BTO NI's Wild Weekend 2023

Goldfinch ringing, David Tipling
Presenter
Jemma Davies, Sorrel Lyall, Ben Darvill, Chris Wernham, Katherine Booth-Jones
Date
Saturday, June 10, 2023 - 07:00 to 16:00
Places
Fully booked

Join us on Saturday 10th June at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre and Oxford Island National Nature Reserve for a wonderful day of birding activities

To book your place, click the 'book places online' button on the right of this page. The BTO website is sometimes slow. Please be patient while subsequent pages load.

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PROGRAMME

07:00 - 08:00 - Arrival, teas and coffees, birdwatching local to the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre building

from 07:15 - A rolling programme of short walks to see a bird ringing demonstration, to be shown birds' nests and learn about nest recording, and to enjoy the bird life on the wonderful Oxford Island reserve - home to high densities of breeding warblers and finches, and other common woodland, scrub and wetland species.

  • Bird ringing will be led by the Oxford Island Constant Effort Site (CES) team, Debbie Nelson and Aidan Crean.
  • Nest finding will be led by Nest Record Scheme volunteer George Hynes and BTO Scotland's Ben Darvill.

09:30 - 10:00 - Tea/Coffee and biscuits in the Islandview Room at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre

10:00 - 11:00 - An indoor workshop on learning birds' songs and calls, led by Ben Darvill & Sorrel Lyall. A focus on commoner species, but also highlighting transferrable skills which anyone can use to improve their ID by song and call, whatever their starting level.

11:00 - 12:30 - Guided birdwatching walks or outdoor training workshops. Your choice of either guided group walks to enjoy the bird life at the reserve, or outdoor workshops in small groups with structured activities aiming to help you improve your listening skills and identification by song and call (small-group workshops bookable on the day).

12:30 - 13:30 - Finger buffet lunch in the Islandview Room

13:30 - 14:30 - Indoor talk and Q&A: What BTO can do for you. Learn more about your garden's wildlife with BTO Garden BirdWatch. How you can use BirdTrack to record your birdwatching sightings and learn more about the birds of Northern Ireland. The treasure trove of information on the BirdFacts website. Learning in the field and online with BTO Northern Ireland's training programme. Plus a brief overview of BTO's other participation and learning opportunities.

Then, your choice of:

14:30 - 16:00 - BirdTrack birdwatching walk. A walk around the reserve in small groups, recording what we see into BirdTrack. A chance to get the app up and running on your phone and get some practice using it, or to see how to record into a notebook and then add the records to the BirdTrack website once we are back at base. OR:

14:30 - 16:00 - Improve your bird sketching / drawing. A short indoor primer followed by a field workshop drawing / sketching together (bookable in advance, on the day). A chance to learn or fine tune and improve your birdwatching field sketches or artwork. Led by Sorrel Lyall and Katherine Booth-Jones. OR:

14:30 - 16:00 - Another chance to see birds' nests and to learn about how to find and monitor them, led by George Hynes.

16:00 - Close

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To book your place, click the 'book places online' button on the right of this page. The BTO website is sometimes slow. Please be patient while subsequent pages load.