BTO - British Trust for Ornithology - Northern Ireland

A BTO Bird Camp bonanza

WEBSITEEDITOR — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 11:31:41 +0000

Following a great summer of Bird Camps, our campers, Youth volunteers and BTO staff share their experiences and thanks with the wider public.

Bird Camp staff, volunteers and campers

SOC/BTO Scottish Bird Camp

Buoyed by the success of the first-ever Scottish Bird Camp in 2022, the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC) and BTO were excited to launch Bird Camp 2023, which took place over the weekend of 26–28 May.

Once again, we based the camp in East Lothian, and campers began to arrive late on Friday afternoon – all tooled up with binoculars, scopes and cameras (so many cameras!) – to get settled into the accommodation.

Perhaps miraculously, we enjoyed superb weather for the whole weekend and all the planned activities could go ahead! It was an action-packed weekend which included moth trapping, arts and crafts, nest monitoring, a boat trip to Bass Rock, building bird boxes, a ringing demonstration and a nature walk at the coast.

Our huge thanks go to the group of amazing young people who joined us for the weekend. They did everything with great enthusiasm and were always keen to learn more. They were great company and we’re sure we’ll be seeing them again in the future!

Thanks also to all our volunteer leaders, and everyone who helped make it such a special weekend.

Steve Willis – Scottish Bird Camp lead for BTO Scotland

Read more about the SOC/BTO Bird Camp 2023 on the SOC Blog.

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The SOC/BTO Bird Camp was made possible by the generous support of our funders:

The family of Ronald Guild - teacher, environmental activist, lifelong lover of nature and of all things East Lothian
The Cameron Bespolka Trust
The British Birds Charitable Trust
Anonymous SOC Lothian Branch members

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Bird Camp Wales

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On 16–18 June, I attended BTO Bird Camp Wales for the second year in a row, in Pembrokeshire. There were a lot of old faces and friends there, but also some new people who came. It was lovely to see everyone again in person because I have only been in contact via WhatsApp since last year. My friends at school don’t have the same interests as me so I love bird camp because it lets me make friends with people who do.

I loved every minute of bird camp but here are my favourite bits:

The places: Some of these are amazing! We went to places like Skomer Island and Stack Rocks. At these places, we saw some of the star species like Puffins, Guillemots, Peregrines and Manx Shearwaters.

The food: There was lovely food back at camp that the volunteers had made for dinner and lunch. My favourite food was the chilli on the first night there.

I loved bird camp with all my heart and hope to go again next year. Thank you to all the staff for making it a blast for me and everyone else.

The staff: The volunteers working with us were beyond wonderful and I learnt so much from them. I hope to work with them in the future again. Faye and Chris (BTO Youth staff) who ran the camp were as wonderful as the volunteers and I hope to meet them again next year.

I would talk about the bad bits of bird camp – but there are none! I loved bird camp with all my heart and hope to go again next year. Thank you to all the staff for making it a blast for me and everyone else.

Henry (12) – Bird Camp Wales camper

Read more about Bird Camp Wales 2023 >

Bird Camp England

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Summarising the Bird Camp experience is as difficult as resisting the temptation to raise your binoculars when you’re there. I had an incredible experience as a camper in 2022, and this was mirrored for me in 2023, when I found myself on the other side of the experience as a youth volunteer. I loved seeing lifelong memories being made and new friendships forming, just as I had experienced the year prior.

We had fifteen enthusiastic and knowledgeable campers who each had their own creative flair. I particularly enjoyed seeing the campers working on exhibition pieces for parents and guardians to see at the end of the weekend. These included paintings of habitats, nature journalling, and even acrostic poems! Our base of operations was the classroom at Flatford Mill in Suffolk where exhibition pieces (and sightings lists!) were worked on between wildlife-watching trips.

One of the many highlights of the weekend was the boat trip from Harwich Harbour. The coastal air added Little Terns, Cormorants, seals and more to the sightings lists, following on from the day before, which included the excitement of seeing Turtle Doves!

Seeing the fantastic young people all having a blast reminded me of the importance of these camps. No matter your birding knowledge or confidence level, for those two nights, Bird Camp is your home.

As well as the boat trip, campers were given insights into how to contribute to BTO science – bird ringing and point count surveys – and taking part in moth trapping and pollinator surveys. And of course, the healthy competition of the bioblitz and relaxation from the mindfulness session brought campers closer together too.

I was hugely grateful for the England Bird Camp after I attended as a camper last year, for the way it opened up the world of birdwatching for me. This year, seeing the fantastic young people all having a blast reminded me of the importance of these camps. No matter your birding knowledge or confidence level, for those two nights, Bird Camp is your home.

