The
December 2012 Magazine No.171
Harrier Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group
Welcome to the Winter Harrier
W
ith all of our successful fund-raising this autumn, that completely wiped out our potential financial shortfall, Council have agreed to our having a full colour version of the Harrier this issue – I think this is a first. The full colour Harrier provides an opportunity to showcase the excellent photography and illustration work we regularly receive from contributors. This is also the biggest edition we’ve prepared to date, featuring a full BINS review of the year, so we hope you like our 2012 Christmas present! Bursaries are back Another result of our fund-raising has been that we are again in a position to offer a small bursary to support a Suffolk-based bird conservation project. A small Council committee is to be set up and we’ll publicise this and how to apply at the AGM in February. Website development news By the time we go to press it is hoped the SOG laptop will have been purchased so that work on the new site can get underway – but this cannot start until a small committee has met to agree precisely what the function of the site is to be and then determine what needs to be done. This meeting is scheduled for the New Year and we’ll keep you posted on developments. Concerns about intrusive photography The issue of intrusive bird photographers, unsettling both birds and birders, has raised its head again in the course of this summer and autumn. While SOG’s Council fully understands
the drive for better photographs, and must admit that this magazine is a beneficiary of photographers’ efforts, the Council must reiterate that photographic practices that unduly disturb birds must be avoided at all times. Often rarities can arrive in Suffolk in a distressed state and this kind of added pressure can prove to be fatal. Obviously any harrying behaviour (by birders and photographers) needs to be avoided. Thus, for those photographers who are deemed to repeatedly transgress in this way, we must warn that we will be obliged to reject any photos that they submit in future. In this issue On a happier note, what we have for you in this issue are the first results from everyone’s Bird Atlas efforts. Mick Wright, who has been doing sterling work on the BTO’s Atlas for years, has prepared this issue’s lead article with data extracted from the survey. He provides some advance insights into the state of some of Suffolk’s birds – specifically the winners and losers. Next, we continue with Nick Moran’s ‘Log it or lose it’ series of tutorials showing this time how you can exploit BirdTrack’s facilities to present your own patch data more effectively. Then there are a couple of articles on Garden Birdwatch that were triggered by Nick’s last article. These are followed by a spin-off from THE HARRIER – December 2012
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