eBird review

There are a number of applications to use to record and log bird and other wildlife sightings out there on the market, both free and paid for.

For birds I usually use Bird Journal (https://www.birdjournal.com/) which exists in a desktop form and as a mobile application which syncs with the desktop version. There is a free version and a paid for version. I use the paid version as it allows me to compare and contrast records from previous months and years which the free version doesn’t allow for. Also Bird Journal doesn’t just allow me to log bird sightings, I can log sightings for other taxa too which is fantastic for my own records.

I am a biological recorder, I want the sightings I see to be useful to someone. So I want to share my records with the relative authorities and organisations. If I can stop or alter a development because of my sighting of a Stock Dove 15 years logged in a database then so much for the better. This is where Bird Journal breaks down, I can, in theory transfer my data across to those who need the data but every time I have tried it lately it has failed or is so long winded it is barely worth doing.

This why I have tried eBird (https://ebird.org/home), a bird logging app and website developed by Cornell University in the US. After a long time I uploaded my records from Bird Journal to eBird and within days I had emails from local recorders and organisers questioning or clarifying my records, some from years ago. I also decided to try the app.

I have used it 3 times in 2 locations so far and I can say it is really good. It uses your phone’s GPS to log your location, which you can then set yourself as a regular patch, or later using the website link your site to an existing ‘hotspot’ which you can then compare your sightings to others who go to the same location. For instance, Jackson’s Brickworks – one of my regular haunts, is a ‘hotspot’ where myself and one other user log sightings. The other site are fields near my house which isn’t a hotspot.

To record your sightings once you have chosen your location you press ‘Start’ and off you go. As soon as you see or hear a bird you can type it in and eBird will find your species on its database, you select it, enter the number of birds or just select the ‘present’ box, and that’s it. You can also make notes or select the bird’s breeding status using a drop down box. So for instance if I see a Coal Tit I begin to write it down, after a few letters it will give me a selection of species to choose from. This in theory should give me the bird I’m looking for; however Coal Tit currently gives me three options: Coal Tit, Coal Tit (British), and Coal Tit (Continental). Two of these options are applicable, plain old Coal Tit and Coal Tit (British). I select the vanilla Coal Tit as ‘British’ is there just to differentiate the British and Continental races, they are the same species however just you can add race detail if you want, more useful if you think you’ve seen a continental race in the UK or vice-versa. This needs to be more obvious I feel to the general user. When you have finished birding you press the ‘review’ button which allows you (obviously) to review your sightings. It’ll ask you if you logged all your sighting or just highlights, it’ll ask how many observers were there, and tell you how many minutes and what distance you have walked; all of which is used to determine recorder effort. When you feel everything is in order press submit and that’s it. The records are then accessible to relevant recorders.

I can’t log other wildlife though. This is a problem for me as I record many types of wildlife; in order to record multiple taxa I have to log out, open another app and log the sightings on that app (I had to do this yesterday to log bird sightings on eBird and butterfly sightings elsewhere). This is not an issue with Bird Journal.

Another potential shortcoming is I’m not entirely sure if my bird data is going to the correct place. In the UK bird records should be sent to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)which stores, analyses and makes available all bird data. The BTO , however, has its own logging app and website called BirdTrack (BirdTrack); records on this app go direct to the BTO. I’m not sure if British eBird records eventually end up with the BTO or are stored and kept by Cornell University, which make them less useful in a UK context.

All in all however I will continue to use eBird. It is free to use and for the most part is accessible with data which is instantly comparable to other users’ data. I will keep Bird Journal as a back up and database however. I haven’t as yet used BirdTrack with any great regularity, in the past I have found the app and website clunky to use which has put me off enormously, although I believe they have revamped both in recent months.

 

Wandering without purpose

I’ve decided to try and keep up with my nature blog. I’ve had a major health scare this year and it’s taken me a long time to fall back in love with nature. Barely walked my local patch, not gone further afield, barely read around the subject, barely worked on my dissertation project (all about dealing with bad biological recording data).

I’m starting to slowly get back into it, and writing has helped me out in the past so I shall give it another go.

