Author: proseveare

Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest (FWAG SouthWest), are one year into a project working with 15 farms in Cornwall to survey birds and create habitats for their conservation. Each farm has a volunteer surveying birds 3 times per year (spring, summer and winter).

Two of their surveyors are no longer able to continue surveying due to personal circumstances, meaning we are looking to recruit two additional volunteers to take on one survey site each. One is at Coverack, and the other is at Boscastle – see attached maps below which show the survey routes. During the project we have already recorded interesting species at these sites, including spotted flycatcher, cuckoo, woodcock and many more.

If you are fairly confident in your bird ID skills, and would like to carry out surveys on one of these two interesting sites, please email – Lawrence.sampson@fwagsw.org.uk

Defra have changed the thresholds for reporting avian flu in wild birds in England, Scotland and Wales:

• The new guidance is to use the online reporting system or call the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77) if you find “one or more dead wild birds of prey, gull, swan, goose or duck, or five or more dead wild birds of any species.”

Previously, the minimum for reporting gulls, swans, geese and ducks was three birds. Defra have decided to increase the sensitivity of surveillance of the disease.

It’s been great to see so many Chough sightings coming into CBWPS, both on the bird news and the choughs@cbwps emails. This shows that our birds are still doing well and getting ready for this years breeding season. Please keep a lookout for Chough on our coast, as we have around 200 birds now and they are spreading out, from the Lizard all the way around the coast and are now beyond Trevose Head in the North. You might find Chough in unexpected places where you have never seen them before as young birds try to find a space of their own.

Our established pairs will soon start to rebuild their nests so you might be lucky enough to see birds carrying nest material or even witness courtship behaviour where the male feeds the female. Please keep sending in all your sightings of Chough to choughs@cbwps.org.uk  These records  help us enormously especially at this time of year as we can track where birds are and identify new pairs and potential new sites. The Chough Conservation Network (a partnership between CBWPS, RSPB and National Trust) then ensures that nests are monitored and given the protection they may need by volunteers.

You may also have noticed that Chough sightings are not being put up on our website at the moment and this is to protect our birds as they start nesting once again. Please help us keep our Chough safe from egg collectors and other equally damaging threats! Choughs can nest in old mine shafts and mine buildings among other places so please think carefully if you see Chough somewhere that could be a nest site and don’t put the exact location or identifiable pictures of the site on social media platforms.

National Trust are looking for volunteers to help us survey birds in West Cornwall (St Ives to Mounts Bay). If you love wildlife, spending time outside and are able to commit to 4 days during spring and summer this could be the perfect opportunity for you. Training provided but an interest in birds and monitoring wildlife is preferable.

For more information and to get involved please contact Kate – Kate.Evans1@nationaltrust.org.uk or phone 01736 761015

‘Online Bat Care Training’, developed and delivered by Maggie Brown from West Yorkshire Bat Hospital, is a 6-session course that will be held on Zoom. The course will be on Wednesday evenings at 7pm starting from the 8th February to the 15th March 2023.

It is a great course for individuals interested in gaining a strong foundation in bat care or want an introduction into bat rehabilitation.

We are giving priority attendance to individuals from areas with a low number of bat carers, and they will also receive a discounted ticket price of £32 instead of £37.

The areas for priority attendance are: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, South Yorkshire.

If you would like to attend please follow the instruction on the booking link here: https://bats.sym-online.com/registrationforms/batcarefeb202247540/full.htm

It asks that you sign up for the Online Bat Care Training Waiting List (https://bats.sym-online.com/registrationforms/batcare2022waitinglist47540/done/) and then email training@bats.org.uk to notify us of your place and that you fit the criteria for priority attendance.

If you have any questions or queries about the event then please contact Training and Conferences Team on 02078207169 , or by email at training@bats.org.uk.

If you can spare 5 mins BEFORE 7 Feb it would be great if you could add your support to the designation of Penwith Moors as an SSSI. It is the largest area of unprotected lowland heathland left in southern England.

Key reasons for support:

– It is the largest area of unprotected heathland in southern England important for wildlife and for storing carbon.

– It is important habitat for Dartford Warbler, but has roosting Hen Harrier recorded of England importance and an outlying population of Nightjar.

– Threats that designation would help to address include habitat loss, pollution damaging the mires, disturbance to roosting Hen Harriers due off road bikes, invasive non-native species e.g rhododendron, lack of appropriate grazing and other management.

-It will also help the UK government meet is 30% of land designated by 2030. This will help secure the benefits for the long term of the Millions of pounds worth of public money spent in this area.

You can add your comments via this link: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-england/penwith-moors/

This is likely to be challenged so if you care about this area then add your voice of support and encourage others to do so.

Have you ever looked at a flock of Gulls and felt completely out of your depth trying to identify them? Do you find it difficult understanding the perplexing terminology used when ageing Gulls? Have you ever wondered how the “pros” pick out the rarer species within the mix? Well now might be a good time to join Martin for a few hours and get these questions answered.

Martin will be hosting classes on a one-to-one basis or groups limited to four. The classes will be based around Mount’s Bay and/or the Hayle estuary depending on weather conditions and tides.

Currently all dates are available from the 1st of February to March 31st. The classes cost £10 per head per an hour for the first two hours, and then £5 per head per an hour thereafter.  We are also very pleased that Martin will be offering a 10% discount for all CBWPS members!

For further details and to make a booking you can call Martin on 07875295457 or email martinelliott.sennen@googlemail.com. Happy Gulling!

The BTO frequently runs on line training workshops to help you with identifying closely related species and several raptor ID sessions are available at the end of January.

SESSION 1: Identifying smaller raptors – Monday 23 January, 7–8:45pm
We’ll start by exploring the key elements of raptor identification using a range of interactive activities, then introduce two helpful ‘reference species’. The main species we will cover in this session are Sparrowhawk and Goshawk, as well as the falcons: Kestrel, Peregrine, Hobby and Merlin.

SESSION 2: Identifying larger raptors – Monday 30 January, 7–8:45pm
After reviewing the self-study exercises, we’ll turn our attention to the skills needed to identify larger raptors. In this session, we will cover Buzzard, Osprey, Red Kite, Marsh and Hen Harriers, as well as White-tailed and Golden Eagles.

This link will take you to the BTO page with details of the workshops and how to book: https://www.bto.org/community/events/202301-raptor-id-virtual-training-2-sessions-mondays-7pm?dm_i=IG4,84XOW,39GSUN,XBUFU,1