The Big Vis - Filling in the Form

You may have noticed the appearance of the Big Vis form on the right hand sidebar. Due to the limitations of blogger and google forms it isnt quite as all singing and dancing as I would like BUT it will record the data effectively. In this post we will explain how to fill out the form for those that arent regular PWC competitors (and those that make a mess of it each month - Im looking at you Ryan).

There are two main things to note about submissions:

1. They are broken down by hour. You should only submit an individual hour per form.
2. There are only enough fields to submit ten records per form. Please fill in multiple forms if you get plenty of species or birds flying in various directions and need extra fields. This isnt ideal but it is the limitations of google forms I am afraid.

The first field is observer name. Who are you? As it is the weekend I will be Judy BUT my submission will be under my given name,

The second field is Location and here we need the name of where you are watching from and even more importantly the grid reference. You can find the grid reference using the link below:

http://www.gridreferencefinder.com

The third field is date and that is simply going to be 18/10/2014 or 19/10/2014 dependent upon whether it is Saturday or Sunday when you take part.

Start time is the fourth field - this should be dawn which will be 7.40ish. To get the sunrise time for your location try this website:

http://sunrisesunsetmap.com

For the weather field we want to know whether it is raining/snowing/sleeting/dry etc, the temperature in celcius, the cloud cover expressed in octets (8/8 for fully cloudy sky, 0/8 for no cloud), the wind direction and strength using the beaufort scale and the visibility in distance (>2km if vis is excellent, 500m-2km if a bit ganky and <500m any="" as="" be="" can="" changeable="" fog="" here.="" horrible="" if="" included="" notes="" other="" p="" showers="" such="" weather="">
Hour - we are asking you record for a minimum of two hours and we want an hourly breakdown for results so here you tick which hour you are submitting results for. If you are super lucky and get an awesome passage you may stay beyond 4 hours and this all goes in the 4+ hours tab.

The next three fields are for each record and are repeated 10 times on the form. First up we want the species of bird followed by the number and then finally the direction of flight. If you have a single species with multiple flight directions then each different direction should get its own 'record'.

If (when) you run out of space as you have had an awesome mornings migration add extra records on a new form after you submit the first one - there is no limit.

Which birds to count? Those that are moving through - so not the resident birds and not the flock of waders flying round in circles. Anything you think may be a migrant from the geese and ducks to the thrushes and Tree Sparrows. There are no hard fast rules so use your own judgement. If you have any questions get in touch on twitter using the hashtag #BigVis and tweet us @patchbirding and also @trektellen

Good birding!

The Big Vis - with Trektellen

Visible migration is one of the thrills of patch birding as squadrons of finches and larks surge overhead and hirundines snake past. We have been asked by Toby Collett and Trektellen to help support this weekends #BigVis - the inaugural visible migration event for birders in the UK and we want you to join in. What better way to get that elusive Lapland Bunting on your patchlist than by joining in?

If you are unfamiliar with Vismigging then it is simply getting to a suitable watchpoint at dawn and watching the diurnal migrants move through. From the 'seep' of the first Meadow Pipits and the twitterings of Goldfinches into the chacking Fieldfare and listening for the 'glip' of a band of crossbills. It is the spectacle of hundreds of birds on the move, with a purpose and with whom you get to share just a few seconds of their existance as the bound ever onward. It makes the common exciting and the commonplace essential as you appreciate Woodpigeons moving en masse or Tree Sparrows going from rural denizens to full-scale migrants. 

Clive Mckay has written a number of articles for our sponsors Birdguides on the subject and they illustrate in a way that I cant what is so special about Vis Mig. Check out here, here and here for the best bits! There are also a couple of articles by Clive in recent Birdwatch magazines which may prove helpful.

So where do you or in fact we come in? Well the count is going to be undertaken by anyone who wants to take part. All you need to do is from dawn until mid-morning when movement has stopped either next Saturday (18th October) or Sunday (19th) count and identify the birds moving over your patch or Vismig point. You need to work in hourly slots from sunrise and note the weather conditions (wind direction and strength, cloud cover, precipitation, visibility and temperature) and keep tallies of each species seen and which direction they were heading e.g. 120 Meadow Pipits S, 16 Meadow Pipits N. Record all this info in a notebook and then our part comes in - we are going to record the data in the same way we do the monthly submissions via a sheet on the right sidebar. Enter the data asked for and you are done! Trektellen will be collating the data and we will hopefully be able to get Mark to produce some pretty pie charts and bar graphs to illustarte what people find. Everyone can take part be they PWC contestants or not so get involved and help further knowledge of bird movements in your neck of the woods!

For those of you on twitter get involved with @trektellen and @patchbirding and the hashtag #BigVis which should keep you up to date with what people are seeing. We suggest that the formal count runs two hours from dawn unless the birds are still moving in which case keep going! Sunrise is 07:44 on Saturday and 07:46 on the Sunday so give yourself plenty of time and settle in to what will hopefully be a great weekends bird movement.