Thursday, February 19, 2009

18th February,2009.

A fine day and very calm with the added bonus of sound carrying over distances, which is a nice change! A group of us was on the Isle of Jura completing survey work for the BTO Atlas.

For those who don't know Jura, it is a rather large,long island with a road running up its eastern coastline for most of its length. This makes it difficult in terms of completing survey work as , to reach any western parts , you've a long hike over fairly inhospitable ,boggy territory. This winter we've concentrated on covering tetrads down the eastrn sector, where most of the habitat diversity, in the form of deciduous woodland, conifer plantations and scrub areas, exist anyway.

All in all a good day bringing the total number of tetrads covered this winter into the mid-twenties. No mean feat and a tribute to the "Islay team" who have willingly supported the days in question. As expected, bird numbers weren't high but a reasonable variety was seen. The few hill areas we did cover carried very little indeed. One tettrad ( 2x2km ) had no birds "on the ground" at all.....any recorded were overflying. Much as we thought ,but necessary in the cause of science!! Or at least that's what I tried to persuade them!!!!

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