The British Trust for Ornithology has launched a new tool called "Birds On Your Doorstep." If you enter your postcode it uses the data from BTO records to tell you about the birdlife in the 10km² area you are in, including losses and gains since the first national surveys in the 1970s.
177 species have been recorded in my area over the past ten years which looks a lot at first sight. Thinking it over, this area includes half of the Salford mosses, Botany Bay Wood, Carrington Moss and the Mersey between Irlam and Chorlton and I've seen over a hundred species here myself and know there are species regularly occurring here I haven't seen yet (three species of owl and common restarts spring immediately to mind). Add to that the flyovers and vagrants and they soon tot up.
I had a couple of surprises because I thought corncrakes disappeared from round here in the fifties and I didn't think we had green woodpeckers breeding locally. I can think of a couple of locations that could see the return of nightjars and whinchats with a bit of luck, though I don't know how to get to either without a long walk and a bit of trespassing.
It's an interesting overview of the local area. I can also see it as being useful when visiting somewhere entirely unfamiliar to give you a flavour of what to expect.
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