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Brent
Bird
Survey

Photos by Steve Hopper

You can contact us through the form at the bottom of this page.

Get involved

-  You don't need to live in the parish but any bird records you submit must be !

-  Submit as few or as many sightings as you wish - every record adds to our knowledge

-  Record sightings in your garden, out walking, at work or any other occasion 

-  We need records of rare and common birds so don't ignore Blue Tits or Starlings

Brent Birders Meeting - 1st February 2024

Our postponed December meeting has now been re-arranged for 1st February 24th at South Brent Community Centre starting at 7:30 pm.

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The talks are ‘The Joys of Sexing….Peafowl and Goosander’ by Lesley Austin and Peter Reay followed after a break for refreshments by ‘Come fly with me….the extraordinary travels of Devon moths and butterflies’ by Phil Dean.

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January is our survey month so please all participate, all the necessary details and forms are on our website. Please send your results to Mike Goss on mikegoss1944@gmail.com or Peter Reay on peter.p.j.reay@btinternet.com

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Brent Birders 10th Season
May 202
3 Bird Survey - THE RESULTS
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Picture1 may 2023.jpg

The South Brent Parish Bird Survey began in 2014, and now monitors the birds of the parish in both winter and the breeding season, by ensuring that all 52 1-km squares are visited by at least once by one observer each January and May to record the species seen and heard. In May 2023, 20 observers paid 216 square visits and recorded 80 species, compared to 17 observers, 172 square visits and 84 species in May 2022. After a wet start to the month, the weather was mostly fine, though often windy, and had no obvious impact on the survey.


As in 2022, two new species for May were recorded but not seen. This year, instead of Whimbrel and Cetti’s Warbler, the remarkably similar pair comprised Curlew (one calling in flight over Three Barrows on 18 May) and Reed Warbler (one singing in Penstave Copse on 31 May). Both were heard by the intrepid Nicky Cozens who visits Brent by bus from Dartington to take part in the survey. The Curlew was the first recorded since June 2014, and the Reed Warbler was officially the first for Brent, though a bird singing above Shipley in June 2018 was probably also of this species. The only other notable bird was a Cirl Bunting seen and heard for the second May running. On the debit side, it was unusual to have no records of either Red Kite or Great Crested Grebe, though both were recorded in Brent in the previous month.

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The report can be downloaded here (pdf format)

The full set of results can be downloaded here (Excel format)

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The following submitted square visit records in May 2023: John & Sylvia Caddick, Julia & Michael Cady, Nicky Cozens, Phil Dean, Mike Goss, Reg & Kath Hambly, Sylvia & Pete Hamilton, Paul Heatley, Mo Holder, Gill Honey, Kerry Honnor, Steve Hopper, Leonard Hurrell, Mike Ingram, Dave MacDiarmid, Andy & Chris Morgan, Richard Oram, Gaynor & Adrian Platt and Peter Reay. Casual records were also received from Lesley Austin and John Day. Thanks to all.

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The Birds of South Brent Parish
before, during and beyond the 2014–16 survey
2022 ADDENDUM

Our book "The Birds of South Brent Parish" was published in March 2018, and although it included records from 2017 and early 2018, it is now out of date by nearly five years.   We have now produced an Addendum to accompany the latest small print run of the book. 

 

The Addendum includes:

  • Additions to the parish list from historical records

  • Other taxa recorded only since 2017, but not added to the parish list

  • Additions to the parish list since the publication of TBOSBP

  • Species on the parish list recorded since 2017, but not during 2014–17

  • Other notable records since 2017

  • Notable additional breeding records since 2017

  • The occurrence of non-annual species 2014–2022

  • New monthly occurrences

  • Gains and losses, ups and downs

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The focus is on additions to the parish list and records of other rare and scarce species since 2017, but also includes occurrences in new months, new breeding records and some other observations of change.  Additional records now bring the parish bird species total to a remarkable 165.

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If you already have a copy of "The Birds of South Brent Parish" or plan to buy one of our new limited print run or would just like to see an overview of the birds recorded on the parish you can download the Addendum pdf here.

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Reports

Since the start of the Brent Bird Survey in 2014 several exciting reports have been written summarising sightings of new and exotic species in the parish as well as those which are rather more familar but equally exciting.  These reports can be downloaded from the links below (BBS = Brent Bird Survey ; BBGBS = Brent Birders Garden Bird Survey):

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A crib sheet for breeding codes, grid references and square numbers

This Crib Sheet may be useful to all observers out there.  It converts between Ordnance Grid References and the square numbering used by the Brent Bird Survey.  It shows the geographic layout of the squares.  It also shows the codes to be used in the breeding part of the survey.

 

I print it out in A6 size as this fits neatly inside the back cover of my field notebook but you can resize it to whatever page size you wish.  If you're not sure how to do this let me (Phil) know.  You can reach me either directly or via the "Contact Us" form at the bottom of this web page.

 

 

You can download the Crib Sheet here.

 

 

 

Contacus:

Please feel free to send your comments, questions or feedback via the form below

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© 2014 by South Brent Bird Group Proudly created with Wix.com

Downloads:

 

Parish Map - pdf

 

2024 Bird Recording Form -

       pdf or Excel (xlsx or xls)

 

2024 Non-Bird Recording Form -

      pdf or Excel (xlsx or xls)

 

2024 Recording Guidelines - pdf

 

Observers Crib Sheet - pdf

 

Brent Bird Survey Report 2014 - pdf

 

Brent Bird Survey Report 2015 - pdf

 

Brent Bird Survey Report 2016 - pdf

Acknowledgements:

  • Thanks to the BTO for permission to use their photographs on the results charts

  • Thanks to Steve Hopper and Keith Male for permission to use their bird photographs on this site.

Click on the links below to go directly to the latest survey data.

 

Survey Overview:

Parish Map

Species Count

Surveyor Coverage

Non-bird Survey

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