Reserve/Site Lists (1 Viewer)

[Himalaya]

I have come across a number of references stating number of recorded species per site. I wonder if anyone has any reserve or site figures to hand of other reserves or sites.

I do not want to include any of the Shetland Isles, the Isles of Scilly and Heligoland because they are the highest and I am not keen on including islands because they do seem to attract lots of rarities. I am also interested in European reserves.

1. Swillington Ings / St Aidan's in West (inland) Yorkshire have 259 species recorded until April 2020 but I believe they have added Cattle, Egret, Marsh Warbler, Franklin's Gull and a certain Long Toed Stint since then:-

… Recorded Species

The complete historical list for Swillington Ings Bird Group’s recording area. TOTAL 259 + 8ssp (Updated 8 April 2020) Modified :- 3 December 2019 Dipper added 22 Oct…

sibg1.wordpress.com

2. There was a mention of Fairburn Ings (also inland) in Yorkshire having recorded over 275 species on BBC Springwatch - any ideas what the actual figure is?


3. 254 species have been recorded at WWT London which was a bit lower than I expected but it is in an urban area

Patch birding: London Wetland Centre WWT

Jake Klavins, warden at the famous reserve situated in the heart of the capital, talks about his cherished patch.

www.birdguides.com

4. In the Autumn of 2021 Birdguides mentioned an American Golden Plover was the 269th species recorded at Seaforth, Lancashire Wildlife Trust Reserve, Liverpool.


5. Most surprisingly Walney in Cumbria has recorded 300 species according to Walney Bird Observatory

How many are recorded at Cley, Minsmere, Dungeness, Portland Bill and even the less rarity attracting ones.

 

[Mono]

I would imagine that most of these lists are a measure of the observation effort rather than the intrinsic "worth" of the site. Walney, for example, is a active bird observatory, not much goes through Walney without being noticed, and trapped and ringed.

With such varied sites it is near impossible to correct for the observation effort. There is also a feedback effect, productive sites attract observers which generate more sightings which in turn attract more observers...

Near where I used to live was an OK wetland/alder carr site, it had a couple of patch watchers but it never appeared in any "where to watch" lists. Then they built a bird hide, it then started to appear in sightings reports, it then attracted folk on a "birding day out" and now it is in a "where to watch" list. The birds haven't changed just the observation effort.

 

[Farnboro John]

One issue about places like RSPB reserves is that they have become much less "birder friendly" in how and what they publicise. Numerous - though not all - RSPB reserves used to publish their daily logs of particularly interesting sightings on the individual site webpages: very useful lists that could be quickly perused on a Friday night to decide on the weekend's birding trip. Those useful lists have been replaced, quite evidently as corporate policy, by creating a bunch of blogettes by staff individuals on things they have done and seen around each reserve. These are frequently days out of date, of necessity circumscribed in completeness and to boot, are chiefly badly written, often illustrated with either obviously stock or just very poor photos. Their usefulness to birders in pursuit of the hobby is zero.

One wonders why the RSPB is so keen to alienate its most reliable source of visitors.

John

 

[Steve Lister]

Have to agree with John - it would be great if there were regular, maybe even daily, updates of noteworthy birds from key reserves. The only one I regularly see doing this is Frampton Marsh RSPB.
The RSPB members' magazine contains virtually nothing about what has been seen on their reserves.

 

[Steve Lister]

Going back to the original theme, Spurn (the whole observatory area which extends to just beyond Easington so a lt more than just the traditional Spurn peninsula) has a total list of 400 accepted species.

 

[LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese]

One issue about places like RSPB reserves is that they have become much less "birder friendly" in how and what they publicise. Numerous - though not all - RSPB reserves used to publish their daily logs of particularly interesting sightings on the individual site webpages: very useful lists that could be quickly perused on a Friday night to decide on the weekend's birding trip. Those useful lists have been replaced, quite evidently as corporate policy, by creating a bunch of blogettes by staff individuals on things they have done and seen around each reserve. These are frequently days out of date, of necessity circumscribed in completeness and to boot, are chiefly badly written, often illustrated with either obviously stock or just very poor photos. Their usefulness to birders in pursuit of the hobby is zero.

