Join the binoculars-wielding army in the name of citizen science, says John Ingham
ONE of the joys of being a father is being able to drive your family to distraction. Few habits annoy mine more than me using my mobile phone to jot down the birds I see and hear on walks and then send the data to the British Trust for Ornithology's BirdTrack.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers.
They also get fed up with me scribbling down the birds that I see in the garden and filing the records to the BTO's Garden BirdWatch. My son has even described it as "slave labour" given that I don't get paid. But now I have proof positive that this citizen science - data gathered by members of the public rather than expert scientists - is worthwhile.
A study of records of cuckoos and swallows submitted by volunteers concluded: "Citizen science schemes have the potential to provide valuable information about species declines in the absence of more formal monitoring."
The study in Avian Biology Research focused on two projects - BirdTrack, to which birdwatchers can send sightings all year round, and the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar. This takes first sightings such as the first swallow, leafbud, daffodil and cuckoo.
Cuckoos are on our red list of threatened birds after suffering a 76 per cent drop between 1967 and 2012 in England. And the study confirmed the ability of the two projects to chart the marked decline in cuckoos across the UK.
But these studies can help monitor all species, whether thriving or declining. The BTO's Bird Atlas 2007-2011 used data from all its surveys including BirdTrack and Garden BirdWatch.
It meant that I - and thousands of other birdwatchers - got an author's credit.
There is also a dot on the lesser whitethroat's map which I know is the bird I hear every spring on one of my dog walks. It's my dot on the map.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers who help it build up an accurate picture of the state of the nation's birds.
These records have helped reveal declines in house sparrows, for example, and the spread of birds such as nuthatches.
So if you want to help, don't be shy. Your records are important.
For a taster you could join 500,000 other enthusiasts in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of January 27-29.
Strangely this is one survey my family does not cut up rough about. Perhaps that's because they like to take part too.
I may drive them to distraction but some of this birding lark is obviously rubbing off on them.
Southampton University researchers have been tracking where sharks feed.
SHARKS could get a lifeline from Southampton University research which tracked where they feed.
Coastal sharks, like great whites, stay close to home but their deep sea cousins feed mainly in areas of cooler water, reports Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Yet protected areas are mostly in tropical waters.
As sharks are at the top of the food chain they need protecting properly.
GETTY
Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water.
TREES are a vital weapon in the battle to clean our cities. Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water, less flooding and less energy use, said an Italian study.
Trees absorb pollutants, cool the air and provide food, reports Ecological Modelling.
GETTY
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
OCCASIONALLY, into the darkness of commuting with my nemesis Southern, a little light must shine.
My journey yesterday began as normal: my train was late. But a goldfinch started singing by the tracks, then a song thrush, a blue tit, a wren and a coal tit and my rail rage started to subside.
Then I felt that rarest of sensations for a Southern commuter: a smile.
Three large birds glided across the sky, broad-winged, with distinctive twisting, forked tails.
Three red kites, the first I'd ever seen over my town in Surrey, were cruising past.
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino.
AS Britain shivers, the Met Office says 2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino: an occasional phenomenon which boosts temperatures worldwide.
And 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have been this century.
The world, Trump's America included, needs to clean up its act.
GETTY
Plastic pollution spreads everywhere.
THE Orkneys feel so remote, so clean, so perfect for wildlife.
But the beaches of Scapa Flow, the great natural anchorage at their heart, are contaminated with as many tiny pieces of plastic as the industrial Clyde and Firth of Forth, Heriot Watt University tells Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Join the binoculars-wielding army in the name of citizen science, says John Ingham
ONE of the joys of being a father is being able to drive your family to distraction. Few habits annoy mine more than me using my mobile phone to jot down the birds I see and hear on walks and then send the data to the British Trust for Ornithology's BirdTrack.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers.
They also get fed up with me scribbling down the birds that I see in the garden and filing the records to the BTO's Garden BirdWatch. My son has even described it as "slave labour" given that I don't get paid. But now I have proof positive that this citizen science - data gathered by members of the public rather than expert scientists - is worthwhile.
A study of records of cuckoos and swallows submitted by volunteers concluded: "Citizen science schemes have the potential to provide valuable information about species declines in the absence of more formal monitoring."
The study in Avian Biology Research focused on two projects - BirdTrack, to which birdwatchers can send sightings all year round, and the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar. This takes first sightings such as the first swallow, leafbud, daffodil and cuckoo.
Cuckoos are on our red list of threatened birds after suffering a 76 per cent drop between 1967 and 2012 in England. And the study confirmed the ability of the two projects to chart the marked decline in cuckoos across the UK.
But these studies can help monitor all species, whether thriving or declining. The BTO's Bird Atlas 2007-2011 used data from all its surveys including BirdTrack and Garden BirdWatch.
It meant that I - and thousands of other birdwatchers - got an author's credit.
There is also a dot on the lesser whitethroat's map which I know is the bird I hear every spring on one of my dog walks. It's my dot on the map.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers who help it build up an accurate picture of the state of the nation's birds.
These records have helped reveal declines in house sparrows, for example, and the spread of birds such as nuthatches.
So if you want to help, don't be shy. Your records are important.
For a taster you could join 500,000 other enthusiasts in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of January 27-29.
Strangely this is one survey my family does not cut up rough about. Perhaps that's because they like to take part too.
I may drive them to distraction but some of this birding lark is obviously rubbing off on them.
