Atlas listing (2 Viewers)

[turkish van]

Hi Ken and Dave
thanks for the replies and advice, what you both say does make sense. There is an atlas being done for SE Scotland Dave - I didn't realise that made it more important.
Will make sure I get them as RRs!
Thanks again

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Did a TTV on the Yorkshire border today - two species, 47 Red Grouse and a Hen Harrier. How ironic...

 

[Surreybirder]

I finally completed my winter TTVs with TQ34S on Friday. It feels a bit like the end of an era! It's an attractive rural tetrad with some woodland, fields and some poor heathland. So I was reasonably pleased to get 36 species in two hours. No gulls, waders or raptors!
Looking at the provisional maps posted on the Surrey Bird Club website, there's still lots of scope for roving records (TQ24 in particular is thinly covered) but there's precious little time to do anything about it!
Ken

 

[Dawn Balmer]

Yeah, it's hard to believe the winter fieldwork for the national atlas will all be over in a week. I finished off some tetrads in mid-Wales at the weekend. First bird was a Red Kite. Generally a bit quieter than my visits in November but still a good range of species. My husband managed to find a Nordic Jackdaw too. The hills made a pleasant change from Norfolk!

Thanks for all your help atlasing. Just one week left to finish off tetrads and fill in gaps in Roving. We're almost there!
Dawn

 

[joannec]

Yes it almost feels like the end of an era, doesn't it? Down here in Sussex we've been encouraged over the past few weeks to "Fill in the Gaps" in quite a big way. Our RO sends us lists of the tetrads with the fewest species recorded, updated every few days so we can target the worst tetrads near where we live. She's aiming for 100% coverage and it looks like she'll get it. So over the past few weeks, I've gone a-roving in places I wouldn't have otherwise gone and managed to add extra species each time. A good strategy for boosting the counts.

 

[Mike Cook]

Fill the gaps

Yes, like the rest of you, I'm trying to fill in gaps. My particular bane seems to be Dunnocks as they're missing from a few of my tetrads. Now the weather is warmer, they're starting to sing, so I'm driving round some tetrads and listening for birds that were skulking in concealment during the TTVs.

Mike

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

The fact there hasn't been a post in here since February suggests most of you are done and dusted. Today I did a TTV near Pilling which was a bit of the sublime and the ridiculous. An Egyptian Goose counts as a local rarity, but the origins are clearly suspect. Less suspect were the singing Corn Bunting and the Tree Sparrows I saw.

Stephen

 

[Surreybirder]

Tree sparrow and corn buntings would be 'megas' round here!
I've submitted various roving records but I haven't done any TTVs yet this summer. I've got the royal wedding day earmarked for one.
Ken

 

[joannec]

Less suspect were the singing Corn Bunting ...........
Stephen

......... corn buntings would be 'megas' round here!

Yes Corn Buntings must be on the mind; I did my TTV in the very far southeast corner of coastal Sussex last week and three singing Corn Buntings I did find which counts as T so that was good as they had not previously been recorded at this location. Nesting Oystercatcher was another highlight. Thirty-four species altogether including Med Gull, Wheatear, Yellow Wag and Hen Harrier, a ringtail that I suspect was a migrant but she sneaked in five minutes before the end of the count.

 

[Surreybirder]

Thanks to the Duchess of Cambridge I was able to do a TTV today - Blindely Heath in Surrey TQ34S. It was a good area with a minimum of five singing nightingales and lots of common wablers (3 lesser whitethroats, for example). I was pleased to see a grey wag feeding young as they've been scarcer here since the cold winters. About 40 species in all if you count one or two which were either flying over or outside the timed two hours.
Ken

 

[Surreybirder]

Did my final 'early summer' TTV yesterday. It was a fairly typical bit of rural Surrey with no great features so I didn't get anything out of the ordinary. But with one of the 'bonuses' that make atlasing a bit more fun, I unexpectedly got two butterfly 'lifers' - green hairstreak and dingy skipper. I had no idea that there were any so close to my home (less than two miles).
Ken

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I did a tetrad in East Lancashire today (SD62L). Similarly nothing particularly notable, but there were three reservoirs (one with GC Grebes) in some nice scenery and the weather was fantastic. This was the last TTV I will do in an area I hadn't covered before, uncovering new areas not far from home is one of the things I have appreciated most about atlasing.

Stephen

 

[Surreybirder]

I finally did my last TTV today. I've only done eight tetrads in all but even that represents 64 hours of TTV-ing. It feels a bit like the end of an era. :-O
Today rather highlighted the reason why it's so enjoyable. I did TQ34L, which is an unremarkable area, typical of rural Surrey - farming, horses and woods mainly. In fact it's the tetrad I refer to in my previous post, with the green hairstreaks. I recorded 42 species in the two hours but the 'bonus' was having three curlews fly over - the first I've ever seen in the eastern half of Surrey (and not countable in the TTV, of course).
I hope that the atlas won't be too expensive when it is eventually published!
I'm looking forward to the nightingale survey next year. 'Ruby' and I have found quite a few territories this year and look forward to mapping them.
Over and out!
Ken

