Bird-Survey: Overview and How To Use

Background

Supporting wildlife is an important part of the community vision for Long Leys in the 2021-2040 Neighbourhood Plan currently being developed. For bird life that includes ensuring key bird habitats are protected and enhanced. As part of this process it is helpful to know and keep track of the bird species present in each habitat area. That way we can understand how birds are doing in Long Leys and surrounding neighbourhoods to establish whether any further actions are required. From time to time, we may also want to focus on a particular species of bird that need particular help.

There is a great passion for birds amongst many of those who live, work and spend leisure time in Long Leys. So to obtain the data needed, we decided to add Bird-Survey to our website, so everyone can play a part in surveying bird life in the area. At the same time, it can be a fun way of getting to know our local bird population.

Bird-Survey is under development, so please be understanding if you hit any problems and report them to birds@long-leys.org.

What is Bird-Survey?

Bird-Survey is a simple way of recording and submitting bird sightings across the area, so they can be analysed and acted upon. To take part you need to identify a bird and record the habitat area it was seen in. The information is collected in an online database, allowing us to combine all submissions to produce a complete picture of bird life in the area. To verify the sightings, you are also asked for your name and a contact email address. The survey is continuous, so sightings can be added at any time. It does depend on your experience level, how confident you are about identifying specific birds. The guiding rule on Bird-Survey is “if you are not sure what it is then leave it out of the survey”. Some bird spotters take photographs so they can check later if they are not sure (taking photos of continuously moving birds is not always that easy!)

Key habitats for many birds are the homes & gardens in Long Leys, so even if you don’t get out and about much, you can still help by recording what you see in your own garden or street. To separate out different areas of housing across Long Leys the local postcode is helpful.

Bird-Survey Overview

The survey area covered by Bird-Survey is currently divided into four Neighbourhoods:

• Long Leys Neighbourhood Plan area
• West Common
• Burton Road Area
• West End
• Liquorice Park

West Common is not part of the Long Leys Neighbourhood Plan area, but it is a key element of the “Green look” of Long Leys and an important wildlife asset. (See Habitat Maps for more details).

Bird-Survey has the following pages:

These can be accessed from the Bird-Survey drop down menu at the top of this page.

• Report Bird Sighting: This is where bird sighting can be entered. This page is designed for use on a laptop, tablet and most mobile phones.
• Summary of Reported Bird Sightings: Here you can see a summary of all previous sightings in the whole area, or drill down to see bird sightings in a particular neighbourhood or habitat area.
• Register for an account: You don’t need to register for an account to use Bird-Survey but it does allow access to other features, such as viewing all your historic bird sightings. It also allows your bird sightings to be added automatically to the database, rather than held in a queue for verification.
• Login: Where you login if you have an account.
• Habitat Maps: These show maps defining habitat areas such as Hobblers Hole and Newt Hollow.
  (See Habitat maps).

How to use Bird-Survey to Report Bird Sighting

• Bird-Survey can be used without registering for an account with your name and email used to verify your sighting submission and to allow us to provide updates on bird survey findings ( Your name and email will be securely held on the Bird-Survey database. No personal data will be provided to other parties under any circumstances).
• Registering for a Bird-Survey account (name and email required) makes reporting sightings simpler and allows the viewing of all your previous bird sighting reports.
• For Long Leys sightings choose a Habitat Area (See Habitat maps for guidance on areas). For West Common choose either the main part (east of A57) or the golf course part (west of A57).
• For sightings in homes & gardens, the postcode can help us map the sighting to a Long Leys area.
• Most birds sighted in Lincoln should be on the short list (birds regularly seen in Lincolnshire). For less common birds, select the long list (birds which are likely to be seen in Britain). It is unlikely you will ever use the highly unusual list ( birds that are extremely rare / accidental visitors to Britain / presumed extinct). The complete list of birds is based on the British Trust for Ornithology’s British List.
• Select whether the observation was a bird sighting or whether the bird was also nesting in the habitat
• For data on all bird sighting within Long Leys and West Common see Reported Sightings

Thank you for helping to support wildlife in Long Leys and surrounding neighbourhoods.