Atlas listing (3 Viewers)

[Mike Cook]

A roving record

I did get as far as you suggested clicked on Wheatear after partial typing and then it told me later that it wasn't a valid species...

I will e-mail later

Joan

Hi Joan,

I give up on this one. I've just created a roving record for 4th April for a Wheatear and it was accepted. (I've since deleted it.) I can't think what the problem is unless Wheatear records are rejected if they are dated before some key date.:C

I think an email to Dawn is the next step. If I think of anything else to try, I'll let you know. Presumably you've submitted plenty of other Roving Records with no problems?

Best wishes

 

[JoanT]

Hi Joan,

I give up on this one. I've just created a roving record for 4th April for a Wheatear and it was accepted. (I've since deleted it.) I can't think what the problem is unless Wheatear records are rejected if they are dated before some key date.:C



Best wishes

Thought I would try again this morning and it worked. So whatever the problem was it is sorted. Perhaps because I first attempted Northern and although I deleted it.......... Thanks for your help- made me try again with it

Joan

 

[Mike Cook]

Thought I would try again this morning and it worked. So whatever the problem was it is sorted. Perhaps because I first attempted Northern and although I deleted it.......... Thanks for your help- made me try again with it

Joan

Joan

I'm pleased you cracked the problem.:-O

Best wishes

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Did Weeton village tetrad in lovely spring sunshine today. A pair of Med Gulls were a surprise, but won't nest here. More heartening for the square was 5 Grey Partridge, perhaps there have been local releases though.

Stephen.

 

[Surreybirder]

I've been doing quite a few 'roving' records around TQ34 and have got up to 66 species so far. No bullfinch - which is amazing considering that I saw loads in the winter. I flushed six snipe from a meadow today which surprised me as I'd only seen about two all through the winter period.
No major surprises but I had a good view of a peregrine yesterday; and also saw a tawny owl sitting conspicuously at the top of a silver birch this morning - I reckon it was trying to warm up in the early morning sunshine as we had a sharp frost last night.
6 helmeted guineafowl seemed a bit of a 'cheat'!
Ken

 

[Jane Turner]

I have a cattle egret following cattle between two of my tetrads just now....

Which was nice.

I can see the heads of the cows... but alas not the ground, from home. Its tempting to spend all day looking in the hope it flies!

 

[Surreybirder]

I did my first breeding season TTV today... 44 species in all, but precious few migrants. I didn't even see a swallow.
But as sometimes happens, I had the more interesting sightings later in the day - a yellowhammer in our garden (a new species) and a hobby over.
Details attached if anyone's interested. (I live in this tetrad. It's a rural area but slightly over-manicured like so much of SE England. Luckily for me the local wildlife sanctuary, which focuses on things like foxes and badgers, also attracts quite a few birds so it's certainly an above-average tetrad for a land-locked county.)
Ken

 

[Surreybirder]

I did my second TTV yesterday... 38 species. Nothing unexpected.
I saw a blackcap flying off with an ivy berry. Do you think it was feeding young?
The roving records provide interest... found a nightingale on my home tetrad today, and a lesser whitethroat about 30 yards off my tetrad (I still need it!).
It strikes me that one of the probs with only being able to see records for the tetrads where you have submitted records is that you don't have a clue where the gaps are. So I might waste a morning covering a tetrad (for roving records) which someone else has already spent ages in. I can see that the BTO don't want everyone to charge off to a tetrad that has thrown up some unusual sightings (and thereby neglect less 'interesting' tetrads) - but I'm hardly going to drive for half an hour to do a tetrad without having some knowledge of whether it has been well covered or not. (Someone has added goshawk for one of my squares... I wonder!?)
Ken

 

[davercox]

Bbs

BBS this morning: the square is in one of my Atlas tetrads, and my RO suggested I could combine them, but I couldn't get my head round it. Doing a fixed 2-km route through a 1km square; and spending exactly 2 hours (or one) in a tetrad, trying to cover all habitat types ... just don't fit together.

Anyone got any thoughts on that ?

 

[davercox]

Cheating the Atlas website

It strikes me that one of the probs with only being able to see records for the tetrads where you have submitted records is that you don't have a clue where the gaps are. So I might waste a morning covering a tetrad (for roving records) which someone else has already spent ages in. I'm hardly going to drive for half an hour to do a tetrad without having some knowledge of whether it has been well covered or not.
Ken

Ken

Why not just "pretend" to have seen a Robin in that tetrad, then you can view its results; you can always delete your Robin afterwards.

OK Dawn and Mark, don't shoot me, I wouldn't dream ...

Dave

 

[amelia1730]

As a birder who is less experienced than a lot of you guys I feel a little uneasy about the records submitted by me, not because I'm unsure of what I've seen but because I am sure I have missed a lot. If I am unsure of the ID of a bird, I do not guess but omit. Therefore, I would be much happier if I knew that people could easily 'see the gaps' in my tetrad. I do know that someone is covering mine with roving records (sometimes I have a look and think "oh, that must be what I saw.......") and he/she must be pretty hacked off knowing that an inexperienced person has nabbed it and is doing a far from perfect job. I am lucky to have a tetrad with lake, scrub, farmland, reedbed and woodland but it is a nightmare to cover properly in the time. I am doing my best but feel a bit of a fraud!

