Historic Bird Records for Northamptonshire
A collection of records extracted from the archives of the Northamptonshire Natural History Society under the National Biodiversity Network Data Capture Initiative 2014-15.
The records are drawn from
(1) Miscellaneous record cards;
(2) Annual reports prepared by the Kettering and District Natural History Society, 1961-1968, summarising first and last sightings, numbers of localities from which particular species were recorded and those sites at which they were most numerous a series
(3) Reports based on regular surveys of particular sites, e.g. Harlestone Heath, Harlestone Firs, Salcey Forest
The data file (Please refer to the most recent version) provides records for sites (e.g. particular sightings on particular dates) and for the county as a whole (e.g. Reports of breeding from 12 sites, and present at 5 other localities). Records that were 'not accepted' are included here, but are identified accordingly.
Few early records included grid references and nearly all of those provided in the dataset have been applied subsequently. For known localities, this presents little problem, particularly with smaller sites. Some reservoir and gravel pit sites are very large however and the latter may have expanded over time. In contrast, woodland at Loatland and Oakley Purlieu is much reduced. Where records refer to sections of a river near a particular village or some uniidentified point between locations the approximate centre of that area has been selected as a central point, in the same way that a record from somwhere with a site might be applied.
Records are from the the Northamptonshire vice-county, (and a number are from beyond the modern day county boundary).
At the present time, a number of records remain to be added to the dataset following checking of locations, e.g. of the 'corporation tip'.
The dataset provides detailed information about particular sites and will enable useful then and now and now comparisons to be made between the frequency of reports and the abundances of different bird species across the county and at specific locations.