Art Exhibition

There will be an exhibition at The Bridge Gallery From Monday March 30th for 2 weeks. It is called' Painting Nature' and there will be a lot of interesting bird pictures on display.

There is a private view on Sunday March 30th 2.00-6.00 to which members are invited.

Bird Surveying Training Courses.

The BTO is holding a series of training courses in bird surveying over the next couple of years. These are paid for by Environment Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government. Thank you to both. There are two courses arranged so far in South Wales this spring:

• 9th March: Libanus Mountain Centre,Brecknock 10am-1pm
• 16th March: Salem Village hall, Carmarthenshire 10am-1pm

These courses will cover the following topics: Map Reading, Habitat Recording, Record Submission, Atlas Methodology and other surveying techniques. There will also be a short outside session if the weather allows. These courses are free but booking is essential. Please contact John Lloyd at 01550750202 or at the_lloyds@dsl.pipex.com

Email Notifications

Bird Sightings

Apologies all, I have been away until today (02/01/2008). The Bird sightings for 2007 and before have been archived and a new page has been setup automatically.

If you wish to view the previous sightings then there is a link at the top of the new page.

Help Needed!

I have scanned the 2003 bird reports and they now need editing and checking. If you feel you have the time for this you will need:

• Microsoft Word 97 or better.
• A copy of the 2003 bird report

What needs to be done:

• All the text needs to be checked for accuracy after being scanned.
• All the data tables need to be reconstructed.
• All observers initials, descriptions, scientific and welsh names need to be removed. Virtually all of these are already in the system.
• All abbreviations need to be expanded e.g. Jan to January. This is to help comply with Web accessibility rules.

If you can help please email me at webmaster@carmarthenshirebirds.co.uk.

New Species on the Burry Inlet?

There's a new species on the Burry Inlet, Yellow-breasted Oystercatcher. As shown in the photo.The yellow comes from a harmless dye, Pycric Acid. The purpose of this is to track the movement of the Oystercatchers around the inlet and further afield. So if you see any of them, please e mail Niall Burton at niall.burton@bto.org

Photographs

The photograph upload section is now up and running. Only JPG files are permitted, if you encounter any errors could you let me know please.

Bird Reports

All bird reports for the period 1992 - 1998 are now on the system and available for viewing in the Bird Reports section.

Website Update

Hi All,

I have rebuilt some more of the website and would be gratefull if you encounter any errors or problems if you could let me know, particuarly in the postings section.

Server Problem

Apologies all, a major server problem on friday evening caused the loss of data, most data was restored from back up though not all had backed up as it should as, All database data was restored normally though the actual webpages were lost.

This has resulted in me having to rebuild the website, if you have any suggestions for improvements etc then please let me know as soon as possible.

I will be rebuilding the site over the next few weeks, as parts of the site come back online I will endeavour to let you know via this means.

Again, I apologise for any inconvienience this has caused.

Mark

Birds of Carmarthenshire

Photos of the following species required for the upcoming "Birds of Carmarthenshire".

• Little Egret
• Common Scoter
• Tufted Duck
• Pochard
• Gadwall
• Canada Goose
• Greylag Goose
• Mute Swan
• Goosander
• Goshawk
• Kestrrel
• Peregrine
• Red Kite
• Mediterranean Gull
• Lapwing
• Green Sandpiper
• Dotterel
• Little-ringed Plover
• Oystercatcher
• Water Rail
• Black Grouse
• Red Grouse
• Nightjar
• Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
• Red Backed Shrike
• Pied Flycatcher
• Redstart
• Ring Ousel
• Dartford Warbler
• Reed Warbler
• Cetti' Warbler
• Yellow Wagtail
• Crossbill
• Yellowhammer

These are species that have either changed status in the county in the past 50 years or for which the county holds important populations. There are some "must have" species for instance Red Kite but otherwise we will be looking for a selection of species and the decision will be made at least on the photographic quality of each image submitted. It will not be possible to give any remuneration for publishing photos but the photographer will be acknowledged.

Can you please contact John Lloyd (the_lloyds@dsl.pipex.com) if you have any images you are prepared to put forward.

WeBS Counts

Moth & Butterfly Meetings

For those who are interested, a programme of moth/butterfly meetings is being set up in Carmarthenshire. I will be mostly involved in the Llanelli area. For those who are interested, please contact me at my home e-mail address, via the website. Several have been in touch already and I will be getting back to them asap. People should be on the look out now for pearl (rare) and pearl-bordered fritillaries (local) at wood-edge/flowery pasture sites. Moth trapping is continuing being good too....please enter good records of butterflies, moths and dragonflies on the website -thanks.

Ian

butterflies@carmarthenshirebirds.co.uk

Ringed Plover Survey

As Carmarthenshire Bird Club members may or may not know, the BTO are currently running a national Ringed Plover survey. As the Ringed Plover is a red-listed species it is important to have as much information as possible, especially in Carmarthenshire where the coastline offers some excellent habitat for potential breeding birds.

If anyone sees any evidence of Ringed Plovers within the county, especially between Pendine and Pembrey, from now until the end of June, I would very much appreciate if they could let me know

Many thanks.

Colin Jones

CBC Not displaying

Apologies all for the bird site not working; this was due to an update at the internet service provider (ISP) that was not communicated down the line. If the site fails to display at any time please let me know immediately by phone preferably.

