Defining your sites

To enable us to use your BirdTrack records more easily within the Bird Atlas 2007-11, we need to know more about your registered sites. This simple process will enable us to identify which records can feed directly into the Atlas project and which need further clarification.

Sites registered as a 1km square

Many of your sites will be registered at the 1-km level, even though they may cover more than one square. For these sites, we will just need to ask you some simple questions.

The simplest situation is where your whole site lies within a single 1km square (as shown to the right). In this case, your records will also be allocated to the relevant tetrad and will feed into the national Atlas and also, if the county is undertaking one, a local Atlas. This is useful information for all sites though, as your local bird recorder will also now know the site accuracy of your records.
In cases where your site lies in more than one 1-km square (as shown on the right), we then need to know if it lies within a single tetrad (a 2km by 2km square). If it is all within a single tetrad, records can be allocated to this tetrad and will feed into the national Atlas, and also, if the county is undertaking one, a local Atlas.
If your site lies in more than one tetrad (as shown on the right), we then need to know if it lies within a single 10km square. Though these records may not then be used for any local Atlas being undertaken (as these need to be at the tetrad level), they will still feed into the national Atlas.

Sites registered as a tetrad

For any sites registered at the tetrad level (using the new site creation option), you should restrict your recording to just this tetrad. Your records will then feed directly into both the national Atlas and also any local Atlas being undertaken. If you are likely to record outside of your tetrad then please register your site at the 10km level.

Sites registered as a 10km square

In the past it wasn't possible to register a site as a tetrad, so many people will have done registered at the 10km level. We would now like to know if this is the case for any of your 10km sites, and whether your recording falls within any particular tetrad in the 10km square. If so, records from the site can be allocated to this tetrad. If not, then we still need to know whether or not your site lies entirely within the 10km square.

Sites covering more than one 10km square

Records from sites covering more than a single 10km square (including small sites straddling a boundary) won't feed into the Atlas at the national or local level. In these situations we would encourage you to split your site up and record each 10km square separately. This will then mean that your records will feed into the national Atlas.

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