Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
e counted!<br />
he<br />
natural world – could you join them and help ensure Britain’s birds have a brighter future?<br />
BIRDTRACK<br />
Keep a record of whatever you see, wherever you are – not only will you be<br />
contributing to conservation, but you can also keep track of your own<br />
records.<br />
Just sign up at the BirdTrack website (app.bto.org/birdtrack/main/datahome.jsp)<br />
and start adding records.<br />
You can easily access these at a later date. If you wanted to check which<br />
species you saw at your local gravel pits on 5 February 2015, with a view to<br />
repeating a particularly memorable sighting, for<br />
example, it’s all there. There are also statistics and<br />
graphs on national trends, allowing you to<br />
predict when and where hard-to-find species<br />
might turn up, and there’s also a great<br />
BirdTrack app,<br />
allowing you to<br />
record sightings<br />
in the field.<br />
Kestrel<br />
UNIVERSITY<br />
BIRDWATCH<br />
CHALLENGE<br />
If you’re a student, get your university<br />
to take part in the University<br />
Birdwatch Challenge (afocusonnature.<br />
org/projects/university-birdwatch).<br />
There’s one team per university, but no<br />
limit to the number of people in each<br />
team, and you compete to collect bird<br />
records from university-owned land.<br />
It’s a great way to improve your ID<br />
skills while also contributing to<br />
conservation.<br />
Tom Bailey<br />
ONE TO WATCH<br />
TOBY CARTER, 14<br />
BW: What first got you<br />
interested in birds and wildlife?<br />
AR: When my grandparents took<br />
me to RSPB Titchwell Marsh for<br />
the first time and I saw all the birds<br />
close up – my favourite was the Oystercatcher.<br />
BW: Which bird surveys/conservation projects<br />
are you involved in?<br />
I’m involved in a few of the BTO’s surveys; Nest<br />
Record Scheme (NRS), Ringing Scheme – in which<br />
I’m part of Rutland Water Ringing Group (RWRG)<br />
and the Humber Wader Ringing Group (HWRG), in<br />
which we colour ring Bar-tailed Godwit, Redshank<br />
and Curlew. I also enter my bird sightings onto<br />
Birdtrack and my local birding club, which is<br />
Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society<br />
(LROS), plus my dad and I have started a House<br />
Martin survey which links in with the BTO’s study on<br />
them, where we are looking at the whole nesting<br />
stage and ringing the birds to track if the same birds<br />
use the same nest each year.<br />
BW: What has been your most memorable<br />
birding moment?<br />
AR: Well, my most memorable birding moment<br />
expands over a period of a week. Back in October,<br />
for the first time I went to Scilly with my family, it was<br />
a brilliant experience, having 14 lifers while I was there,<br />
highlights being, Hudsonian Whimbrel, Blyth’s Pipit,<br />
Red-flanked Bluetail and finding my own Ortolan<br />
Bunting.<br />
BW: What would be the one piece of advice<br />
you’d give to other young birders?<br />
AR: Just get outside and open your eyes and ears,<br />
and not to be afraid to admit to others that you’re a<br />
birder.<br />
BW: If you could make one change to the UK’s<br />
environmental policies, what would it be?<br />
AR: Make outdoor learning part of the national<br />
curriculum, so pupils can learn about everything<br />
around them. Instead of sitting down, playing their<br />
PlayStations, they are getting out and exploring the<br />
world outside their front door.<br />
birdwatching.co.uk 7