News

 22nd - 30th June 2019 

Local events:

• Thursday 13th June 2019 from 19:30 - 21:00 hrs:  A Concert for Swifts at Sarum College, 19 The Close,Salisbury SP1 2EE organised by Salisbury And Wilton Swifts (SAWS) who are presenting a fundraising concert with two popular local musicians, Bill Benham (violin) and Michael Maxwell Steer (piano). The cost is £10 and tickets will be available on the door which will open at 7 pm. (Cash and Cheques only).
• Saturday, June 29, 6.30pm at the Quaker Meeting House, Whiteheads Lane, Bradford on Avon BA15 1JU, Jonathan Pomroy, wildlife artist, author and Swift expert will give a talk about Swifts followed by a walk round town to spot Swifts and where they are nesting.  £5 for talk and walk, £3 for talk only. Booking essential. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve a place. 
• Sunday, June 30th from 10am - 4.30pm at Holy Trinity Church, Bradford on Avon BA15 1LW an exhibition of paintings by Jonathan Pomroy + signing of his book On Crescent Wings. At 3pm Jonathan will give a short talk on sketching Swifts and after this teas will be served. Free entry but donations for tea welcomed.

For more information about national events see http://actionforswifts.blogspot.com/p/2019-swift-awareness-week.html 

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.