SITTING out more wet weather, I decided to do a cursory analysis of a few of my own bird survey field-maps, the result of several visits to a small area of woodland over the past two breeding seasons, writes Roy Bamford.

In doing so I soon came to the conclusion that it pays to take a bit of care when recording in the field, care to keep things as tidy and clear as is possible. Though on occasions the wind and rain do have an effect on how clear the records might be, I have no excuse this time as I was able to choose my days, time and weather.

Fortunately the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and others use a system of abbreviations for each and every bird species likely to occur in the UK, (a list can be found on the BTO website).

These are generally common sense abbreviations such as WR (wren), CH (chaffinch), BT (blue tit), but there are a few weird ones. Greylag goose for some reason is GJ.

This was ingrained in my memory for ever during a winter month spent in Ireland, seeking out GJs. Many are feral, but most are winter visitors, mainly from Iceland. Here in west Wales they are generally of the feral type and breed somewhat sparingly at a few sites.

The BTO are always on the lookout for volunteers and occasionally for paid fieldworkers to carry out various surveys, usually (but not always) in the spring and summer breeding season.

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