Yesterday I had a wander round Jackson’s Brickworks, a local nature reserve, in my  home village/town. I have written about the place before, a little gem filled with all sorts of wildlife. Expecting to find not a lot, owing to windy conditions I was just expecting a pleasant stroll. And I was right, no real highlights. Was half hoping for an early Chiffchaff  Phylloscopus collybita but alas I heard nothing. This is a partial migrant bird, in some parts of the UK you can find them all year round, but here they are still a migrant and turn up about nowish (my earliest record for the site is 13th March).

I did see a Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris which was a bonus given the

 strong winds and low temperature. I actually saw several more of these 3 weeks ago when the UK had unseasonably mild February weather.

Marsh Marigolds Caltha palustris were in full bloom, pretty normal for this time of year, granted, but they are a great sign that things are changing and it can only be getting better from now on.

FULL LIST OF BIRDS SEEN/HEARD (GEEKY, I KNOW, BUT HEY)

Canada Goose (2, maybe checking out a nesting site)

Woodpigeon

Moorhen (2)

Grey Heron

Common Buzzard

Jackdaw

Carrion Crow

Great Tit

Nuthatch

Wren

Robin

Song Thrush

Blackbird

Starling

Dunnock

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Lesser Redpoll

Goldfinch

Siskin

House Sparrow

 

 

2015 – My birding year

No pictures for this one unlike the moth one!

I’m not really a massive birder. Not compared to a lot of other birders at least. I don’t twitch (ie: chase after rarities to tick that species off a list); i’m more interested in native breeding and over-wintering birds, I don’t actively chase lists, I hate early mornings, and I don’t have a regular patch (a local place where you go once or twice a week). OK the last one isn’t strictly true, I have a couple of places I go near me but I’m finding I go sporadically rather than every week.

On the last point, I’m finding I go to Jackson’s Brickworks (see a previous post) in the spring and summer, and I’m going to another patch, Poynton Pool/Park, in the autumn and winter. There is no logic to this! Also the other thing preventing me from having a bona fide  patch is work, which is currently taking me all around the country, quite literally from the Hebrides to the Isles of Scilly. 

Anyway despite all this I’ve managed to see more birds this year than in any other year, and I’ve managed to get beyond 200 species seen in the UK in my lifetime. This year I saw 168 species of bird in the UK, which beats the previous total of 147 set in 2010, If I were to include international birds (or basically Maltese birds!) the total is 187, not bad for someone who is not actively chasing numbers! For anyone interested the 200th UK bird was a Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus.

2015 was the year of the Eagle for me. Before this year I hadn’t seen any of the two species of native UK eagle. Now I’ve seen both. My first encounter happened on a small Scottish island (nameless at the moment!) in September. I had been dropped onto this island along with a few others to survey the island for winter conservation work, within 100 metres of the landing point a huge bird took off from behind a knoll and headed towards the sea, I saw the staring eyes quite clearly. This was a White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla. Not, as many a first encounter have been, a spec, a maybe, a fleeting glimpse, but a full on show, it was wonderful. In November, on the same Scottish island I saw my first Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos. This was more standard first glimpse, it hung around for a long time but it involved frantic photos and flicking through ID books to confirm it (Golden Eagles and juvenile White-tails – whose tails aren’t that white, can be difficult to tell apart sometimes).

Added to these UK encounters were my Maltese eagle encounters. Now I’ve not written about my Maltese adventures before on this blog, but I go there every autumn to monitor bird migration and to also monitor illegal poaching which is notorious on the island (read this http://birdlifemalta.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-impacts-of-raptor-camp.html a blog I wrote in 2013 for Birdlife Malta for more of an idea). Anyway, my final day in Malta this autumn provided not one, but two species of eagle to monitor and protect from the hunters. These species were Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus and Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina. Again like my Scottish Golden Eagle encounter these were fleeting but in this case the experience was more frantic and at times worrying. To keep it short, the birds were circling to roost near a well known bird sanctuary, but in order to get there they had to fly over the heads of any prospective poacher in the area (and there are a lot). The Lesser Spotted Eagle (LSE) in particular would make for a tempting prize to any illegal poacher. I was the last person to see the LSE before it went to roost in the gloom surrounding the bird santuary (I hope it went into the sanctuary, last I saw it was heading to an area slightly away from it). I still don’t know the fate of these two birds, a night-time watch was established but I left the island before I knew the result of the all night watch.