Southampton University researchers have been tracking where sharks feed.
SHARKS could get a lifeline from Southampton University research which tracked where they feed.
Coastal sharks, like great whites, stay close to home but their deep sea cousins feed mainly in areas of cooler water, reports Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Yet protected areas are mostly in tropical waters.
As sharks are at the top of the food chain they need protecting properly.
GETTY
Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water.
TREES are a vital weapon in the battle to clean our cities. Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water, less flooding and less energy use, said an Italian study.
Trees absorb pollutants, cool the air and provide food, reports Ecological Modelling.
GETTY
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
OCCASIONALLY, into the darkness of commuting with my nemesis Southern, a little light must shine.
My journey yesterday began as normal: my train was late. But a goldfinch started singing by the tracks, then a song thrush, a blue tit, a wren and a coal tit and my rail rage started to subside.
Then I felt that rarest of sensations for a Southern commuter: a smile.
Three large birds glided across the sky, broad-winged, with distinctive twisting, forked tails.
Three red kites, the first I'd ever seen over my town in Surrey, were cruising past.
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino.
AS Britain shivers, the Met Office says 2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino: an occasional phenomenon which boosts temperatures worldwide.
And 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have been this century.
The world, Trump's America included, needs to clean up its act.
GETTY
Plastic pollution spreads everywhere.
THE Orkneys feel so remote, so clean, so perfect for wildlife.
But the beaches of Scapa Flow, the great natural anchorage at their heart, are contaminated with as many tiny pieces of plastic as the industrial Clyde and Firth of Forth, Heriot Watt University tells Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Join the binoculars-wielding army in the name of citizen science, says John Ingham
ONE of the joys of being a father is being able to drive your family to distraction. Few habits annoy mine more than me using my mobile phone to jot down the birds I see and hear on walks and then send the data to the British Trust for Ornithology's BirdTrack.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers.
They also get fed up with me scribbling down the birds that I see in the garden and filing the records to the BTO's Garden BirdWatch. My son has even described it as "slave labour" given that I don't get paid. But now I have proof positive that this citizen science - data gathered by members of the public rather than expert scientists - is worthwhile.
A study of records of cuckoos and swallows submitted by volunteers concluded: "Citizen science schemes have the potential to provide valuable information about species declines in the absence of more formal monitoring."
The study in Avian Biology Research focused on two projects - BirdTrack, to which birdwatchers can send sightings all year round, and the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar. This takes first sightings such as the first swallow, leafbud, daffodil and cuckoo.
Cuckoos are on our red list of threatened birds after suffering a 76 per cent drop between 1967 and 2012 in England. And the study confirmed the ability of the two projects to chart the marked decline in cuckoos across the UK.
But these studies can help monitor all species, whether thriving or declining. The BTO's Bird Atlas 2007-2011 used data from all its surveys including BirdTrack and Garden BirdWatch.
It meant that I - and thousands of other birdwatchers - got an author's credit.
There is also a dot on the lesser whitethroat's map which I know is the bird I hear every spring on one of my dog walks. It's my dot on the map.
The BTO is fed sightings by a binoculars-wielding army of 70,000 volunteers who help it build up an accurate picture of the state of the nation's birds.
These records have helped reveal declines in house sparrows, for example, and the spread of birds such as nuthatches.
So if you want to help, don't be shy. Your records are important.
For a taster you could join 500,000 other enthusiasts in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of January 27-29.
Strangely this is one survey my family does not cut up rough about. Perhaps that's because they like to take part too.
I may drive them to distraction but some of this birding lark is obviously rubbing off on them.
Southampton University researchers have been tracking where sharks feed.
SHARKS could get a lifeline from Southampton University research which tracked where they feed.
Coastal sharks, like great whites, stay close to home but their deep sea cousins feed mainly in areas of cooler water, reports Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Yet protected areas are mostly in tropical waters.
As sharks are at the top of the food chain they need protecting properly.
GETTY
Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water.
TREES are a vital weapon in the battle to clean our cities. Increasing tree cover by 20 per cent in cities including London would mean cleaner air and water, less flooding and less energy use, said an Italian study.
Trees absorb pollutants, cool the air and provide food, reports Ecological Modelling.
GETTY
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
OCCASIONALLY, into the darkness of commuting with my nemesis Southern, a little light must shine.
My journey yesterday began as normal: my train was late. But a goldfinch started singing by the tracks, then a song thrush, a blue tit, a wren and a coal tit and my rail rage started to subside.
Then I felt that rarest of sensations for a Southern commuter: a smile.
Three large birds glided across the sky, broad-winged, with distinctive twisting, forked tails.
Three red kites, the first I'd ever seen over my town in Surrey, were cruising past.
If the train had been on time, I'd have missed them.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino.
AS Britain shivers, the Met Office says 2017 was the warmest year on record without an El Nino: an occasional phenomenon which boosts temperatures worldwide.
And 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have been this century.
The world, Trump's America included, needs to clean up its act.
GETTY
Plastic pollution spreads everywhere.
THE Orkneys feel so remote, so clean, so perfect for wildlife.
But the beaches of Scapa Flow, the great natural anchorage at their heart, are contaminated with as many tiny pieces of plastic as the industrial Clyde and Firth of Forth, Heriot Watt University tells Marine Pollution Bulletin.
GETTY
GETTY
GETTY
GETTY
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
GETTY