BIRDWATCHERS urged to monitor a ‘raptor patch’

Red Kite (Cameron Sharp)

While Red Kites have returned to the region in recent decades, but numbers of Buzzards monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey in Wales are at their lowest since at least the mid-1990s. We know little about the trends in Sparrowhawks and Kestrels, although by broad consensus encounters with the hovering falcon have diminished. Now BTO Cymru is launching a monitoring scheme designed to understand more about the breeding populations of these raptors and the ecologically-similar Raven.

Cudyll Cymru will start next March, with the Bangor-based organisation asking people to register now to take advantage of training available for volunteers over the winter. With funding from Welsh Government’s Nature Networks Fund, the BTO is keen to attract new entrants to bird monitoring as well as experienced birdwatchers.

In 2025, the project will focus on four species that are widespread in Wales: Buzzard, Kestrel, Red Kite and Sparrowhawk, with Raven added to the roster in 2026. Current monitoring often struggles to provide information on some of these species, as they live at low densities and are less active during surveys undertaken early on spring mornings.

The scheme is designed to be flexible, with participants choosing their survey area to monitor, ideally somewhere that you are able to visit regularly. It could even be the regular dog-walk or commute, so long as you are able to visit at least a few hours each month between early March and late summer. Those involved will be asked to count individuals of one or several of the species within their ‘patch’, and if possible to map their territories. If nests can be watched without causing disturbance, the organisers would also like to know about the number of chicks that reach fledging age.

Full details at bto.org/cudyll-cymru and bto.org/cudyll-cymru-cymraeg