FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

BTO members and volunteers are the beating heart of our organisation and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you, however big or small your contribution over the past year. As a charity, membership subscriptions, donations and legacies make a really important contribution to our finances, ensuring that we can continue to monitor and research wild birds, providing an unbiased voice on issues affecting their future. Volunteers contributed a massive 1.5 million hours to our work, equivalent to us expanding our staff team from approximately one hundred people to one thousand for a whole year! We are inspired to continue our work by the incredible enthusiasm, dedication and commitment of supporters like you, so on behalf of all of the staff here at BTO, thank you! The end of the road for Cuckoo Chris Cuckoo Chris. Photograph by BTO Our Cuckoo-tracking project has attracted incredible public support from the very beginning, with thousands of peopl...

In early January 2014, almost 3,500 people recorded the time at which the first ten species arrived in their gardens to feed one morning for the BTO Garden BirdWatch ‘Early Bird Survey’. The newly published results show  birds arriving later in both rural and urban areas with more artificial lighting . View the original article at http://www.bto.org/news-events/news/2015-12/artificial-lighting-makes-birds-late-breakfast

Our new fundraising appeal is for urgent research into Curlew population decline, in a week when this species has been added to the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List.  Our ground-breaking programme of research will investigate patterns of extinction and colonisation and use revolutionary new technology to track wintering Curlew. Please help us by  making a donation to the BTO Curlew appeal . View the original article at http://www.bto.org/news-events/news/2015-12/raising-funds-help-conserve-our-curlews

The dead bird was found on the south-east edge of Stang Forest ( Image:  The RSPB ) Durham Constabulary and the RSPB are appealing for information about an illegally shot peregrine falcon found in County Durham.   The dead bird was found on the south-east edge of Stang Forest, near the North Yorkshire border, on 23 August 2015 by a member of the public, who reported the discovery to Durham Constabulary and the RSPB. 

The breeding population of curlew has declined 62% since 1970  (Image:  Steve Round ) The latest assessment of the status of all the UK’s 244 bird species – Birds of Conservation Concern 4 – shows that 67 species are now of ‘highest conservation concern’ and have been placed on the assessment’s Red List. The revised Red List now includes even more well-known birds, including the curlew, puffin and nightingale, joining other familiar species such as the turtle dove, cuckoo and starling.  Alarmingly, the Red List now accounts for more than one-quarter (27%) of the UK species. This is far higher than the last assessment in 2009, when 52 species (21%) were on the Red List. Most of the 67 species were placed on the Red List because of their severe declines, having halved in numbers or range in the UK in recent decades. Others remain well below historical levels, or are considered under threat of global extinction. 

The latest Red List, published today, shows that of the 244 UK species that are assessed 67 are now of the highest conservation concern. New ‘members’ of the  Red List now include such well known birds as the Curlew, Puffin and Nightingale . View the original article at http://www.bto.org/news-events/news/2015-12/birds-conservation-concern-4

Information collected by BTO volunteers shows that numbers of many resident bird species, and some migrants, increased in 2015. However, the spells of cool, wet weather that much of Britain & Ireland experienced in late-spring and summer left many birds struggling to breed, with more northerly populations faring particularly badly. See the  Nest Record Scheme  and  Constant Effort Sites  scheme preliminary breeding season report for details. View the original article at http://www.bto.org/news-events/news/2015-12/2015-nrs-ces-preliminary-breeding-season-results