Graham and I will shortly circulate a SurveyMonkey link on an email asking for your count of local Brent haunts as part of our annual assessment of the size and productivity of the population. Unfortunately we missed counting Iceland last autumn (but delayed the Irish count so we could maximize the number of birds which were this far south) but this year there will be a count of the west coast - from the air (and weather dependent) synchronous to our survey in Ireland, western Britain, Jersey and France.
We hope to undertake this count on the weekend of the 10th OCTOBER (as close to this date as possible) and it is very important that birds are counted especially at all the 'big' sites and as large an aged sample is made as possible. The large sites western Iceland, Strangford, Lough Foyle, Sligo Bays, Kerry Bays (Tralee and Castlemaine), Tramore and the Dublin Bays and this is because these sites all hold beds of intertidal Zostera. Other sites with/without Zostera also hold smaller numbers and these counts are important too as they help complete the picture - clearly they make it more accurate!
We'll be back with an update closer to that weekend.
Good call, Kendrew! Must get my rear into gear and get my end organised!! Anyone interested in participating in their local area, who DIDN'T contribute last winter (I'll be in touch with those who did) please feel free to contact me by e-maiI at grahammcelwaine@btinternet.com
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