Adam (16) – Bird Camp England 2023 Volunteer and Youth Advisory Panel Member

Read more about Bird Camp England 2023 >

Bird Camp Northern Ireland

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Where do I start? How about with the weather? I would say it rained for about 75% of the weekend. But despite this not once did I hear a young person complain. Instead, they put on their coats, grabbed their binoculars and marched out into the rain. This is the second year BTO has run a camp in Northern Ireland, and in both years I have been so inspired by the knowledge, curiosity and enthusiasm the young people have for the natural world and everything it brings.

For me, the highlights of this camp include the bioblitz in Davagh Forest, archery at Gortin Activity Centre and the bird ringing demonstration run by Stephen, Sorrel and Emma. After the disappointment of having no birds at last year’s ringing demonstration, it was amazing to catch 22 birds this year. The team was amazing and kept all the young people interested and getting to release a goldcrest is an experience I will never forget.

Bird Camp also happened to fall on my birthday this year. A 5:30 wake up, a titanic cake decoration, 14 young people singing happy birthday, and spending 3 hours in the rain sums up one of the stranger birthdays I’ve had, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I have been so inspired by the knowledge, curiosity and enthusiasm the young people have for the natural world and everything it brings.

Each year, I’ve taken something different away from Bird Camp. Last year I learned never to treat a bird as if it’s boring. Doesn’t matter how common you think it is, to someone else it could be the most exciting bird they’ve seen all year.

This year, I learnt how to adapt to changing circumstances and be flexible and how to prepare for and run a session of my own. Most of all, I learned that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing. Oh, and I’m also apparently amazing at archery!

Benjamin – Bird Camp Northern Ireland 2023 volunteer, Youth Representative for Northern Ireland and Mental Health & Mindfulness (MMH) project participant

Read more about Bird Camp Northern Ireland 2023 >

BTO Bird Camps in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are made possible thanks to the support of the Cameron Bespolka Trust.

Young people are the future of BTO

With your help, we can reach more young people through events like Bird Camp.

Donate to the BTO Youth Appeal today

2 August 2023

Following a great summer of Bird Camps, our campers, Youth volunteers and BTO staff share their experiences and thanks with the wider public.

BTO Youth Appeal 24 Aug 2023

Finding the wild side in Northern Ireland

WEBSITEEDITOR — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 09:41:38 +0000

Jemma Davies is the new Engagement Coordinator for BTO in Northern Ireland. How better to kick off her role than the Wild Weekend at Oxford Island? No

Jemma Davies

Engagement Coordinator (NI)

Jemma is excited to be part of BTO NI in a role that focuses on helping people to engage with nature and notice what’s right outside their door, something that she’s passionate about and keen to promote.

Bird Ringing SchemeNest Record Scheme

Birds and people

Northern Ireland

Staff voices

The BTO Wild Weekend is part of our wider work currently happening in Northern Ireland (NI), which aims to engage with new audiences and support people in becoming volunteers for our core monitoring schemes. The event was also well-timed in terms of me getting out and meeting birders in Northern Ireland after only a month in my new role – chatting with people in person is often less intimidating than lots of emails coming into my inbox from strangers!

In total, we were joined by about 50 people for a full day of wild workshops, demonstrations and talks at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre at the Oxford Island National Nature Reserve. These sessions were aimed at those who had signed up for the event, but they were helpful for me, too: they reminded me of the big picture of BTO, why our work is important and how valuable volunteers are in helping us to achieve our goal of a better future for birds and for nature.

An introduction to bird ringing

I’m relatively new to the concept of bird ringing and before the Wild Weekend hadn’t even seen a mist net, never mind someone holding a bird for ringing!

We had the opportunity to see Debbie Nelson, lead ringer at the site, and her team in action catching birds in the mist net, handling them, and ringing them. BTO has been coordinating bird ringing activities in the UK since the 1930s, and running a special scheme called Constant Effort Sites (CES) since 1983.

This is a standardised ringing programme that involves ringers operating the same nets, in the same locations, over the same time period at regular intervals through the breeding season. There are approximately 120 CES sites throughout Britain and Ireland, with four being in NI.

Oxford Island is a CES for bird ringing, providing valuable trend information on the abundance of adult and juvenile birds, productivity, and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird. Debbie’s enthusiasm and love of ringing didn’t go unnoticed – in my view you need those things as motivation for getting up at 4 a.m. to do a survey!

Debbie leads the ringing demonstration at the Wild Weekend 2023. Sorrel Lyall

Learning to find and monitor nests

Sandra from Lough Neagh Discovery Centre leads a nest-finding workshop. Jemma Davies

We’re lucky in Northern Ireland to have Stephen Hewitt (Armagh Regional Rep) as an enthusiastic Nest Record Scheme mentor. Despite being unable to attend the Wild Weekend event he kindly headed out with another keen volunteer, George, a couple of days ahead of time to track down some nests to share on Saturday.

