What we do
- Bring together people who enjoy birding in the Cley Square on the North Norfolk coast (grid TG04)
- Keep local and visiting members up to date with birding issues via this website and a regular newsletter which is currently produced 3 times a year.
- Collect and keep bird records that can be used to help monitor trends in the future.
- Give members the opportunity through winter meetings to discuss birding topics.
- Have a voice on local issues affecting wildlife.
History
The Cley Bird Club was founded in 1986 by Eddie Myers with the purpose of communicating bird news from the area amongst local birders. The first newsletter was produced in April of that year and distributed to 75 founding members. Since then the membership has grown to well over 450 households from all over the country.
The main communication has always been via the three newsletters of up to 30 pages each which are currently produced during each year. As well as the recent bird news these include annual breeding reports from various sites within the Cley Square and also articles written by members.
In 2012 we launched our first website. This allowed us to make much more information available to our members and visitors. It contained details and maps of the Cley Square and allowed us to inform people of important and current news. It also gave a facility for members and visitors to input their bird sightings which were then displayed, giving current information of what was around. By 2020 this site was becoming difficult to maintain so we embarked on replacing it with a new improved site which was launched in 2021.
Since the first local meeting took place in Wiveton Village Hall in April 1986, 3 or 4 meetings have been held during the winter each year but they are now held in Cley Village Hall. These take the form of a talk by a guest presenter followed by a discussion on the subject.
The newsletter has always been used to document and communicate local bird news to the membership but the basic data was not kept for future use. In 2006 a database of this information was created and data is now collected from many sources and permanently retained. We have now accumulated a useful source of data which is made available to conservation bodies and researchers. Data is sent monthly to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the British Trust for Ornithology (via Birdtrack) and to the Norfolk County Recorders.
