Mapping birds

[Tringa]

There are a number of threads here that I think could be developed into something interesting and possibly also useful.

We have had threads about

birds that have increased and declined around the country,

the numbers of house martins, and

the sightings of red kites

I don't know how to do this and it may be impractical, but can we have a map, like the current one that lists interesting wildlife sites, where we could log, for example the sightings of kites or the numbers of house martins or indeed any other bird that folks feel interested or strongly about?

I think we would need to be careful and as accurate as possible and record what is appropriate. For example, I suggest recording individual sightings of kites and buzzards would be OK, but not for house martins; for these I think an indication of less than, same as or more than usual would be more useful.

Perhaps I'm getting a bit precious here but accurate information we collect could be useful to bird organisations.

What do people think? Is this a possibility or am I being a wazzack?

[RoyW]

An interesting idea Tringa, although I don't really think that it is the sort of thing that could easily be made to work on a site like this.

Maps that WAB members could add sightings to would eventually show which parts of the country species could be seen in (you would need at least one map for each species, preferably more for species with different summer/ winter distribution), but this would involve a lot of work - and the information is already available elsewhere.
It would be even more difficult to produce maps that readily display any useful information on increasing, or declining, species. For this the data needs to be collected, and then someone needs to spend time analysing it (taking into account, for example, previous status, observer bias, and the possibilty of some incorrect records) before any trends can be properly identified.

In my opinion, I think that anyone who is after information on a species' distribution, or population status, will get a better answer by posting a question for others who have access to the relevant information (like things are done now).


I do think that the people who post on WAB could contribute a lot of information that is useful for county and national organisations that already record our birds (and other wildlife) though. Every county has a birdwatching or natural history club/ society that collects records, and typically publishes a summary of these in a county bird report. The recorders for each county can provide details of the type of records that they consider appropriate for different species (eg. in Kent and Cornwall every sighting of a Red Kite may be required, but in areas with breeding population the recorders may only want records of breeding pairs and large gatherings). You just need to be certain of your identifications, and (for rarer species) may be asked to provide some details of how you eliminated possible confusion species.
There are also national recording schemes to which records can be contributed - such as the BTO/ RSPB Birdtrack, and periodic surveys - like the current BTO breeding/ wintering bird atlas.

All records sent to these county/ national recording schemes will be added to databases, and can be used to analyse current, and future distribution and trends, and details of how to submit records (or who to contact) can easily be found by online searches (eg. for 'county bird recorder' or 'BTO birdtrack').
Although data published by these groups may not be freely available online someone on WAB is bound to have it if anyone wants an answer!

Roy.

[Tringa]

Thanks for taking the time to put together such a comprehensive answer, Roy. As I said I had no idea whether it was practical or not and I can see that, while some maps could be realtively simple, others would be more difficult and as you say some other organisations are already collecting data.

[RoyW]

It might not be practical on this site (although someone might disagree), I would strongly encourage anyone who is out observing and recording wildlife to find out who their local county recorders are and pass their records on though.

Roy.