List of abbreviations

To avoid too much repetition, several abbreviations are used extensively throughout the book.

‘The county’ Cheshire and Wirral
‘twenty years ago’ Used to refer to our First Atlas period, 1978-84
‘national population index’ Figures calculated by the BTO from various annual breeding surveys, published as Baillie et al 2007
First Atlas The first breeding bird atlas of Cheshire and Wirral, 1978-84 (Guest, J.P., Elphick, D., Hunter, J.S.A. & Norman, D. (1992) The Breeding Bird Atlas of Cheshire and Wirral. Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society).
BTO Second Atlas The BTO national breeding bird atlas, 1988-91; The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland: 1988-1991. Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. (eds) T & A D Poyser, London (1993) 
BTO Winter Atlas The BTO national wintering bird atlas, 1981/ 82 – 1983/ 84; The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. Lack, P.C. (ed) T & A D Poyser, Calton (1986)
Migration Atlas The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. Wernham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A., Siriwardena, G.M. & Baillie, S.R., eds. T & A D Poyser, London (2002)
BWP Birds of the Western Palearctic, volumes I-IX, ed. Cramp, S. et al, (1977-1994), Oxford University Press.
HBW Handbook of Birds of the World, volumes I-XII, ed. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Christie, D.A. & Sargatal, J. (1992-2007), Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
CWBR Cheshire and Wirral Bird Report or Cheshire Bird Report
Coward Coward, T.A. (1910) The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay. Witherby, London.
Hardy Hardy, E. (1941) The Birds of the Liverpool Area. Buncle, Arbroath.
Boyd Boyd, A.W. (1951) A Country Parish. Collins New Naturalist, London.
Bell Bell, T.H. (1962) The Birds of Cheshire and (1967) A Supplement to The Birds of Cheshire. Sherratt, Altrincham.
CAWOS Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society
BBS Breeding Bird Survey 
ELS (Environmental Stewardship) Entry Level Scheme
WeBS Wetland Bird Survey
BTO British Trust for Ornithology
RSPB Royal Society for Protection of Birds
SPA Special Protection Area under the European Birds Directive
SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest
WeBS Wetland Bird Survey