The Clwyd Bird Recording Group (CBRG)
was formed in 1989 but Clwyd ceased to be in 1996 when local government
reorganisation brought in the current unitary authorities. Within
Wales, the Welsh Ornithological Society encourages the use of the Vice
County boundaries that had been in use for over one hundred years prior
to 1974, when Clwyd was formed.
However, since I took over as the
County Recorder I have become aware of several issues about boundaries
that were not known, or not clear, at the time when the bird report for
2003 was published. I am grateful for discussion with, and information
from, David Ballance, that has helped with clarifying these
issues. In the report for 2004-2006 there are three maps to
clarify the boundary issues that are reproduced here: firstly, the Vice
Counties shown with rivers and major inland waters included to give
some notion of place (Figure 1); secondly, a similar map of Clwyd
(Figure 2); and lastly a map showing the current Unitary Authority
boundaries (Figure 3).
When I took over the role I used an
Ordnance Survey map (Sheet 107, printed 1962) for my knowledge of the
northern boundary between VC49, Caernarfon, and VC50, Denbighshire.
This showed a boundary that came north up the western bank of the Afon
Conwy to a point near Benarth Hall, then a distinct turn to just north
of east across the estuary and following the line of a stream entering
the estuary at about SH803772. The boundary then gently curved north to
the coast in the middle of Penrhyn Bay. After taking over the role, I
found that research on behalf of the National Biodiversity Network,
shows that the boundary goes north up the western bank of the Afon
Conwy, past Benarth Hall to the level of the railway bridge, then east
on what is now the line of the A55 dual carriageway. It then follows
the line of the previously understood boundary until just south of
Penrhyn Bay when it veers to the east passing north of
Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, but south of Rhos-on-Sea, reaching the sea to the
north west of the Colwyn Bay, approximately opposite the middle of the
current breakwater. This is also shown on the map at the back of HE
Forrest, 1907, The Fauna of North Wales, London: Witherby. See Figure 1
for a map of the Vice County boundaries as I understand them.
This explanation is here because of
two consequent changes to the area that is our duty to report. Firstly,
the positive difference means that nearly the whole of RSPB Conwy can be
considered as being in VC50, Denbighshire, but the downside is that we
have ‘lost’ Rhos-on-Sea and Rhos Point to VC49, Caernarfon.
The Cambrian Ornithological Society
has recently decided no longer to record birds at RSPB Conwy, except
for any records in the north-east corner (which is in Caernarfon). John
Barnes
has agreed that the salient of Caernarfon that is east of the Afon
Conwy in the area around Maenan, should be considered to be in VC50,
Denbighshire, so we use the river as our joint boundary.
To the left is Figure 1, a more
detailed map of North-East Wales showing Vice Counties. NB the enclaves
of Flintshire around Marford and the larger one east of the Afon
Dyfyrdwy (River Dee) are counted as VC Denbighshire for biological
recording purposes.
Jim Dustow, the Recorder for
Meirionnydd, likes to include all of the Migneint in Meirionydd,
although there is the long extension of Denbighshire into that area of
mountains. We have agreed to double record the area, though in reality
the only source of data, currently, is from RSPB surveys. Having
thought about the issue of the north-eastern corner of Meirionnydd (that
takes in Bod Petrual in Clocaenog Forest), I have decided that it would
be best for me to accept records from that area (as a part of Clwyd)
but to pass on those records to the Recorder for Meirionydd and we may,
possibly, mention species recorded there if there is some special
reason. Otherwise, we will report on records from within our VC area.
See Figure 2 for a map of the old county of Clwyd.
To the left is Figure 2, a map of North-East Wales when it was known as Clwyd.
That leaves one last area of
contention. I have discussed the matter with Brayton Holt, the Recorder
for Montgomeryshire. He needs to keep an account of records that occur
within the Unitary Authority of Powys, and its modern boundary comes to
the north of the Tanat Valley, whereas the southern boundary of VC50
extends to the south of the Tanat Valley. I shall collect records for
the VC Denbighshire and we shall report on those records, but I shall
ensure that I pass on the records that are within the modern Powys
boundary to the Montgomeryshire Recorder.
To the left is Figure 3, a map of North-East Wales showing the post-1996 Unitary Authorities.
There is one last problem that I
cannot do anything about – the western edge of the recording and
reporting area for this report is inconveniently in the middle of the
new county of Conwy. See Figure 3 for the Unitary Authority boundaries.
This is awkward for many reasons, mainly to do with reporting on local
biodiversity issues and organising surveys or projects.
For members of the public, or any
birdwatchers who are not especially interested or knowledgeable of
these boundary issues, the key thing is for records for North-East
Wales to be sent to me. I shall pass on any that are of interest to a
Recorder in a neighbouring area.
Despite all that I have said about our
boundaries, above, each 1 km square is tagged with at least two
different types of county within the Recorder 6 database. So, if say, a
Biodiversity Officer of one of the new Unitary Authorities wanted to
know about the distribution of a species in their UA, I am able to
search in that way and provide such records (for bona fide purposes).
The map, above, shows the locations
from which I have received bird records over the years 2004 - 2009. For
some sites there have been many hundreds of records, for others there
has been just one record.
Ian M Spence, June 2008 revised 25 July 2010
Acknowledgement: The maps have been produced using DMAP by Dr Alan J Morton, click to find out more)
Where do we record?
over as the
County Recorder I have become aware of several issues about boundaries
that were not known, or not clear, at the time when the bird report for
2003 was published. I am grateful for discussion with, and information
from, David Ballance, that has helped with clarifying these
issues. In the report for 2004-2006 there are three maps to
clarify the boundary issues that are reproduced here: firstly, the Vice
Counties shown with rivers and major inland waters included to give
some notion of place (Figure 1); secondly, a similar map of Clwyd
(Figure 2); and lastly a map showing the current Unitary Authority
boundaries (Figure 3). 
