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Do you have House Sparrows nesting in your house?  Where is that Starling going with a beak full of food?  Have you got a party of screaming Swifts zooming over your street?

These are the types of observations the Beds Bird Club are after for their new County Bird Atlas project.  The aim is to plot the breeding distribution of all species across the whole county.  The project is already into the third year of the five year survey period, with much of the county covered already - however there are still lots of holes and gaps to fill.

The project has its own website, which is updated regularly with new records.  It also has maps showing where we have found evidence of each species breeding in Bedfordshire.  Here is a map of breeding House Martins:
http://atlas.bedsbirdclub.org.uk/2007/HM.shtml  and this one is for Robin:  http://atlas.bedsbirdclub.org.uk/2007/R_.shtml

As you can see from the two examples above, there are still lots of gaps in our knowledge about relatively common species.  This is where we need your help.

Please can you look around your local area and see if you can increase our knowledge of the breeding birds of Bedfordshire?  All evidence of breeding can be submitted easily to the website by using the records submission form, with a copy of the criteria to be used found here:  http://atlas.bedsbirdclub.org.uk/forms/BreedingCodes.pdf

By the end of the survey period, in 2011, we should have an atlas comparable to those undertaken in both 1967-77, and 1988-92.  We should be able to see which species have disappeared from our countryside, and those which have found our small county to their liking and settled down.

Please do help us, and make your bird observations count.

Best wishes

Steve Blain
Beds County Bird Recorder
e: recorder@bedsbirdclub.org.uk
w:  http://atlas.bedsbirdclub.org.uk
w:  http://www.bedsbirdclub.org.uk


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