News

Over the next few years the BTO will be running a series of surveys aimed at increasing our knowledge of the various owl species found in Britain. The first of these surveys is the Tawny Owl Point Survey (TOPS), for which volunteers are now being sought, and which will run from 15 August to 15 October this year, with follow-up surveys in early spring next year and then again in autumn 2019 and spring 2020.

TOPS is based on pre-determined 10km squares, three of which (ST93, ST96 and SU26) are in Wiltshire. Within each square the 25 tetrads are divided into “Primary Tetrads” (which were covered in previous surveys and are important therefore for providing evidence of changes) and “Secondary Tetrads”, which may be covered if there are sufficient volunteers available, once the Primary Tetrads have been surveyed. Volunteers are asked to pay two visits to their allocated tetrad, ideally within two weeks of each other. The visits should be planned to fall within the two hours after sunset and should last 20 minutes, to be spent at a point as near as possible to the centre of the tetrad, recording any Tawny Owl hoots or calls that may be heard.

Full details about TOPS are available on the BTO website at https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/project-owl/tawny-owl-point-survey . If you are interested in taking part, follow the links to the tetrad allocation system where you can select a tetrad to survey, which Bill Quantrill, BTO Regional Representative, will be able to allocate to you if it is not already allocated.

Swift Awareness Week 16th - 22nd June 

Do take a look at events being planned in Salisbury and Wilton by the Secret Garden https://www.secretgardensalisbury.uk/diary/ for Swift Awareness Week. 

Other events are listed in the diary which are likely to be of great interest to those fascinated by the natural world and keen on helping conserve it.

The BTO Southwest Conference will be held on Sunday 18th March 2018 from 9.30 am to 5 pm in the Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon. The conference will focus on the birdlife of Avon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. You can find more detail and book online 
https://www.bto.org/news-events/events/2018-03/south-west-bto-conference

CWP Coordinated Gull Roost Count

The last coordinated count of gull roosts in the CWP was undertaken in winter 2005/06. In conjunction with the BTO Winter Gull Roost Count in 2003/2004 and a series of casual observations, these data confirmed that the CWP supported an increasing winter roosting population of gulls, in particular black-headed gulls, common gull, lesser black-backed gulls and herring gulls, with smaller numbers of med gulls, yellow-legged gulls, greater black-backed gulls, Caspian gulls etc and occasionally a white winged gull to liven things up. Furthermore these surveys highlighted that the CWP supports, in winter, an internationally-important population of lesser black-backed gulls, which at the time equated to over 5000 birds. 

The two peregrine chicks being raised on Salisbury Cathedral have fledged.

An orphaned chick, featured on Springwatch, has been raised by the pair of peregrines on the Cathedral who had one chick of their own. The orphaned chick was the slightly older of the two and fledged successfully on Wednesday 28th June with the natural chick fledging on Sunday 2nd July. We wish them luck, the life of young raptors is precarious.