SUFFOLK BIRD REPORT FOR 1953 Bird Records Committee : P. R. WESTALL, M.B.O.U. (Editor) B. G. BENSON (Assistant Editor)
DR. G. F. C. C. COOK
W. H. PAYN, M.B.E., M.B.O.U.
IT has proved possible to devote more space to the Report for 1953, and the opportunity has been taken to bring it into the form suggested by reviewers in " British Birds" by mentioning all species recorded in the county during the year. In cases of common birds the name only will appear, unless there IS some noteworthy comment to make, thus pursuing the policy of avoiding needless repetition. Other alterations include a return to noting the first and last dates of migrants in the main text, and not in a table separately, and, with regard to Breydon records, it has been decided to limit publication to records of birds seen on the Suffolk shore only, thus avoiding unnecessary duphcation with other annual reports. At our request, a regulär watch on the Orwell estuary has been undertaken by Mr. J. T. Fenton during 1952 and 1953. We can thus provide a reasonably füll picture of bird life on this typical Suffolk estuary, and have included a separate note on Orwell records under appropriate species. The watch was regulär from Freston to Pinmill, with occasional visits elsewhere on both sides of the estuary. Once again, a number of members were able to help in the B.T.O. enquiries, and other requests for information by research workers were answered from members' records,filedand kept by the editor since 1950. A pilot scheme for co-operative visible migration watching was undertaken by a number of members, but few were able to do much, owing to the difficulties of reaching a somewhat remote coast in the early morning. It will be of interest to report that a trapping and ringing Station has been set up by the Dingle Bird Club, at Walberswick, several of whose members are also members of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society. The first Heligoland trap was bullt by the Club, and ringing started on August 16th, 1953. A second trap is in process of being built at the time of wnting (March, 1954), and the activities of the Club are being widened to undertake not only systematic ringing of migrants, but also to forge a Suffolk link in the chain of bird observatories round the British coast.