BIRD SURVEYS 2026 Paul Ritchie, Sorbus Learning

​My interest in bird watching started as a young child staying with grandparents every summer. During breaks from picking fruit and vegetables with my grandad I would spend happy hours with my nanny on the wild open heath at the end of their road Corfe Mullen, Dorset. She shared the delights of tiger beetles, bumblebees, sand lizard, smooth snake and Dartford Warbler. So began a lifelong journey as a biologist and wildlife illustrator.

In later years, as a countryside ranger, I used wildlife surveys to help me monitor the impact of our ecology and conservation work improving the habitats on our nature reserves. I was actively involved in butterfly transects and the Common Birds Census (CBC), a pioneering UK scheme coordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology, using volunteer-based territory mapping to monitor breeding bird populations, particularly on farmland and nature reserves.

After retirement, during the dark days of Covid 19, I found distraction and solace surveying the wild plants and animals found in our garden, which we have managed as a haven for wildlife since 2010. This was an opportunity to renew my interest in bird watching and started to record annually wild birds that I saw in and around our garden. This year a friend introduced me to the Merlin Bird ID app that I downloaded onto my smartphone and this simple tool has enhanced my ability to record local bird populations.

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New project
In February 2026, I decided to start surveying local bird populations in a more consistent way. I wanted an approach that was sustainable in the context of my other commitments. A daily dog walk takes me through two different but linked habitats, farmland along the Greensand Way from our garden to the graveyard at Betchworth and small spinney next to the barns. Regular trips from our house to the Spar and Reading Room Café on Brockham Green offered a third, riparian habitat to include in surveys.

During these daily walking surveys, my visual observations are enhanced by using the Merlin app created by Cornell University, to record birds by songs and calls. This information complements daily sitting surveys in our garden, primarily at dawn and dusk. All in all this amounts to a substantial data base.

I collate the bird sightings on a spreadsheet recording presence or absence for each week. My intention is to continue this survey for a complete annual cycle.

​A few weeks after I began my survey I am discovering interesting data about local bird populations I attach my survey so far.  I am slowly learning bird songs and calls and I find the activity very relaxing as well as intellectually stimulating.

Over the coming year I will be sharing some of my survey results through a 'bird of the week' post.

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