BTO Breeding Bird Survey - 2025

 On the 16th May, we left the house at 7 o'clock in the morning and headed for Preston Wynne equipped with binoculars, food & drink. We were about to start the second part of the BTO Breeding Bird Survey. The first part was a recce visit two weeks earlier to check out the lay of the land; e.g. woodland, pasture, industrial, crop fields, river, ponds, hedgerows. The second and third visits were to observe, identify, and count the adult birds in each habitat. The third and final visit has to be no more than four weeks after the second visit.

Last year was our first attempt at the BTO survey and we are fortunate to see hares on every visit we have made to this area.

Photo 1: Hare, Preston Wynne (16th May 2025)

With the help of the Merlin bird identification app, we were able to identify 28 species in total during the 90 minute observation period:

• Blackbird
• Blackcap
• Blue Tit
• Buzzard
• Canada Goose
• Carrion Crow
• Chaffinch
• Chiffchaff
• Collared Dove
• Dunnock
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Greylag Goose
• House Martin
• House Sparrow
• Jackdaw
• Long-tailed Tit
• Magpie
• Mallard
• Robin
• Pheasant
• Skylark
• Song Thrush
• Stock Dove
• Swallow
• Swift
• Tufted Duck
• Wood Pigeon
• Wren

Wrens, robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs, chaffinches, and house sparrows were especially abundant. There were quite a few birds that didn't put in an appearance this time but which have been seen at this location in the past (e.g. Goldfinch, Starling, Red Kite, Rook, Blue Tit, Jay). We also met a man with a dog who said there were kestrels and sparrowhawks in the vicinity.

For what I presume are very good scientific reasons, the BTO ask that both survey visits are carried out in the morning between about 7 and 9 o'clock. If the intention is to observe the maximum number of species, then this seems somewhat counterproductive. In our experience, the type & number of birds seen at this site in the morning is different to that seen in the afternoon (albeit there is a lot of overlap). Hence a greater number of species would be observed by splitting the monitoring periods between morning and afternoon.

Overall, we were reasonably happy with our species list though, overall, bird numbers seemed fewer than last year.