Not that I'm doing so, but, is it better to have someone covering a tetrad badly rather than not at all?

 

[Mary]

Having felt pretty much the same, I understand what you mean, Amelia1730. Even now, I wouldn't call myself any sort of expert, and am still learning all the time, and seeing new species. But you have 4 years to see as many as possible in the tetrad, so each year you'll becoming more experienced and in future can 'tick' the ones that maybe this year you can't recognise. I've found learning songs has helped enormously with ids. Keep going!!

 

[davercox]

Having felt pretty much the same, I understand what you mean, Amelia1730. Even now, I wouldn't call myself any sort of expert, and am still learning all the time, and seeing new species. But you have 4 years to see as many as possible in the tetrad, so each year you'll becoming more experienced and in future can 'tick' the ones that maybe this year you can't recognise. I've found learning songs has helped enormously with ids. Keep going!!

:t: Absolutely right Mary. And, Amelia, don't worry about coverage: unless you live in a badly covered area then you should find your RO will ask people to switch around and cover different tetrads over the four years.

 

[Surreybirder]

I agree... if the atlas was left to real experts most of the tetrads would get no coverage at all. And I believe there's a 'vetting' process so that unlikely records get queried (my great egret, for example, has been circulated round the Surrey records committee).

Why not just "pretend" to have seen a Robin in that tetrad, then you can view its results; you can always delete your Robin afterwards.

Dave, you'll get drummed out of the BTO!! But it's a thought...
Ken

 

[davercox]

Dave, you'll get drummed out of the BTO!! But it's a thought...

Seems I haven't been barred from the Atlas website yet, managed to put yesterday's and today's TTVs in OK.

Relieved to get a Cirl yesterday in SX96E, would have looked bad without one.
Surprised to get a Lesser Whitethroat singing in the same area - as far as I know they are a bit scarce in Devon these days. Nice chance to compare the two monotonous songs, all I need now is a Bonelli's

Atlassing certainly brings out things you wouldn't normally notice. Today in my first hour in SX98A (almost entirely conifer plantation) I couldn't stop meeting Greenfinches, ended up with fourteen of them. In winter I got none in this tetrad at all. Now to puzzle out why ...

 

[Surreybirder]

I'm in Newcastle visiting family this weekend (Hi, Mike!) Birding has been strictly limited but I've been able to add quite a few roving records. I've been surprised to add a few species even at well watched sites like Big Waters and St Mary's Island. I had a couple of arctic skuas, Manx shearwaters and red-breasted merganser flying past so I've put them as M, M and F respectively. I don't really know whether they are migrants or on feeding forays but they are clearly not breeding in the tetrad.
Ken

 

[Mike Cook]

I'm in Newcastle visiting family this weekend (Hi, Mike!) Birding has been strictly limited but I've been able to add quite a few roving records. I've been surprised to add a few species even at well watched sites like Big Waters and St Mary's Island.

I think you timed your visit to the north east to perfection, Ken. I gather we had the best of the weather this weekend (unusual, but it can happen). I trust you filled in your roving records with a geordie accent!

I had a couple of arctic skuas, Manx shearwaters and red-breasted merganser flying past so I've put them as M, M and F respectively. I don't really know whether they are migrants or on feeding forays but they are clearly not breeding in the tetrad.
Ken

If you've seen the skuas and shearwaters at Big Waters, I think you've done very well.

I agree they are not breeding and your codes seem sensible. A code of U would also be plausible for the skuas and shearwaters given that arctic skuas don't breed before they are three. I think manx shearwaters tend to be even older.

 

[Capercaillie71]

Dodgy records

Has anyone else noticed dodgy records in the summary data for their 10km squares?

I was looking at the square summary for this 10km square and noticed that the species list included Eider, Red-throated diver and Sandwich Tern.

I suppose anything is possible, but these species seem very unlikely in a square that is 25km inland with no significant waterbodies.

I don't envy the atlas organisers having to sift these things out and it makes you wonder how many other records have been wrongly posted that might not be obvious.

 

[Alan G]

But you have 4 years to see as many as possible in the tetrad, so each year you'll becoming more experienced and in future can 'tick' the ones that maybe this year you can't recognise.

Is this correct?

I was under the impression the 4 years is designed to cover all Tetrads once, not to continue to survey the same squares up to 4 times?

In other words, once a square's had its 2 x Winter & 2 x Summer surveys I thought that survey was completed.

I could be wrong of course?

 

[markgrubb]

Has anyone else noticed dodgy records in the summary data for their 10km squares?

I was looking at the square summary for this 10km square and noticed that the species list included Eider, Red-throated diver and Sandwich Tern.

I suppose anything is possible, but these species seem very unlikely in a square that is 25km inland with no significant waterbodies.

I don't envy the atlas organisers having to sift these things out and it makes you wonder how many other records have been wrongly posted that might not be obvious.

Where on the website do you find the summary for the 10km squares?-can't seem to locate it on the Atlas website and I would be interested to see what has been found in areas around where I surveyed