Swift Mapper

With the welcome return of Swifts to our skies, please enter your Swift nesting records on Swift Mapper:

The Herts Bird Club is now promoting the use of Swift Mapper, an app created by the RSPB and Swift conservation groups to map Swifts and their nesting sites.  Full details can be found on the website: Swift Mapper where the app can be downloaded and interactive maps can be found. 

Starting with the Hertfordshire Bird Report 2020, we have been using records submitted to Swift Mapper when writing our annual reports and would encourage records of screaming parties and particularly nest sites to be entered via the app rather than our website.  This will allow data relating to Swift breeding to be accessed by conservation groups as well as the Herts Bird Club. 

Swift Mapper only accepts records of nesting and screaming parties around nest sites, and so other records such as large flocks over nature reserves should be submitted via our website in the normal way.  Please try to avoid submitting duplicate records to the Bird Club and Swift Mapper as this causes us more work when preparing the annual report.

 

The Herts Local Patch Big Weekend – Winners Announced

The first Herts Local Patch Big Weekend event took place on the weekend of Sat 23rd & Sun 24th April giving Herts birders (individuals or teams) 48 hours to find as many birds as possible on their local patches.  In addition, various challenges were set in the form of bonus points, awarded for example for recording 3 or more species of owl or 8 or more species of warbler.  Top of the bonus points on offer were the 20 bonus points going for any team that ditched vehicles in favour of carbon-free birding on foot.

Peregrine Falcons breed at St Albans Cathedral

A pair of peregrine falcons are nesting on St Albans Cathedral for the first time ever. The pair are now sitting on their eggs which have been laid very high up on the cathedral in a nesting tray, purposely installed for the birds to use.

This is a hugely rewarding development for the Wilder St Albans project, a collaboration between Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and St Albans City and District Council.

HeronWatch 2022 - Verulamium Park

RSPB St Albans are once again running a HeronWatch at Verulamium Park this spring.

Volunteers will be set up with telescopes at the edge of the lake near the Fighting Cocks pub giving visitors a great opportunity to watch the nesting Grey Herons and Little Egrets.

From 10 April to 22 May, come down to the lake between 11.00am - 1.00pm every weekend and bank holiday to learn more about these fascinating birds, as eggs hatch to chicks and grow into young birds.

If you would like to volunteer as a HeronWatcher, covering a one hour shift, or more, please email Dan Fletcher       st-albans-rspb@hotmail.co.uk .

Passage Migrant Species Plots

Chris Ruis has developed species plots showing peak occurrence for a number of our regular passage migrants. They are based on data since 1988.

Click each species below to see its plot.

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