A standard record form is available
from me or the CBRG Secretary (or see Downloads)
and it would be most helpful if these
forms were used and submitted to me, as Recorder, by email. All the
records are imported to a database so it does not matter about the
order of the records – it is probably easiest to use the forms
chronologically, just entering the latest observations that you have
recorded. If you have records that are not in date order, this does not
matter and we would welcome historical records from previous years if
they have not yet been submitted.
The crucial aspects of each record are:
- Species name (as in the new BOU checklist); - Date of the observation; - Location name (preferably from the gazetteer, but if not then a name for the 1 km square that looks sensible); - The 1 km square grid reference (this is crucial);
In this map the black lines show the
1 km square on the national grid around Sychdyn. This is square SJ2466
- Note that the left vertical, blue line on the map is 24 and the
bottom, blue line on the map is 66, in the 100 km square SJ.
- The age or sex of the bird; - The number of birds
seen (please do not enter pairs as one record – please enter the
number of males then on the next line, the number of females); - The Vice County number, if known (eg 50 or 51); and - In the comments column please enter any other aspects of the observation that are pertinent.
All of the details observers submit are stored. As
the records are handled electronically, it does not matter how
frequently you record the observations.
Records can be made available to the
CBRG in a variety of ways, some of which are better than others. They
would all be equally good, if they all had the same requirements, but
that is expecting a lot. Records of bird sightings may be made
available by:
-
using a spreadsheet available from
me (Email Recorder) with a gazetteer for place names, and
a list of the BOU 2006 checklist species names or from this site (see Downloads);
- by using Birdtrack (www.birdtrack.net); - by using the Cofnod record submission facility (www.cofnod.org.uk); - by using the
Birdguides record submission facility (www.birdguides.com but please
give your name and address – see the rarities page); and - by using the website run by Richard Smith (www.deeestuary.co.uk) emailing your records to him.
Please submit your records regularly,
preferably no less frequently than every quarter. For your records to
be considered for a bird report, please submit the records before the
end of March of the following year. If they arrive after that date and they may be too
late to include, but will still be added to the Recorder 6 database.
I look forward to receiving records from existing and new observers.
If you wish to practise your counting
of flying birds, do have a look at the following website. Do the
exercise and see how accurate you were with your counts! Click to open bird counting page