Just a snap-shot really of my birding year. It was a good birding year an I hope 2016 will equal it (my 2016 list currently stands at 10 bird species! woo go me!).

Rouzels

So, it’s been a while then… Massive case of writers block/lack of time/willing so not written anything since June. Apologies, anyhow.

I think I’ll take the opportunity to travel back in time a few weeks to the end of my latest conservation position and summarise what I was doing and how it worked out in the end.

As I’ve written previously,  I’ve been under contract as a Research Assistant for the RSPB on a project looking at the behaviour and habitats of Ring Ouzels Turdus torquatus. This year has been unbelievably frustrating birds-wise and has been a stark contract to last year, in one valley at least. To recap, I was comparing one ‘control’ valley – in this case Great Crowden Valley whose population of breeding Ring Ouzels has remained stable since 1990 , with a ‘treatment’ valley – at the RSPB’s Dove Stone nature reserve whose population has crashed since 1990. The word treatment implies that a course of productive management techniques may stem from the study.

Only one problem this year – the population of breeding Ouzels crashed in the control valley. Last year I had 8 or 9 confirmed breeding pairs in the valley, figures that correspond to well to post-1990 figures. This year I have had 2 confirmed breeding pairs, and probably not at the same time either (Ring Ouzels have 2 broods and probably 3 breeding attempts, but if the 2nd brood fails they won’t try again, unlike for the 1st brood). I must admit I’m struggling to understand why. The weather may be an obvious answer, April was unseasonably warm and May was very cold and wet, and there were quite a few birds seen in the valley but only a very small handful of these bred. However Ring Ouzels are hardy birds so I’m not sure weather is the answer. Predation also maybe an answer, I anecdotally saw a lot more stoats and weasels in Crowden than last year. But besides, there is an elephant in the room.

My ‘treatment’ valley at Dove Stone was stable with 2 breeding pairs both breeding twice; an improvement on last year when I had two pairs probably breeding once each, these birds had the exact same weather conditions to contend with; again I was also seeing more stoats and weasels. So it’s a mystery so far and a good reason to keep studying these fantastic birds.

Male Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone – July ’15

Male Ring Ouzel and fledgling at Dove Stone

It was pretty difficult at times this year when I was faced with walking up an down the control valley knowing in all likelihood I won’t see any of the birds I’m supposed to see, it was frustrating even with the phrase ‘no data is as good as lots of data’ ringing in my ears.

Even so it was still enjoyable, I saw my first English Red Kite Milvus milvus flying low over the valley. I was surrounded by Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi butterflies  for a large period of spring which were joined by Emperor Saturnia pavonia moths and then later on by Oak Egger Lasiocampa quercus moths (one of which was in the bill of a Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone!). Overall, a gratifying summer which had so much more potential.

Back to Work

Wow, had an amazing response to my last blog on finding two suspiciously dead badgers on a trip out. It also confirmed to me what an amazingly small world conservation is, I had a brief chat on twitter with one of the country’s premier badger campaigners who I found out later to be the step-mother of one of my dearest friends.

I’ve been back in paid employment this month for the first time since early September and it feels fantastic, again re-enforcing my belief that 5 years of hard graft volunteering was worth it in the end! I briefly mentioned what I do in my post ‘The Year it all Happened (part 2)’  but I’ll go into a tad more detail now.

I’m currently working for the RSPB and my job is surveying Ring Ouzels and their habitat in two neighbouring Peak District valleys, one valley, Crowden, where the breeding population has remained stable, and the other, Dove Stone, where the population has crashed in the last 25 years. The first thing to do once I got all my kit was to start surveying the habitat, arguably the most important element of my job. This is to see if there are any differences in vegetation and vegetation density between the two valleys.