One wonders why the RSPB is so keen to alienate its most reliable source of visitors.

John

The SOC Where to watch birds in Scotland app does this by interfacing with BirdTrack, at the bottom of most (but not all) site pages there is a 'Recent Sightings' list with records up to the day before and 5 day totals. So for example right now for RSPB Lochwinnoch it includes a count of 6 reports for Smew in that period and was last updated today.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

At Least Burton Mere Twitter feed is updated daily with what has been seen on the reserve.

 

[Farnboro John]

The SOC Where to watch birds in Scotland app does this by interfacing with BirdTrack, at the bottom of most (but not all) site pages there is a 'Recent Sightings' list with records up to the day before and 5 day totals. So for example right now for RSPB Lochwinnoch it includes a count of 6 reports for Smew in that period and was last updated today.

If you say so, but quite apart from having to know about that and interface with something other than directly with the RSPB site webpage, do you not think the RSPB ought to be raising its profile with members and non-members by having the data available directly from it and not letting the kudos slip to somebody else?

John

 

[Farnboro John]

At Least Burton Mere Twitter feed is updated daily with what has been seen on the reserve.

Frankly, to hell with Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and anything else (I don't use them and don't want to, they are far too intrusive). To find what is at Titchwell, day to day, I want to interrogate RSPB Titchwell via the RSPB website: ditto each other RSPB reserve. That's the most useful thing they can do with those webpages. I get all the push comms I need from RBA: to decide where I'm going from a shortlist of sites I need to be able to pull. On my terms.

Plus my original point stands: every RSPB reserve needs to be instructed as a matter of corporate policy to produce and update this information promptly, at least daily. Even though they abandoned birds for people for ever (forever wasn't long, was it?)

John

 

[LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese]

If you say so, but quite apart from having to know about that and interface with something other than directly with the RSPB site webpage, do you not think the RSPB ought to be raising its profile with members and non-members by having the data available directly from it and not letting the kudos slip to somebody else?

John

Well the RSPB is a BirdTrack partner (as is SOC) so if you mean could the RSPB also do what SOC is doing then fine. Doing their own thing would just be duplication (I work as a programmer so if they hired me to do I'd just copy what the SOC is doing). Plus its a good chance to plug BirdTrack to its members.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I would imagine that most of these lists are a measure of the observation effort rather than the intrinsic "worth" of the site. Walney, for example, is a active bird observatory, not much goes through Walney without being noticed, and trapped and ringed.

I suppose it depends how you define 'site'. Walney Island is eleven miles long. I would imagine there's an awful lot that goes through Walney without being noticed never mind trapped and ringed. The north end is a nature reserve in its own right and there aren't that many active birders compared with, e.g., Spurn.

 

[Surreybirder]

You can learn a lot about 'hotspots' from eBird, including bar charts of frequency of occurrence (not just in the UK). For example the reserve at Bharatpur lists 387 species. See https://ebird.org/hotspot/L946706/media?yr=all&m=
Of course, just as with Bird Track, it depends on observers entering their records. I see that I recorded 129 species there on 4th January, 1988 - happy days!

 

[Himalaya]

Cley is on 397 with 4 pending acceptance as of January 2022.

 

[Himalaya]

Belvide Reservoir, Staffordshire is 263 - which must be one of the best for an inland site. One regular has seen 250 of the 263 recorded species which must in itself be a record.

Steve Nuttall: reaching patch paradise

One of Britain's most dedicated patchwatchers, Steve Nuttall, recently celebrated hitting a landmark 250 species at Belvide Reservoir after nearly four decades.

www.birdguides.com