Not a sighting but significant news.The web-based East Glamorgan Bird Atlas is now live! Wayne Morris, one of the project sub-committee has just passed on the following message:
Data from all BTO national atlases and our bird club has been used to illustrate species distribution maps for both winter and breeding seasons from the 1960s to the present decade. Categories of breeding evidence are shown using a range of symbols, and breeding change maps are offered for 1984 vs 2011. Species richness maps for more than 300 tetrads show the hotspots across the region. Urban areas, rivers and birding sites can be viewed by a simple mouse-click.
Credit goes to the Club committee for having the ambition to produce another local atlas. A book was perceived in the early days as being the vehicle to publish the data. Over time, it became clear that a web-based version would best match our needs, providing easy-to-use facilities to switch maps for each species through the decades. Viewers can now see historical losses and gains of our avifauna in a readily accessible, attractive format – for free. I think it succeeds.
It has of course, been a huge effort. Hundreds of volunteers have spent many, many hours in the field capturing the data over nearly 50 years. In turn, this has been collected, reviewed and stored by the Club and latterly in partnership with our friends at SEWBReC. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed down the years.
Finally, thanks go to Alan, Dan, Dave and Rob for working on the project over the years, from planning fieldwork for the latest survey, overseeing data collection through to final publication with the services of Chris Dee at Garganey Consulting who has done a terrific job in fulfilling our requirements.
I hope you enjoy using our new atlas
There’s too many features to explain in detail so play around with it.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
Thanks John.
The one person that Wayne missed off the list to thank was himself! We all owe him a debt of gratitude for the way he managed the 2007-11 Atlas as the local BTO Regional Representative. He provided the focal point for the region in terms of motivating and organising a whole host of volunteers to conduct Timed Tetrad Visits and enter Roving Records. The comprehensive coverage he coordinated across Eastern Glamorgan was absolutely fantastic.
Many thanks to all involved in the production. Much appreciated.