birding...

Robin Erithacus rubecula ©Robin Chitttenden http://www.harlequinpictures.co.uk The United Kingdom is a diverse group of Islands with, as we are very fond of telling everyone, weather, rather than a climate. Our distinct seasons (Summer is the one when the rain gets warmer) punctuate our birding, splitting it into good months for migrants going north, months for breeding summer visitors, months for birds migrating south and months for winter visitors. There are few months when vagrants are scarce, and, with the plethora of pagers, telephone lines and mailing lists it is a haven for twitchers who want to build long year lists or even longer life lists. The Total number of species that have been seen in the UK (excluding obvious escapees) is in the region of 550. Anything over 400 is reckoned to be a good total and there is a club called the UK400 club for such aficionados of the sport of twitching. The UK is also a land of birders, dudes, ringers, ornithologists and the like. There is plenty of room for all. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has over one million members and is the biggest membership environment organisation in Europe. It is also estimated that, of the 60 million or so Brits, 20 million regularly feed the birds in their back gardens, yards, or even high rise balconies. Despite this birdwatchers tend to be called twitchers in the press and popular parlance and are still seen as rather sad anorak types on a par with train-spotters. Yet, if you set up your scope away from a reserve ordinary locals will often come up to see what you are looking at and, if invited, will take a peak and enjoy the experience, especially if you tell them that they are seeing something rare or unusual. Unfortunately more and more birds in the UK are rare or unusual, not because of sudden influxes borne by unseasonable winds but because the once commonplace is getting rarer all the time. Why? You may well ask and a debate rages. It may be that we have long had a very intensive farming culture that was among the first to mechanise and use chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers upsetting local ecological balances. It may be the fact that such agri-business is all about yields and has little concept of balance. Much land has been put to the plough that would be better left to the wild things. Bogs were drained, hillsides ploughed up and scrub cleared 50 years ago in an attempt to make us self sufficient, 20 years ago subsidies were attracted by eco-unfriendly methods. This is beginning to reverse but it is too late for many individual birds and even a few species that still thrive where agriculture is in harmony with the land. This is, as everyone knows, a small crowded Island but there are still lots of open spaces and more sensitive agriculture, road, house and industry building, mineral extraction, and forestry could go a long way to giving us back the richness of flora and fauna we undoubtedly crave. But even this is not the whole picture. Recent declines in species that have long been associated with humanity and at home in our cities is further cause for concern. Is it all about petrol additives? Is it more general pollution or is there just not enough natural food left for birds to find in competition with others. Thankfully, we have some of the very best conservation organisations in the world and groups like the BTO are at the leading edge of research into how we could, if we are minded, reverse these trends. In the meantime many thousands of us cross the channel in search of birds that were once common this side of the tunnel 30 years ago. Yet every weekend a few hundred thousand of us can be found watching our local reserve, tramping and recording on our patch or haring after scarcities. If, like the fatbirder, you are among these hoards remember just two things. Follow the country code (and the few rules about putting the interests of birds first) and join an organisation and add your voice to the pressure to care about the wild world.

contributor

Fatbirder
bo@fatbirder.com

numbers

Number of bird species: 557
National Bird - Robin Erithacus rubecula
[In fact the UK does NOT have a national bird - but the rest of the world thinks that we do and that it is the Robin]

numbers

Number of endemics: 1
Scottish Crossbill Loxia scotica

useful reading

BBC Countryfile Magazine

Bird - The Ultimate Illustrated Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

Bird Songs and Calls of Britain and Europe on 4 CDs

Birds Britannica

Birds in Counties

Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East

Birdwatchers Yearbrook

Checklist of Birds of Britain and Ireland

Collins Bird Guide

Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

Collins Field Guide: Bird Call Identification (with Audio-CD)

Finding Birds in Britain

Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

Photographic Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

RSPB Handbook of British Birds

RSPB Nature Reserves

The Birds of Britain and Europe, 6-DVD Set

The Complete Guide to the Birdlife of Britain & Europe

The Complete Guide to the Birdlife of Britain & Europe

The State of the Nations Birds

Where to Watch Birds in Britain

Where to Watch Birds in Britain and Ireland

useful information

*Proact

Oiled Seabirds

Quicktide

The Birdwatchers Yearbook

Vice Counties - Recording Areas

clubs

Army Ornithological Society

Barn Owl Conservation Network

Barn Owl Trust

Bird Track

Birdline East Anglia

British Ornithologists Club

British Ornithologists Union

British Trust for Ornithology

British Birds Rarities Committee

Disabled Birders Association

Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology

Game Conservancy Trust

Gay Birders' Club

Great Bustard Group

Hereford Owl Rescue

Joint Nature Conservation Committee [JNCC]

LIPU-UK

LPO (UK Branch)

National Birds of Prey Centre

National Sound Archive

National Wildlife Crime Unit

Raptor Rescue

Rare Breeding Birds Panel

Royal Air Force Ornithological Society

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Royal Navy Birdwatching Society

Sounds Natural

UK 400

UK250 Club

Waterways Trust

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

Wolfson Ornithological Society

Young People's Trust for the Environment

festivals

Birdwatchers Spring Fair

British Bird Fair

observatories

The Bird Observatories Council of Britain & Ireland

museums

Bishop Burton College – Ornithology Degree Course

Capel Manor College - HND Ornithology

Natural History Museum

reserves

RSPB

Wildfowl & Wetland Trust

Wildlife Extra

Wildlife Trusts

Woodland Trust

trip reports

Travelling Birder
http://www.travellingbirder.com
The Travellingbirder.com birding trip report search engine guides you to 7,000+ birding trip reports on the Internet. You can search for trip reports from a specific country and time of year. Not all these reports are in English. So, if you can’t find the trip report you want on this Fatbirder page… give them a try!

1998 [August] - Helen Baines

2000 [May] - Stamping Around Britain – Tina MacDonald

tour operators

Bird Tours

Birding Pal

Cygnus Bird Tours

Fatbirder's Anytime Tours

Frontier

New Horizons

Two Owls Birding

places to stay

SearchlineUK

mailing lists

Beer Drinking Birders

Bird Forum

BirdCall

BOU BirdTalk

budgetbirdersclub

Disabled Birders

UK Birding

UK BirdPhotographers.net

Wildlife UK

other links

Aviornis UK

BBC Natural History Site

Bird Diary

Bird Map

Bird Nerd

Bird On

Bird Web

Birding UK

Birds of Britain

BLOG - Le Evans - UK400ClubRareBirdAlert

British Bird Lovers

British Birds

British Birds

British Garden Birds

British Isles Birding

EverythinGBirds

Go Wild Guide

Jeremy's Wildlife Website

Lost & Found

Postcode Birding

Surfbirds

The 3 Birders

The Ornithology of Anglo Saxon Britain

UK Bird Trends

UK Go Wild

When to Watch Wildlife

Zoological Society of London (London Zoo)

artists

Digiscoping - Andy Bright

Library - Natural History Museum Bird Photographs

Library - Nature Portfolio Image Library

Library - RSPB Images

Photoblog - Steve Seal