If you haven’t heard already, the State of the UK’s Birds Report 2015 was published the other day, and once again makes for interesting reading. You can access it from here by clicking on the picture below.
It is at no surprise that the overall trend is still heading downwards for most species, however the report is well worth a read, even if you think you know what the state of our bird life is like! What I particularly like about this year’s report is that it really highlights the benefits of partnership working.
Breeding wetland birds are one group to have benefited from partnership projects across the UK, with the likes of redshank, lapwing, bitterns and curlew all responding well to habitat restoration and management in the Greater Thames for example.
A huge part of the monitoring that helps build the datasets for these reports is carried out by volunteers. The BTO’s wetland birds survey helps map our wetland bird populations across the UK, and helps to prove that our conservation work and our partnership work is really working. Once a month, thousands of volunteers head out and survey our waders and wildfowl, helping to monitor how they are doing.
Despite the many birdwatchers we have in Kent, there are still areas missing surveyors for some of these surveys. One such survey is BTO’s Non-Estuarine Waterbirds Survey, which kicks off in January 2016…
If you fancy putting your birdwatching skills to a really good use, then why not take part in these surveys? If you use BirdTrack to record your everyday sightings, the same log-in details can be used to see what areas are available and still need a surveyor. If you are interested but are not logged into BirdTrack, then visit the BTO’s website (click on the picture above) to find out more info.
