Breeding Birds in Shetland

Just finished analysing the figures for this years Shetland Breeding Bird survey. As before I completed two 1km squares and these are the results

Plot 1 (AOT)
                       2017        2018
Blackbird          2                2
Lapwing            2                3
Snipe                 0                1
Redshank          1                1
Curlew              2                2
Oystercatcher    1               1
Skylark              5               6/7
M'Pipit              5               5
Wheatear           2              1
Wren                 0              1


Plot 2 (AOT)

Blackbird           2             1
Curlew               1             2
Snipe                  1             0
Oystercatcher     3             5
Redshank           0             1?
Wheatear            1             2
Skylark               6             8
M'Pipit                7             5
Twite                   1            1
Hoodie                1             1

Its good to see Oystercatcher increasing while Curlew which seems to do well in Shetland compared to the rest of the UK , holding their own. Skylark numbers up on both plots with Meadow pipit slightly down.

As with all these figures you have to get a good number of years before a good comparison can be made. All this information has been passed onto The Shetland Amenity Trust which has been conducting this survey and results are normally published in the Shetland Bird Report