Pic 1. A solid mass of bilberry

I have two different elements to survey, habitat structure and habitat composition. Composition involves looking at what plants are living at a set point, and structure involves looking at the height and density of the vegetation in the same set point. All my survey points are on 500 metre intervals placed in and around the respective valleys. Each survey point has 16 individual plots within it to survey so it’s pretty comprehensive.

Pic 2: Checking the density

Pic 3. A more mixed plot

It’s probably easier to demonstrate with pictures. So picture 1 demonstrates an individual plot. The metal square is called a quadrat and this particular quadrat is half a metre square in size. In picture 1 the vegetation in 100% bilberry. In picture 2 I’m checking the structure of the same plot, I have to count the white stripes on the pole, there are 9 in total, the less stripes I can see the more dense the vegetation is. In this case I saw 7 stripes out of 9 which means it is relatively dense. Picture 3 shows a more typical plot which is more varied in composition, it looks something like 25% sedge, 50% bilberry and the rest a mix of grass and moss (sorry the photo quality on the work’s phone is terrible!).

It’s pretty tough work to be honest, there’s a lot of hill walking and a lot of kit to carry. I’ve been blessed with good weather so far and I’ve been able to leave some of my waterproofs in the car to save on weight (rather foolishly some may argue!). The first week in particular reminded me how much fitness I lost over the winter, my legs ceasing to work by the end of it but I’m over the ring rust stage and am enjoying the walking.

I’ve now completed the first round (of four) of vegetation surveying and now I’m onto the good bit, the surveying for the Ring Ouzels themselves. More of which another time, but I’ll leave with a pic of the first Ouzel I saw this year (you’ll have to believe me, it is there I promise!).

Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone 22nd April 2015. Photo: Author

 

Joys of Spring

This week started out seriously tough. The old black dog bit me again on Sunday and then bit harder on Monday and Tuesday. Really was in a hole. I needed to climb out of it badly. So what did I do to help? I visited my local nature reserve of course. I actually tried this on Tuesday too but to no avail, my head was in the wrong place so I just wandered round seeing nothing but my own thoughts.

So on Wednesday I tried again, this time it was different, the air was fresh and spring-like, the resident birds were singing, some early flowers were in bloom (Marsh Marigold and Lesser Celandine to name two), and two dozen or so frogs were getting amorous.

Lesser Celandine at JBW.               Photo: Author

My local reserve, Jackson’s Brickworks in Poynton, is never going to be on any national websites or feature in any magazines but I love the place, especially at this time of year, as spring springs into life very obviously here. Wednesday was spring-like at Jackson’s and certainly helped me start to return to normal, but Thursday was when spring started and I felt a lot better. Why? Two notes repeated over and over.

What are the signs of spring? It could be when the first Blackbird starts to sing (in my case on the 22nd of February). Or maybe the Song Thrush (the 6th of Feb)? How about when Snowdrops start to bloom, or when crocuses take their place? Maybe it should be frogspawn, or the first bumblebee seen? Personally I love the blackbirds singing and it is a strong contender, song thrushes are a tad too early, as are snowdrops and crocuses, maybe they should be harbingers rather than signs perhaps? Frogspawn and bumblebees are definitely signs of spring but they don’t quite cut it on a visceral level for me. No, my definitive start of spring is the sound of the Chiffchaff singing, two notes repeated endlessly. Not the flutey melodious blackbird but two disyllabic sounds. Why? Because chiffchaffs are to me the first visable (and more importantly, audible) spring and summer migrants that appear at my local nature reserve. This chiffy on Thursday would have overwintered in Spain or France and migrated here last week (OK I know some overwinter on the south coast of England now as I saw on St. Agnes). It had just begun to claim its territory amongst the local wrens robins blackbirds et al.

Jackson’s Brickworks came to life on Thursday, I now eagerly await the rest of the spring migrants, swallows, house martins, willow warblers, blackcaps, and eventually swifts. Ring Ouzels will also begin to appear in the hills in the coming weeks, which is the direction I will also go as I again change from volunteer to employee. Once more I will be surveying these secretive thrushes and their habitat this spring and summer, it should be fantastic again! Wildlife really is a great anti-depressant!

Wading Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago I attended a talk at CAWOS, my local ornithological society (see an earlier post about my take on traditional societies) and my mind was opened, again! The talk was by Rick and Elis Simpson on the subject of wading birds (or shorebirds depending on where you live!).