In both the morning and the afternoon there was an opportunity to join George, plus Sandra and Rosie from Lough Neagh Discovery Centre to see some of these nests and learn about the scheme. We also learnt how, by paying careful attention to bird behaviour, you can find and then monitor birds’ nests.

Monitoring nests is really rewarding and since joining Stephen on a training course recently I find myself paying more attention to bird behaviour that I would perhaps have overlooked before. If you haven’t done any nest monitoring before, you could join BTO’s Nesting Neighbours project, which is ideal for new volunteers.

It’s important to note that in order to participate in nest recording in Northern Ireland you may need to register for a license – it is a requirement of the legislation here. You can find out more in our nest monitoring Code of Conduct.

Listening out for birds

Seeing the confidence that people gained as a result of the training was hugely encouraging...it’s amazing how bird ‘noise’ can so quickly become a chorus of individuals singing and calling.

BTO Scotland’s Ben Darvill and BTO NI’s Sorrel Lyall shared the value of being able to ID birds by their songs and call, and gave some great tips for developing transferable skills when listening out for birds – including some fun impressions and memory aids. The theory was then put straight into action as we headed outside to do some listening exercises and IDing using our ears.

Seeing the confidence that people gained as a result of the training was hugely encouraging and the BTO team left the day uplifted by the progress that people made in such a short space of time. It’s amazing how bird ‘noise’ can so quickly become a chorus of individuals singing and calling. I previously thought I was OK at my song and call ID, but I’ve come to appreciate that the more you learn the less it feels like you know, so this is definitely an aspect of birding that I’m keen to develop myself.

Sketching in the field

Great Crested Grebe from Kinnego Hide. Sorrel Lyall

BTO NI’s Sorrel and Katherine Booth Jones led a workshop on field sketching that involved both a theory part and a practical part.

They talked through the benefits of field sketching: for learning ID, to study behaviour, and to improve your well-being. Then they moved on to explaining how to approach field sketching, in terms of choosing a bird to draw (one with plenty of individuals to view!), where to start with shapes and shading, and the equipment that might be helpful.

They emphasised the importance of practising – which is exactly what they did next, visiting a hide and using binoculars and scopes to give everyone the opportunity to have a go at field sketching.

The characterful Great Crested Grebe was the most popular subject, with some 50 birds in front of the hide – dozing, stretching, fishing and offering some interesting postures to draw.

I must confess that I’m not very gifted at drawing (give me a crochet pattern, a crochet hook and some wool any day!) but I feel inspired by Sorrel and Kat’s skill and enthusiasm to give sketching a go…maybe I’ll start with using photos of birds and then progress to giving it a go in the field.

Reflections

I enjoyed connecting with like-minded people. Wild Weekend 2023 attendee

What a great day, it was a fantastic initiation into birds for me. Wild Weekend 2023 attendee

The fantastic Oxford Island National Nature Reserve was bustling with bird activity throughout the day, with countless Blackcaps, Sedge Warblers, Chaffinches, Dunnocks and Wrens singing away. We racked up 52 species in total, with highlights of Grasshopper Warbler, Pochards with ducklings and Red-breasted Mergansers.

It was a great day full of birds and exploring the National Nature Reserve, and it set the bar pretty high for future events as the weather was fantastic and everyone was keen to learn.

It was wonderful to meet lots of people and to put faces to names – and I’m looking forward to seeing folk again at upcoming training and engagement events across Northern Ireland.

Get involved in Northern Ireland

BTO offers plenty of opportunities, experiences and resources for everyone in Northern Ireland, whether you’re new to birds or a lifelong naturalist.

Events and courses

From Wild Weekends and Bird Camps to ecology training and identification courses, there is something for everyone.

Volunteer

Join our growing community of volunteers by taking part in a survey. You don’t need to be an expert to take part!

Online resources

BTOvideo: identification guides, interviews and more
BirdFacts: information about the UK’s birds
Birds on your Doorstep: birds in your area

3 June 2023 Finding the wild side in Northern Ireland Introducing Ripple NI: BTO’s community-based engagement projectWelcome to BTO Northern IrelandBelfast’s Unsung Seabird

Jemma Davies is the new Engagement Coordinator for BTO in Northern Ireland. How better to kick off her role than the Wild Weekend at Oxford Island?

BTO staff members at the Wild Weekend 2023. Steven Fyffe

Engagement

BTO Northern Ireland

30 Jun 2023

Northern Ireland