Bird Atlas book and results available

I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the Bird Atlas 2007-11: The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland, held at the premises of the Royal Society near Trafalgar Square on 21st.

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It was great to see all six authors signing copies of the book (mine was too heavy to take down with me unfortunately), and to meet up with lots of other BTO activists, both staff and volunteers. As this latest Bird Atlas for Britain and Ireland is the third breeding Atlas and the second winter Atlas, the species accounts have lots of maps showing changes in breeding distribution and abundance over 20 and 40 years, and winter distribution changes since 1981-84 (the previous winter Atlas).

Headline findings from the book were released on 25th November. Read the British Trust for Ornithology's press releases to find out more about colonisation of Collared Dove in Wales, the Great Spotted Woodpecker now in Ireland (used to be no woodpeckers there at all!) and the rapid decline of many Scottish breeding waders, like Lapwing and Curlew. This decline is also causing concern here in Wales.

Geoff Gibbs, chair of Natur Cymru

This and that

Unknown Wales talks in Cardiff on May 19th (as in Huw's recent blog): do go if you can! Kate and I went last year and enjoyed it very much. I had a table in the displays room at lunchtime and got a couple of new subscribers for Natur Cymru.

BTO Atlas 2007-11: if you have any records for this still in your notebook, it is not too late to put them in on the Atlas website - so long as you do it by Feb 20th. In some parts of Wales (including the whole of North Wales) we are continuing to collect records in the breeding season 2012, and the BTO Atlas site will stay open until the end of July for that. The main aim is to get more evidence of breeding in some under-recorded tetrads (2x2km squares). Do contact me if you would like to help.

Country Focus: this BBC Wales radio programme is a great listen on Sunday morning from just after 0700 for half an hour. Last Sunday (Jan 29) our intrepid blogger Huw was interviewing key people to tease out the basics of NEF - the Natural Environment Framework. If you didn't hear it, you can catch it on the BBC Radio Wales website.

Snow: escaped from behind the keyboard this afternoon to enjoy the walk behind Penmaenmawr quarry to the Stone Circle. See pic.