South Dublin Branch Projects

BirdTrack 2004

Migration Watch was a three year, internet-based, spring migration project organised by the British Trust for Ornithology and BirdWatch Ireland and was designed to track the flow of spring migrants into and through Britain and Ireland. BirdTrack is a new online project which will take the ideas of Migration Watch foward into an all-year recording project. Anyone with an interest in birds and access to the Internet can take part in BirdTrack. To enter your sightings visit the website at www.birdtrack.net and register as a BirdTrack recorder. If you were registered with Migration Watch then your old log-in is still valid. This is a year round recording scheme that will use data from birdwatcher's records to support species and site conservation at local, national and international scales. Results produced by BirdTrack will include mapping the migration and movements of birds and monitoring of scarce birds in Britain and Ireland. We know very little about the timing of arrival and departure of winter visitors and this is just one area in which BirdTrack will provide useful information. We need to gather a large number of lists at all times of the year from throughout Britain and Ireland. We prefer complete lists of birds (all species seen and heard) because the proportion of lists with a given species provides a good measure of frequency of occurrence that can be used for population monitoring. Incomplete lists and casual records can also be entered because they too build our understanding of populations and so provide a comprehensive record of what you have seen. For more information email: birdtrack@bto.org or visit the website: http://www.birdtrack.net Ilustration: Ruff at Dundalk Harbour .. by Robert Vaughan.