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Pied Flycatcher

Welcome to Brecknock Birds

Welcome to Brecknock Birds. This site has been set up to encourage interest in bird watching and ornithology in Brecknockshire.

This is a child friendly site and in common with other bird sightings websites, we appeal to contributors to put the birds first. Particularly for sensitive species, please can we ask that no reference is made to breeding sites or aspects of behaviour that would indicate breeding at a set locality in your postings. If in any doubt, then please contact Andrew King, Brecknock County Bird Recorder, first (email below). In view of this, any postings made that are deemed inappropriate will be removed by the moderators without warning or explanation. We hope these pages will build on our knowledge of birds rather than provide valuable information to those few people that may wish to target species for their own purposes.

The district of Brecknockshire covers approximately 500 square miles, stretching from Rhayader to Merthyr Tydfil, Ystradgynlais to Hay on Wye. We hope very much you enjoy bird watching here as much as we do and look forward to hearing about your bird sightings. Happy birding!

Shoveler

Brecknock Bird News by Andrew King, County Bird Recorder (andrew.king53[at]virgin.net)

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BTO Atlas.
A new page on this website (see Atlas tab on top toolbar) is now (May 2010) showing current breeding status for each 10km square. With green being proven breeding, you can instantly find those species and those 10km squares where more effort is required. For instance, you will note that we are short of breeding records for many of the warblers, and by square, for those areas centred around Ystradfellte, Abergwesyn and Heads of the Valleys.
It is great to see significant green colours across the spreadsheet, but there are some dodgy omissions at present - are there really no confirmed breeding House Sparrow or House Martin in Beaufort/Brynmawr?, or Long-tailed Tit or Jackdaw in Ystradfellte? or Magpie and Rook breeding in Llanwrtyd?

Stats so far:
230 observers have submiited a total exceeding 70,000 individual records: 50,000 of these have been validated by the Atlas Committee: two stalwarts have each individually submitted over 10,000 records. Have you done your bit??

We have a real opportunity in this 4 year period to place a marker on just how birds are faring - where birds have been seen; whether they are breeding in a specific area; and we hope ultimately to place some form of population estimate via a Breconshire County Atlas.
Roving records or Timed Tetrad Visit surveys either be submitted through the BTO Atlas website (www.birdatlas.net), or by requesting paper forms for manual completion from either John Lloyd (the_lloyds@dsl.pipex.com) or Andrew King (andrew.king53@virgin.net)


Big thank you to all those that have contributed since November 2007 when the winter and summer Atlas projects got under way.

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2008 BRECONSHIRE BIRD REPORT - now published by Brecknock Wildlife Trust. Biggest ever edition - 76 pages!!
Great value at £6 if collected from either the BWT office in Brecon (Tel 01874 625708), or via the Editor, Andrew King. (£6.60 for a mailed copy).
The 2008 edition includes:
updated Species Accounts (2008)
the Llangorse Lake Ringing Report
results of Aquatic Warbler and Reed Bunting ringing projects
accounts of the finding of Citrine Wagtail, Whiskered Tern and Eagle Owl
AND a new feature - a Gazetteer of Breconshire sites - for those that want to discover new areas.
Grateful thanks to the many contributors of records - there could be no report without them!

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Most recent sighting... (See all sightings / add a sighting)

Entry added by: Andrew King on Thu 29th July 10, 08:34pm Sighting location: Brechfa Pool. Sighting date: 29/07/10
Brief visit this am - 10 Cape Shelduck, only 1 adult + 2 juvs each of Coot and Moorhen, 7 juv BH Gull remaining, 48 Lapwing. 7 of the Lapwing appeared to be juvs of the year.

Entry added by: John Harper on Thu 29th July 10, 02:01pm Sighting location: Cwm Beusych. Sighting date: 27/07/10
Forgot to add to my last posting - a Kestrel over the enclosed fields and 2 Hobby (at least one a male) scrapping up on the moorland above.

Entry added by: John Harper on Wed 28th July 10, 02:46pm Sighting location: Cwm Beusych. Sighting date: 27/07/10
Loose conglomeration of c.250 post breeding passerines in extensive tree plantings around farm in and around the cwm very difficult to analyse as young and old seemed "on a high" darting hither and thither: ID'd were Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Goldcrest, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Siskin and Linnet. It was great to hear and see a male Yellowhammer singing lustily from gorse just below the moorland. Only two pairs of Redstart whereas in the GOS atlas survey 10 years ago I was seeing 50 pairs per upland tetrad - one of the same tetrads as then.

Entry added by: John Shrouder on Tue 27th July 10, 11:29pm Sighting location: River Usk, Llangynidr. (SO150203) Sighting date: 27/07/10
Green Sandpiper flushed and then seen twice in flight at around 07:30 pm on Tuesday 27th July.