Now, I’ve attended a few talks in this winter season already, one was about Derbyshire wildlife, another was about Oystercatchers, but I missed one on my specialist subject of upland Pennine wildlife (D’oh!). None of my attended talks, though very well researched and presented particularly inspired me to further action. Until now.

Ringed Plovers, Leasowe, Merseyside. Photo: Alex Cropper

Rick and Elis, to cut a long story short, decided to take a round the world trip to see as many wading birds as possible for charity. This was done initially to raise money for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) to help the fortunes of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The focus soon changed however. They began realising that many species of wader they were seeing were in trouble and were in need of help. Again to cut the story down again they then saw that many organisations and individuals were putting in a lot of effort into reversing population declines by running low-cost conservation programs. For instance, to help protect some beach breeding waders in Australia leaflets were printed out along with some larger posters to create awareness within the beach using public. This cost less than £1000. Other projects include providing farmers with training and the means to work around breeding waders in their crop fields (for instance getting marker flags/poles to mark the nests out to avoid destroying them), and purchasing mist nets to assist local research projects, both projects that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. An idea for a charity was born – Wader Quest. A charity that helps fund small and cheap to run shorebird projects, and raises funds for wader conservation. A wonderful idea, many conservation charities spent tens of thousands of pounds/dollars on gargantuan and intensive research projects and nature reserve running costs; which is fantastic but doesn’t leave much room for the little guy. I joined the charity as a sponsor almost immediately.

A mixed wader flock at Leasowe, Merseyside (Look hard, they’re there believe me!). Photo: Alex Cropper

Now, I have a confession, my knowledge of waders is pretty poor and I prefer birds of prey and seabirds, but don’t tell anyone! But I love the idea of funding grass-roots projects – I firmly believe that if the grass roots are sorted out than the people and organisations further up the ladder will have a lot easier job ahead of them (like in the rest of life). I’d definitely urge everyone to think about joining Wader Quest as a sponsor, they’re fantastic! (And no, I don’t work for them I’m just completely inspired by them!). Now, I’m going to stop writing at start swatting up on wading birds…..

Here’s their website: http://www.waderquest.org/

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 3)

Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus have had a lot of publicity in 2014. In 2013 there were no reported successfully breeding pairs in England at all. Nada, nowt, diddely squat. I won’t go into the reasons for the failures but they mostly involve shotguns and vested interests. But 2014 was a different matter there were 3 reported pairs who successfully bred which was a vast improvement. It was a great surprise therefore when not long after I finished my Ring Ouzel contract I was asked if I wanted to assist in protecting a breeding pair of Hen Harriers in the Peak District. Half of me thought it was a wind-up as it was August and the breeding season was over; especially as I got the phone call when I was at a friend’s wedding, but no it was true. So a day later I found myself on a hill in the Dark Peak area with a National Trust staff member watching England’s 4th breeding pair of Hen Harriers! An incredibly late breeding pair whose nest was discovered on the 1st of August.

It was my job simply to watch the nest and record every movement of both adult birds and eventually the youngsters once they fledged. I also had to record any potential human disturbance or interference. The watch over the nest was conducted with absolute secrecy with no knowledge of it outside conservation organisations and the shooting tenant.

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair 2014. Photo: Alex Cropper

One of my outstanding memories of my watches would be on August 10th 2014. The day in question was Hen Harrier Day, a protest about illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors that took place at Ladybower Reservoir. The event was attended by 100s of people and organised by Mark Avery and the Birders Against Wildlife Crime (BAWC). But what was I doing that day? I was a mile away up a hill watching my pair of Harriers which no one could know about. Yes on Hen Harrier Day I was watching Hen Harriers almost within sight of the gathering! A pretty decent claim to fame to be honest. (To tell the truth the weather was horrible, and I saw them briefly just after dawn in a brief window of good weather before the heavens opened – and remained open for the rest of the day). I may have missed the opportunity though to show unity with my fellow conservationists and wildlife lovers, but I think I had a pretty decent excuse!

