Quarter Century of the Ayrshire Bird Report
This article originally appeared in Ayrshire Bird Report 2000 and is reproduced here with kind permission of the Editor.
he 2001 Report marks the silver anniversary of the Ayrshire Bird Report, making it one of the longest running of Scotland's county bird reports. Given this long lineage, I thought it would be fun to look back over the quarter century and see how the ABR has evolved, to remind people of the high points, and also to look at how species have fared.
The ABR started off as a 'trial run' in 1976 as a photocopied A4 publication. This led to the first 'proper' report the next year appearing in its now traditional A5 booklet format. This took up 19 pages listing the records contributed by 71 observers (amazingly, ten of them are still contributing 25 years later). On the cover was a Manx Shearwater, reflecting the Editor's passion for sea-watching. On the bird front we had breeding Corncrake, Little Tern and Yellow Wagtail (six pairs in the Irvine area alone).
In 1978 the ABR had a Sparrowhawk on the cover and the first of the regular series of articles by Gordon Riddle on the Kestrel. This issue also marked the start of the standard format with an editorial, a number of contributed articles, the chronological summary and the systematic list. This year was also great for first records in the county with Golden Oriole, Nutcracker, Spoonbill, Ring-necked Duck, Mediterranean Gull, Black-eared Wheatear. We also had reasonable numbers of breeding Corn Bunting.
In 1979 we had the first appearance of the Stonechat on the cover with artwork from Bruce Forrester. Highlights of the year include the British first Barrow's Goldeneye along with Avocet and Marsh Sandpiper.
By 1980 the ABR had grown to 30 pages. There was excitement with the first Scottish Franklin's Gull but also concern about the breeding success of the Yellow Wagtail.
In 1982 the cover Stonechat changed to another drawn by Bruce Forrester. The ABR had now grown to 48 pages and the march of technology brought the first use of a word processor. Although we had first records of White-billed Diver and Woodchat Shrike, we had no breeding records for Corncrake or Yellow Wagtail and the Corn Bunting was causing serious concern.
The first wildfowl count summary appeared in 1984 reflecting the importance of this group of birds in a county with a long coastline and the input of a large band of dedicated counters and local organisers.
By 1990 the ABR contained so many records from so many places in the county that a gazetteer was included to identify some of the more obscure locations (now updated and available on the web site). That year saw the county's first Caspian Tern while Marsh Harrier bred (although not reported until the 1998 ABR). The 1991 ABR saw the cover change to a Stonechat drawn by Andrew Stevenson.
The size of the ABR grew to 84 pages by 1994 with the inclusion of the Ayrshire Butterfly Report. That year had an escaped Turkey Vulture flying around (perhaps after the escaped Black Swan?). First records for the county that year were Black Kite and Rose-coloured Starling, but sadly Little Tern failed to nest.
In 2000, the cover of the ABR changed again, this time to a colour photograph of a Stonechat by Fred Westcott. This edition also marked the change (in keeping with SOC policy) to the new BOU species' names. Out went Dunnock and in came Hedge Accentor, Mew Gull replaced Common Gull, and Red Grouse became Willow Ptarmigan, along with a whole pile more. These all sound very exotic but are unlikely to be reflected in the notebooks of the county's birders (or in this article).
Over a quarter century the ABR has documented the birding high points (such as first records of Barrow's Goldeneye, Harlequin Duck, Franklin's Gull), tracked the declines of some breeding species (such as Yellow Wagtail, Corncrake and Corn Bunting), and noted the breeding successes of other species (such as Buzzard, Gadwall and Lesser Whitethroat). Reading the reports gives a mouth-watering list of lovely birds.
In addition, the reports have included articles submitted by amateur and professional birders on a variety of topics including: location reports (e.g. Ailsa Craig (2000), North Craig Reservoir (1985 and 1999), Horse Island (1990) and continuing with Turnberry in this year's Report), the results of survey work (e.g. the regular wetland surveys, beached birds (1980), rookeries (1986)), identification guides (e.g. Water and Scandinavian Rock Pipits (1981)) and species reports (e.g. regular ones on Kestrel by Gordon Riddle and Sparrowhawk by Ian Todd, Siskin (1984), Black-throated Diver (1991)) and even some on individual birds (e.g. the Auld Brig Gull (1996)). This rich variety has raised the ABR from a simple list of dates and species, to an informative and interesting publication.
As well as the birds, the technology behind the report has changed over the 25 years. We have gone from mechanical typewriters, through simple word-processors and printers, to desktop publishing and laser printers. What does the future hold? Currently, we have an annual compromise between printing costs, quality, number of pages, and the limited print run: every year we struggle to break even. I think the dramatic development of the Internet and the ubiquity of home and publicly accessible computers opens the opportunity of publishing the ABR on the Web. This will reduce our costs (to zero?), while letting us improve the quality with the inclusion of colour photographs and other media. It also makes the ABR available to a much wider audience, e.g. visiting birders, schools and researchers. And of course, if you really must have a paper copy to read in the bath, then you can print it off yourself. I encourage readers to enter the debate as to how the ABR should evolve.
The driving force behind this effort is one man: Angus Hogg. Although assisted by various editors, artists and proof-readers over the years, Angus has borne the lion's share of converting the ever-growing number of records submitted by observers into an informative and enjoyable annual account of Ayrshire's birds, liberally sprinkled with his excellent artwork. I wonder what his chronological summary in the golden anniversary issue in 2026 will contain?