Surveying wintering birds on the Roseland.
Can you please help? Committed volunteers wanted.
The Roseland is currently under-recorded for birds of the coast, sea, rivers, estuaries, and marshes. For those of you who know your birds, or wish to know more, here is a chance to take part in the national WeBS survey for the BTO.
BTO is the British Trust for Ornithology, and the WeBS stands for the Wetland Bird Survey. You do not have to be a member of the BTO, although if you participate you will be required to register. Here is how it works.
Once a month, on a specific Sunday i.e., 13th December 2020, you would be allocated a site in your local area, dependent on your agreement. This would be negotiated through the WeBS Regional Organiser for Cornwall, Derek Julian, via David Hall.
You would then download from the BTO a tickbox sheet with all the birds you could possibly see in your site and would be simply asked to confirm what you see and the numbers present. Additionally, you would complete a time, place, weather, and tide indication on the same sheet.
Then you would upload your completed information to the BTO. This is a well-established, important national survey. In fact, you would be joining around 3000 other observers, each studying their own patch somewhere else in the UK, on the same day.
Here on the Roseland, there is a need to cover the upper and lower Percuil river, Turnaware Point, Messack Point, and St Just Creek and Bar.
Gerrans Bay from Nare Head to Killigerran, and Ruan Lanihorne and Ardevora may need extra coverage, as the areas are so large.
To help you with identification we are hoping that Wild Roseland will show BTO bird ID guide videos, on our Facebook page, courtesy of Simon Taylor, the Cornwall Regional Representative for the BTO.
Finally, if you are interested and want to see how it works you could join an experienced birder doing a count, before committing yourself.
Please contact me initially if you might wish to take part. David Hall hallruan@aol.com or 01872 501429.
Thank you for supporting Wild Roseland.