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair. Photo: Alex Cropper

The pair successfully fledged 5 chicks but unfortunately 3 perished not long after fledging leaving two, a male and a female, left. This was a pretty normal tally for breeding birds of prey, but frustrating when there are so few so every fatality hurts the national population.

The job was great, I was surrounded by great countryside watching magnificent birds. Besides the Hen Harriers there were Short-eared Owls, Peregrines, Buzzards, Merlins, Kestrels, a Hobby, Tawny Owls, Marsh Harriers, Ravens, and I even saw my old friend the Ring Ouzel again.

Alas all good things come to an end and after a month my contract was up and I’ve been looking for more paid work ever since. So I’m back as a volunteer now! It does go to show though if you put in enough time and effort as a volunteer though you will get a paid job in this wonderful job sector working with some wonderful wildlife.

Odds and ends

It has been a week of less spectacular and less important jobs at RSPB Dove Stone. To be honest this isn’t the awe inspiring work that takes place up on the boggy moorland. The task in hand this week was taking out an old stock fence which was no longer needed, and then scarifying a bit of grassland and then replanting with wildflower seeds.

The old stock fence was located near the picnic benches at the foot of Ashway Gap. It was rendered useless by a brand new stock-proof fence that now borders the whole of the picnic site. The old fence was used to protect a formerly new bit of woodland planted some years ago. Funnily enough the area of the woodland was where I did my very first bit of voluntary work at Dove Stone in April 2010 which involved digging up Rhododendron ponticum bushes.

Wonder where the fence ran?!

Taking out an old fence is simple enough, just remove the wire with special fencing pliers and use brute force and ignorance in removing the fence posts. (Actually removing the larger turning posts requires A LOT of brute force and less of the ignorance!)

The meadow creation was a lot nicer task and was very much in the public eye; the main footpath around Dovestone reservoir is immediately adjacent to where we were working. We had several people asking, ‘what are you doing’, ‘what a nice day it was’, and ‘my isn’t it windy.’ It was nice to chat with them and promote the RSPB a little bit and tell them part of the grand plan for the area. The actual task involved breaking up the ground a bit with mattocks, removing the turf, turning the newly exposed soil, raking, then spreading a wildflower mix before stamping it in with your feet. Gardening basically!

Take this turf off, throw your seeds in and job’s a good ‘un (ish)

Hopefully this summer there will be a nice wildflower area besides the picnic area where people can enjoy and appreciate the wild spaces around them.

Sphagnum and Surveys

Bit of deja-vu again this time. As, yet again, I’ve been up on Saddleworth Moor restoring blanket bog with the guys from RSPB Dove Stone. This time was slightly different, it was still spreading sphagnum to areas which are currently sphagnum-free zones, but this time it was the actual plant I was planting rather than chucking beads around.

The areas targeted this week were areas previously restored about five years ago by the local water authority. These areas have seen gullies blocked by heather bales and stone dams to create soaking wet areas. The only element missing from these areas are sphagnum, hence planting sphagnum plants rather than beads.

The task itself is relatively easy, first remove the lump of sphagnum from its sack, then break the frozen solid lump of plant matter up with a spade (!), then get a fist size lump, make a hole with your heal in a damp area and place the lump of sphagnum in said hole. And repeat.

Pretty enjoyable, although the weather over the last month has made the ground ultra frozen places so damp areas were at a premium.

The real plant in the hand!

Task two this week was to begin a Dipper Cinclus cinclus survey, again for the guys at RSPB Dove Stone (I think you can gather I do most of my volunteering there!). My survey patch was Crowden Little Brook, a small fast moving stream which begins on the moors and ends in the Longdendale Valley.

Ideal Dipper country (tho none on this particular stretch!)

The terrain was pretty tough, tussocky grass and numerous crossings of a fast moving stream made for a difficult walk. This is ideal Dipper territory, but not ideal human territory! Two Dippers were seen by me and my colleague (both of which were early on, before the terrain got difficult!)

I said surveys in the title, not survey, as I’ve done two this week. I’ve just got back from surveying a part of The Roaches for the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. This is a four part survey  so I shall report in this in the coming weeks.