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Between 2002 and 2008 the Group conducted a breeding Atlas of our recording area, repeating the original Atlas of the Sheffield area carried out between 1975-80. The fieldwork for the Breeding Atlas is now completed, a mammoth effort that has seen 1200 square kilometres surveyed over the last 5 years, but if you have any breeding records for the 2008 breeding season (and any outstanding breeding records from the past 5 years) please submit them to the Group as soon as possible, via your normal means, so that they can be incorporated onto the Group's database.
The impressive amount of data gathered (over 20,000 records) means that we can move onto the next stages of data analysis and preparation of species accounts for our breeding species as the key stages of the work towards publishing our findings. In addition, it means that we have built up a very detailed picture of the status and location of our breeding birds, a crucial component in conservation efforts and in responding to planning proposals or commercial data requests.
Click here to read an interim report written by Helen Hipperson in 2005; it reports on changes noted by that date in one specific tetrad in the SBSG area, giving an insight into the potential of such survey data.
Needless to say, we have got to where we have with this project as the result of a huge amount of voluntary effort by many members of the Group, and beyond, and I would like to extend a very big vote of thanks to all those who have been involved in the Atlas project in one way or another over the past five years. The efforts of Richard Dale, Helen Hipperson, Paul Leonard and David Williams have been particularly valuable and cannot pass without special mention.
While the fieldwork is complete, there will be plenty of opportunity for involvement in preparing analyses of the data, writing species accounts, mapping distribution and changes in distribution from our original Atlas in 1975-80, and planning funding bids for publication, among others. If you can be involved in any way on the next stages of bringing the Atlas to completion, please get in touch with me, or any member of the committee. Irrespective of whether or not you get involved, I trust that the Atlas will have formed lasting habits as to the recording of our breeding birds, and that you will continue to submit such records in future years.
David Wood - February 2009
Outline of planned format for the Atlas - 19th May 2009
On 13th May 2009 David gave a presentation of the planned structure and layout of the Atlas, a PDF of which can be found here.
The presentation includes:
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