Cambridgeshire Bird Club
Welcome to the Club
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club promotes the study, recording and conservation of birds in Cambridgeshire and encourages a wider interest in natural history and the protection of county wildlife habitats.
We record the County's birds in our Annual Report, so we need your records. We have a stunning Gallery, so we want your photos. We have field projects, we have indoor meetings and trips, and we keep you informed with our monthly emailed bulletins. We have links to active bird ringing groups. And have a look at our Facebook and our Twitter sites.
You can see What's About? and we urge you to report interesting, sensitive or confidential sightings to the County Recorder.
We hope you enjoy your visit and come back soon.
Announcements
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 8 March (correction, Websmaster's error) is Friday 14th , 7.30pm start, doors open 7.00pm, at the Wilkinson Room, St. John’s Church, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8RN, followed by the talk by Mark Avery.
County Recorder Jon Heath requests that all remaining 2024 bird records should be available to him by 10 February, either by sending him the the club checklist spreadsheet (download here) or by uploading to BirdTrack by that date.
Friday 14 February - Jeff Blincow. "Wildlife in Finnmark". In person at St John's. Doors open 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.
The Club is now in its centenary year. Special events are being planned to celebrate it. The Club is to hold a centenary Dinner at St Catherine's College, for any Club members, on Wednesday 16TH APRIL. Why not pop the date in your calendar now?
After many years of being Club Treasurer, Roger Swain retired from the post at the end of 2024. Thanks, Roger for all your hard work. And following on seamlessly we welcome Ed King, who takes up the reins.
Picture of the Month for December is the Kingfisher by Roger Creswell - see it here
Club e-Bulletins up to October are now available to all to read. They contain records, photos, articles and event reminders: read the recent ones here
The 2022 Annual Report (No 96) is available to purchase. Look here for details.
Congratulations to Garth Peacock for winning the 2023 Photo of the Year competition. View the winner and runners-up here
The 2019 Annual Report (No. 93) is now available to read on this website - read here 2020 Annual Report coming shortly.
The CBC recording checklist can be viewed and downloaded here
Club Bulletins back to the first issue in 1951 have now been digitised and were added to the website in 2021- read them here
Dates of tweets on our Twitter feed are now erratic - more than one browser is affected - apologies but it seems to be out of our control. Others report the same issue. For now, it's also messing with our Twitter site -Twitter .
Twitter feed: many thanks to Brendon Doe for setting this up on our website, and maintaining our Twitter account.
Next Club indoor talk is on Friday 14 February - Jeff Blincow. "Wildlife in Finnmark". In person at St John's. Doors open 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.
Jeff worked as a teacher of Information Technology and has been lecturing about wildlife since 1980 on such topics as Ecuador, Australia, Beetles, Fungi, Mammals, Bird Families and Bird Flight. He has travelled widely and his concentration on South America in the 90's led to him being one of the founder committee members of the Neotropical Bird Club.
AGM and indoor talk by Mark Avery, Friday 14th March
The Cambridgeshire Bird Club Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 8 March, 7.30 pm start, doors open 7.00pm, at the Wilkinson Room, St. John’s Church, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8RN, followed by Mark Avery. In his own words, Mark is many things including a senior conservationist with 25 years at the RSPB and 12 years subsequently as an independent campaigner. A ‘not-bad’ birder and keen but barely adequate all-round naturalist and former chair of World Land Trust. He co-founded Wild Justice with Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham.
Picture of the Month - December
Kingfisher © Roger Cresswell, 4 December 2024, Wicken Fen
December's Photo of the Month was chosen by Andrew Dobson
"As the winter weather arrives, getting out into the field with a camera in hand can be an increasing challenge. However, there was no shortage of photos and some impressive compositions. Garth Peacock’s Stonechat portrait was amongst my favourites, as were the contributions by Cookie Shorten,
especially her Kestrel. My choice for this month comes from the stunning set of Kingfisher photos taken by Roger Cresswell.
As well as the expected ‘fish in bill’ there are also two photos of the bird with an aquatic bug being tossed in its bill. So sharp is the focus that your eye is drawn towards the prey which appears to be a Common Backswimmer. Well done Roger!"
Photo of the year: 2023
Congratulations to Garth Peacock for his winning photo of a Peregrine Falcon. Second place goes to Ian Dale with his Black Redstart, and Jon Heath's Coot takes third place. Click here to view all three photos. and click 2023 candidates to see all the photos that were entered.
The Cambridgeshire Bird Report 2022, No. 96 is now available to buy at £15.00 including postage and packing. Go to Annual Reports
Where's that site?
If you are unsure of the location of the less well-known birding sites, check our Gazetteer, which also provides standardised names to include in recording checklists for the Club's database and Birdtrack. Check the Grabagrid map which provides precise site grid references, and also shows pop-up vice-county boundaries
Avian Flu
AVIAN FLU: The Angling Trust’s Voluntary Bailiff Service reported last winter that avian (bird) flu was confirmed in fenland swans. They advised, "Please be aware that you may see dead swans on the Nene or Drains. Dead swans may be found elsewhere too. Please under no circumstances go near or touch them. Phone Defra: 0345 933 5577, option 7: 'all other enquiries'. They will direct you to the correct local swan rescue (recovery ) people as all dead swans must now be collected for investigation". Email: defra.helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk and provide details. More info at Avian influenza (bird flu) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
For sick swans, the RSPCA is the first place to contact and they will give help as to who should be informed.
Lists and facts
County birders life lists, individual record year lists / record day lists, garden lists and other records - view them here
Found and injured bird? Contact a rehabilitator. Baby birds? Read here and also here
Local bird news from Cambirds.