Many thanks

Mark

Carmarthenshire Bird Report 2006

Spam - the email kind

Due to an increase in unsolicited spam through the email systems I have introduced a new filtering system. If you find some of your postings are not appearing please contact me so that I can sort it.

Contact Form

Many thanks

Mark

BTO News release 2006/10/52

Experts predict bird free gardens this winter

Researchers coordinating the British Trust for Ornithology’s Garden BirdWatch scheme are predicting a quiet winter for garden birdwatchers, as wild plants produce a bumper crop, encouraging birds to stay away from garden feeding stations. 

The BTO’s Garden BirdWatch team are receiving a number of calls from concerned members of the public, asking, “Where have all the garden birds gone?” 

This year has seen a bumper crop of berries, fruits and seeds in our countryside. The hedgerows are ablaze with colour from the ripening hawthorn berries and the hips of dog rose. There is also a heavy blackberry crop and a huge crop of beech mast, the highest since 2002; all this means a large natural larder for garden birds.

Paul Stancliffe, of the BTO Garden BirdWatch team, said “When natural food is available wild birds will always choose this over what we put out for them, this will explain why we are seeing very few of them in our gardens.” He added “As the weather gets colder and we see our first frosts, the fruits and berries will drop and become harder to find, this should result in an increase of birds coming to garden feeding stations”.

No one is better placed to chart the fortunes of our garden birds than the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatchers. With over 16,000 members across the UK logging the birds that visit and feed in their gardens, they will be the first to notice if numbers of birds coming to gardens does increase over the winter.

Mike Toms, Garden BirdWatch organiser, said “It seems very likely that seed eating species, like Coal Tit, Chaffinch and Siskin will be pretty scarce in gardens this winter. The huge crop of beech mast, favoured by these species, should keep them within their favoured woodland habitats. Only if the weather turns really cold will they be forced to visit garden feeding stations.”

So rather than worry about the lack of birds visiting your garden, give your bank balance a well earned rest and enjoy the wonderful colours of the autumn hedgerows.

To receive a free information pack about Garden BirdWatch, please send your name and address details to GBW, BTO, Room 52, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, email gbw@bto.org or telephone 01842-750050.

Thursday, 19/10/2006

BCP Newsletter

The autumn BCP Newsletter is now available on the website.

WeBS Report

Help Identification System

I have completed the build of the Identification help system. I would appreciate it if you could let me have any suggetions on the fields etc that need adding/changing on webmaster@carmarthenshirebirds.co.uk, or any errors that occur.  The link is in the main tabs called 'Help'.

Mark

List submissions

Sighting Emails

Due to the changes in the system those of you that have requested email sighting other than birds will need to changes there settings within the 'My Settings' page to reflect the new choices.

Mark

Sightings and Submissions Pages

The new sightings and submissions pages have been launched. If you find any errors please let me know on the email address at the bottom of the page.

Thanks

Mark

New Sightings Page (Updated)

I have started to build a new sightings report page and would appreciate your feedback.

I will be making some small changes to it over the next week or so, as and when your feedback comes in. It will replace the current sightings page with the four groups on it.

Website Offline

Apologies all for the site being offline for the last 24 hours. This was due to a server overheating which had a knock on effect for hard drives etc.

A new server has been built and data restored from backup. Hopefully all should be ok, if you find any errors please let me know.

Mark

WeBS counts for last winter.

A summary of wintering wildfowl and wader counts on the Carmarthen Bay coast and estuaries is now on the web site. Figures for the last two winters are shown and along with some comments by the local organiser. Counts are done under the BTO/RSPB/WWT/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).

Carmarthenshire Bird Club Website

Carmarthenshire Bird Club website was down for approximatly 14 hours due to hard drives burning out.

All services should now be back online, if any problems are found please let me know.

Apologies for any problems this has caused.

Mark

Sightings System

Email activation has been removed from all the sighting reports. The system will not send out any notifications of sightings until I get time to completely rebuild the sightings system, this will hopefully be in the next few weeks.

A large number of email crawlers have been going through the website in the last couple of weeks, in light of this I have removed the email addresses that were being displayed behind your names in the sightings pages.

Error found in Sightings

An error was reported in the Sightings Page on 02/02/2005, all should be working again.

New Look Website

The new look website has been launched, there is still a lot to do. All this is due to new laws that have come into force in the UK and I will be going though the pages with a fine tooth comb to ensure that they all comply.

The new build also has a list of sites in Carmarthenshire that can be visted, I have included grid references where ever possible that link to streetmap.co.uk, these link will open in a new window.

I have also included a contact form so that you can report any errors, suggestions etc, I will forward these on to the relevant people.

Mark

Members Image Area

I have finished the members image area nad have tested with the upload of some of my own images.

Website Disruption

A hardware failure further in Swansea this weekend resulted in the website being offline for a couple of days. All should now be back to normal.

Email Notifications

An email notification system has been built to allow you to be notified of the following items

• Bird Sightings
• Dragonfly & Damselfly Sightings
• Moth & Butterfly Sightings
• Mammal Sightings
• Newsletters (this will come into effect later in the year)

The setup of the email system can be done via the emails link at the top of the page.

Mark

Sightings

I have built a page so that you can edit any sightings that you submit.

The link will be on the email that you receive for activating the posting. You will still need to activate the sighting as normal.

After a request on Tuesday night I have built a page that will display the last 100 records for each section.

Mark

Site Update

I have added a new part to the site where you can enter your email details to receive emails about sightings. I would appreciate it if you could let me know about any errors etc.