This is an occasional newsletter from your BTO Regional Representative, it will be updated from time to time with information relevant to the Harrogate and District Naturalists’ recording area. Contact me by email: mikebtorep@gmail.com or by phone: 01423 567382, mobile: 07900 301112. Website: www.bto.org
New for 2014 a Nationwide Peregrine Survey, the last one being in 2002. In common with most BTO surveys these days the main fieldwork is based upon visiting randomly selected squares ( in this case 5 x 5 km), these are backed up with on-going visits to known sites mainly by local Raptor Study Groups, casual sightings of Peregrines can be submitted via the BTO’s BirdTrack website.
The Harrogate and District Naturalists’ recording area is within my BTO Region and a couple of random squares are located within it, I have already allocated those squares to volunteers but the opportunity is still there for casual records from anybody and should ideally be notified via BirdTrack, however, if you do not wish to use that facility you can always contact me directly. It is already becoming evident that people are aware of sites that are well know by monitoring organisations, this is not a problem and I am happy to hear about any site either within or outside my region, I can then have them checked with the appropriate people, you never know, you might have located a hitherto unknown breeding pair!
Please contact me if you are interested in current BTO surveys, e.g. The Breeding Bird Survey, Garden Birdwatch or Winter Thrushes.
Mike Brown.