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I finally did my last TTV today. I've only done eight tetrads in all but even that represents 64 hours of TTV-ing. It feels a bit like the end of an era. :-O
Today rather highlighted the reason why it's so enjoyable. I did TQ34L, which is an unremarkable area, typical of rural Surrey - farming, horses and woods mainly. In fact it's the tetrad I refer to in my previous post, with the green hairstreaks. I recorded 42 species in the two hours but the 'bonus' was having three curlews fly over - the first I've ever seen in the eastern half of Surrey (and not countable in the TTV, of course).
I hope that the atlas won't be too expensive when it is eventually published!
I'm looking forward to the nightingale survey next year. 'Ruby' and I have found quite a few territories this year and look forward to mapping them.
Over and out!
Ken

Good to see signs of life on here. I'd given up posting as everyone seemed to be finished. I did two TTVs this morning in East Lancs, highlight being nesting Little Grebe on a small pond.

I have 5 left out of what I reckon is 291 visits. Nearly there...

 

[Stewart J.]

Have completed 3 over last 2 day's, all in a forest area's, commonest bird Crossbil 150+ in one TTV, suprise bird Spotty Flyc 4 territories all on forest rides / clearings ( mature tree's) Goshawk second time in same area a nice find.

I'm really going to miss being forced into visiting local area's, it's been so enjoyable and thank you to all who have contributed to this very enjoyable thread and many thanks to Stephen for starting it.

 

[Surreybirder]

Just to state the obvious, you can look up quite a lot of statistics on the Atlas website. It tells me that, during the breeding season, I have seen a total of 72 species whilst doing my 8 TTVs. I have submitted roving records at 82 locations, which included 130 species.
For the winter, comparable figures are: 68; 8; 51; 101.

 

[Dawn Balmer]

Good to see all these TTVs being completed. I did a late visit to a square at Gorleston (Norfolk) on Friday and then spent the rest of the morning roving in TG51 where there was a lack of confirmed breeding evidence. It's really pleasing when you've knocked a square off the 'confirmed breeding gaps' page - the highlight was a brood of Pochard (very unexpected on a small pond) and a pair of Yellow Wagtails with food for young. There is one more square in East Anglia in urgent need of attention - TF50 - perhaps one for Wednesday morning.

Almost every 10-km square has gaps to fill so it's worth checking the species list in 'Any Square Summary'.

Thanks for all your help with the Atlas. It's much appreciated as ever.

 

[Capercaillie71]

Good to see signs of life on here. I'd given up posting as everyone seemed to be finished.

I haven't done any TTVs this year - my local 10km squares had all exceded their minimum 8 tetrads and with a new baby in January, I didn't feel able to take on any squares further afield. However, I was interested to see that my previous efforts (15 TTVs and 687 roving records), although modest compared to some of the undertakings described on this thread, still put me in the top 10% of atlas surveyors, so I'm not feeling too guilty!

I'm continuing to put in a few roving records. I have one 10km square where I have recorded grasshopper warbler in three different locations over two years. All the sightings were within 1km of each other (but all in different tetrads), but each one only counts as possible breeding (S/H) and I am the only person to have recorded grasshopper warbler in this square. I wonder if the atlas methodology allows the organisers to take account of multiple possible breeding records in the same square to upgrade them to probable?

Just to state the obvious, you can look up quite a lot of statistics on the Atlas website.

I've recorded 101 species in winter (66 on TTVs) and 122 in the breeding season (87 on TTvs). Obvious omissions are that I have hardly recorded any seabirds - all my TTvs have been inland and I haven't seen many coastal seabirds that others haven't already recorded.

My most frequently seen species on breeding TTVs have been buzzard, wren and chaffinch (all seen on 13/15 TTVs). Wren was my most frequently seen winter TTV species too (12). If I was still doing TTVs this year I suspect that I would hardly be recording any wrens as I know from other fieldwork that I am doing that hearing a wren is now sadly a notable occurrence in these parts after the last two winters.

My most frequently recorded 'roving' species have been pink-footed goose in winter (12 records) and sedge warbler in the breeding season (17 records). I usually check the species list for a 10km square before submitting a roving record, so this must reflect something about these species being missed by other fieldwork in these squares.

 

[joannec]

I recorded 42 species in the two hours but the 'bonus' was having three curlews fly over - the first I've ever seen in the eastern half of Surrey (and not countable in the TTV, of course).

Ken

But you can record them as Roving Records of course!

I have one more TTV to do TQ91Z in the extreme south east of Sussex, not far from Dungeness, which I hope to do later this week...........so I'm not quite finished.

I've been revisiting my old tetrads; I've only done four, to try to boost the breeding evidence. I was really pleased last week to find a pair of Spotted Flies in an unexpected location and will be going back to hopefully get some confirmed breeding.

I too will miss the atlas work. It's been hugely enjoyable and gives this weird world of birding a tangible purpose.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

I did a couple of TTVs today, only one left to go after these.

A tetrad in south west Lancs had some good birds, particularly singing Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers. East of Preston a tetrad including the River Ribble had a couple of Great Crested Grebes and what I think is the first Green Woodpecker I have seen on a TTV (they are rare on the Fylde).

In terms of all the data we can access on our sightings on the website how long will this be available for. I seem to recall Dawn telling me it would be there for at least another year to enable county atlases to finish that were running for another year.

Stephen