I invite your interest in the following: Have you ever contemplated keeping a
record of the birds that occur around your house or workplace? Have you ever
taken part in a large-scale long-term volunteer bird population survey? Maybe
you wish to start one and find out the sort of processes involved. Do you want
to know a proven way to do it? Do you want to know how long it takes to have a
good idea of the bird species present in an area? More importantly, are you
interested in how to assess when you know that you have a good idea of the bird
species present in your area. Do you want to find out about how the information
available from a long-term bird population study differs from a short-term
study? The difference is very much more than just time and effort! What about
exploring the relationship between the population abundance of each species and
its recording rates (as in what proportion of surveys record a species). This is
a vital issue involved in interpreting any bird atlas style of data. Even
deeper, how are these factors related to the social behaviour of a species. Even
deeper still, what about how these things change over the year, due to
migration, display behaviour, breeding and other aspects. Are you interested to
know which set of species has the most stable and which has the most variable
populations from one year to the next, out of long-distance migrants,
altitudinal migrants and residents. What about how to assess the residency of
birds from long-term data, so as to show long the bird fauna stays in your area.
Would you like to be able to find out the annual patterns by month of total bird
abundance of all species or of each species individually in an area and the
monthly patterns of species diversity in your area. Are you interested in
information on timing and duration of breeding by many bird species. What about
detailed schedules of arrival times and departure times of migrant species. Or
the proportions of count records at which the species was breeding and totals of
these either by year or by species as well as trends in these features over the
years.
There are plenty of conjectures and impressions floating around about changes
in bird populations but you may be interested to see a set of information about
real trends in bird populations, based on the first 18 years of a continuous and
still ongoing volunteer survey the Garden Bird Survey (GBS) that has been run by
Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) since July 1981. The facts are not always
what the conjecture suggests.
All these phenomena are addressed in detail in my long-awaited report:
"Canberra Birds: A Report on the first 18 years of the Garden Bird
Survey". This is now available. The report is 128 pages in length, printed
in plain black. It is compactly set out, avoiding blank space. It is a detailed
analysis of the GBS. The report is based on the first 18 years of continuous
data, from 46273 observer weeks of data, from 1151 observer years of data, from
a total of 277 sites. It fully describes the survey's history and methods.
Although it is in part based on the same dataset, this report includes an extra
year of data and far more detailed analysis and none of the pictures that are in
the book Birds of Canberra Gardens. This report is very different in concept,
coverage and design. I think it is exciting, full of good stuff that has never
appeared before, at last a fitting tribute to all those who have contributed to
the GBS.
It is vastly more than just a detailed study of the birds of Canberra since
1981. It addresses all the above issues, also how observer activity affects
results and the importance of habitat at the range of sites. It demonstrates how
the quantity of bird species present impacts on observer commitment to
continuation of the survey from year to year. It demonstrates observer
differences in results. It details how observer effort relates to number of
species recorded but not to bird abundance. It makes vital comparisons between
results of the Garden Bird Survey and the Canberra Ornithologists Group’s
ACT Bird Atlas. Conservation aspects are also addressed. It also includes 41
pages of text on 163 species, where the data are sufficient, on monthly patterns
of abundance and long term trends in abundance, such as increases, decreases and
stability. Also timing and duration of all stages of breeding is given (if
recorded). Monthly patterns are interpreted relative to migration, changes in
habitat use over the year, seasonal changes in behaviour and breeding. It
includes 15 pages of graphs of both monthly and long-term abundance, over the 18
years, for 120 species. It includes 20 pages of 8 Appendices of detailed
statistical and other supplementary information (statistics on occurrence and
breeding of all species and statistics on all sites, plus other items) including
149 references and a comprehensive index.
This price on this report is $19.00 (plus package and postage of $3.50) and
will be available only from:
