let her know asap what is going to be needed. This means that I have in turn to ask you to let me know asap which tetrads you are willing to cover for the winter. Summer too if you plan to do both as is usual but winter is the priority at the moment. Perhaps you might consider taking on adjacent tetrads which can be done in a single visit. Many have done so and find it quite convenient.
I also need to look at the tetrads which were taken on some time ago and have for whatever reason not been done. Unless I know definitely that these will be covered this winter, I must re-allocate them. If you are in this position please let me know. I will be contacting those involved shortly but it will make thing easier for me if you contact me first.
The 10km squares where there is a great need for tetrads to be covered are SN15,24,25,26 (almost nothing here),44,45,46,57.
In the north of the county most 10km squares are well covered but that does not always mean that the bird lists are complete. If you live way up in the north and feel that the needy squares are too far away but would still like to be involved you can help to fill in any gaps in the lists. You can go to ‘my local gaps’ or any ‘any square summary’ and see the list of birds recorded for the species list. See if you can add to it. However I do hope that there will be lots of you able to help out in the south.
Best wishes
Moira