The Passage of Waders and Terns Through West Suffolk

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THE PASSAGE OF WADERS AND TERNS THROUGH WEST SUFFOLK A . J . LAST

Introduction DĂœRING the past decade a considerahle effort has been put into collecting sufficient data to permit an analysis of the movement of waders and terns through West Suffolk. Such an analysis is the subject of the present paper.

Methods For the purpose of this paper, West Suffolk is defined as that part of Suffolk to the west of a line from Redgrave in the north to Bures in the south. T h e paper is based on data extracted from the Suffolk Bird Reports 1950-74, supplemented to a large extent by personal observations (up to 1975) and by the records of those observers hereinafter mentioned. For the terns and the less common waders, all records (both spring and autumn) during the years 1950-75 were used. For the more numerous waders, all spring records during the period 1950-75 were reviewed, but the only autumn (June 16thOctober 31st) records taken were those from two localities, namely the Bury B . F . Ponds (i.e., the British Sugar Corporation's settling ponds at Bury St. Edmunds) and Livermere Lake, during the eight seasons 1966-71 and 1974-5 (hereinafter referred to as 'eight seasons'). T h e totals for the eight seasons are shown in the Table. Intensive coverage was attained in the four autumns of 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971, when at least one visit per three days was made to either of the two aforementioned passage sites.

Results T h e woodcock, stone curlew and lapwing, and the spring migration of the snipe have been omitted from the analysis because of incomplete recording.


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