Newsletter Editorial, March 2001 Pete Marsh

Welcome to the March Newsletter.  

The good news is that we still have several accessible birdwatching sites in this area (see inside), mainly due to being a coastal location.  The bad news is that all national survey work undertaken by many of our members on behalf of the BTO/WWT/RSPB etc has been suspended for this season.   However, the value of single site data is better than nothing e.g. Knot can be counted on Heysham heliport but we cannot work out the total number because Middleton is inaccessible.  Similarly the Pine Lake complex can be easily counted from the roads.   These will at least provide some information for the annual LDBWS report.

We continue to approach members for their own personal views on what constitutes their own kind of birding.   In this issue it is the turn of Mike Robinson.    As a tour leader, Mike has a very organised  approach with great attention to detail in order to try and ensure success with any target species requested by his clientele.   Mike has strong views on suppression.  This article was commissioned before the foot and mouth epidemic and it is somewhat ironic that we are now in the midst of a situation with more 'out of bounds' birds than ever before in the history of modern twitching/survey work etc..   In this respect both Mike and myself have suffered financially through cancelled tours and environmental consultancy work and let us hope for everyone's sake that the hardship suffered by many people is alleviated in the most optimistic case scenario.  This is far more important than missing a few year ticks.    I will personally miss  the annual Ward's Stone Dotterel searches, but very little else.

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