Berkshire’s breeding bird atlas – the last push

July and August are the last months of atlas surveying and it is a great time to demonstrate breeding of most of our species. Parties of recently fledged young of finches, warblers, tits etc are everywhere and many of our early breeders are now feeding their second broods. It’s also a good time for seeing owls hunting and hearing the young begging (Tawny owlets are particularly vocal right now) and Nightjars are still calling. All records confirming breeding are valuable, particularly for the less common species throughout Berkshire. We are also missing a lot of records of the nocturnal species.

If you can, please help complete the Atlas by roving in some of the less well-covered areas of the county, mostly the far west: SU27, 28, 35, 36, 37, 38 (around Kintbury, Hungerford, Lambourn). You can put records into the BTO site (you will need to identify the tetrad) or into berksbirds.co.uk (you just need to put in a grid reference and the breeding status code).

Venturing into less-visited aras can be rewarding – I have seen more Spotted Flycatchers and Lesser Whitethroats and a number of other species in the last week than in most years in Berkshire.

Good luck
Renton Righelato –