CBDC Publications
From time to time, CBDC publishes short reports from the local recording community on various topics related to biodiversity and recording in Cumbria. If you wish to contribute a document to be considered for publication on the CBDC website please contact our Recording Officer.
Extended Cumbria Wildlife Reports are also published by CBDC: these are available on the Wildlife Reports page.
New Publications for 2025:
- No 3d: Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part D, 2000-2024 by Robin M. Sellers, Allen F. Armsby & David Shackleton
- No 7 Issue 3: A List of the Birds of Cumbria – 1800-2024 by Chris Hind and Robin M. Sellers
- No 12: The biological records and correspondence of Thomas Coulthard Heysham (1791-1857), naturalist of Carlisle by Ian D. Hodkinson
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No 1. Inventory of Urban Gull Colonies in Cumbria (Issue 3.)
The past fifty or so years have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls breeding in urban areas in Cumbria. Great Black-backed Gulls have also taken to breeding in built-up areas but in much smaller numbers. To the end of the 2015 breeding season a total of 45 urban gull colonies had been identified in the county. This short report provides an inventory of these colonies, together with an indication of their current size, nesting habitat, and, where known, their date of formation. Issue 3 – published September 2021
Download (PDF):No 1. Inventory of Urban Gull Colonies in Cumbria
No. 2 Pug Moths of Lancashire and Cumbria
Brian Hancock provides an extremely useful guide to the locally resident species of a group of moths that can provide some identification challenges to recorders; the pug moths. With the helpful aid of annotated images, maps and graphs, each of the 42 species is given an individual account detailing identification, distribution, status, flight period and food plants. There are also tips on how and where a recorder might find the more uncommon species and references to some of the most significant records.
Download (PDF):
No. 2 Pug Moths of Lancashire and Cumbria
No 3. Ornithology in Cumbria in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries:Â A Bibliography.
This document presents a list with full bibliographic details of publications relating to birds in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands published between the 16th and 19th centuries, together with details of where copies of the documents can be found (if known).
Download (PDF):
No 3. Ornithology in Cumbria in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries: A Bibliography.
![Birds in Cumberland in the 18th Century](http://www.cbdc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ORNITHOLOGY-publication-cover2-e1511437005670.jpg")
No 3b. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part B, 1900-1949.
This report is a compilation of material published between 1900 and 1949 inclusive on the ornithology of Cumbria. It has been drawn up partly on the basis of four previous bibliographies, those by Mullens et al (1920), Shackleton (2010), and Armsby (2015), together with additional material identified during the preparation of this document.
Download (PDF): No 3b. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part B, 1900-1949
No 3c. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part C, 1950-1999.
This report presents a list, with full bibliographic details, of publications relating to birds in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands published between 1950 and 1999 inclusive, together with details of where copies of the documents can be found (if known).
Download (PDF): No 3c. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part C, 1950-1999
No 3d. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part D, 2000-2024.
This report is a compilation of material on the ornithology of Cumbria published between 2000 and 2024 inclusive, and follows the form and structure of earlier parts of this series of bibliographies dealing with material published between 1500 and 1999. It has been drawn up primarily on the basis of systematic searches of local and national ornithological publications and taking into account the material contained in two earlier bibliographies, one by the Cumbria Bird Club published in 2014, and the other by A.F.Armsby in 2015.
Download (PDF): No 3d. Bibliography of Ornithology in Cumbria, Part D, 2000-2024
No 4. Birds in Cumberland in the 18th Century
J. Heysham’s ‘A Catalogue of Cumberland Animals’ published in 1794 includes the first serious attempt to list the birds found in Cumberland.
Robin Sellers, a local ornithologist, has transcribed, annotated and edited the section listing the Cumberland birds.
Download (PDF):No 4. Birds in Cumberland in the 18th Century
No 5. Transcripts of the Annual Reports of the Natural History Record Bureau, Carlisle, 1902-1912.
In 1902 Carlisle Museum established a special unit called the Natural History Record Bureau to act as a focus for the collection of records about natural history in the area around Carlisle and Lakeland generally, and in so doing, created what was in effect Britain’s first biological records centre. In the twelve years of its existence the Natural History Record Bureau’s principal output was its annual report, published initially in the Carlisle Journal, the city’s twice weekly newspaper, and later in The Zoologist. This document presents a transcription of these annual reports.
Download (PDF): No 5. Transcripts of the Annual Reports of the Natural History Record Bureau, Carlisle, 1902-1912
No 6. Checklist of Cumbrian Coleoptera
This checklist by John Read covers all the valid names of 2,388 species of Coleoptera from 90 families known to occur in Cumbria, England, UK (vice counties 69 Westmorland and 70 Cumberland), along with their author(s) names and year of description using the most recent classification framework. Updated March 2022
Download (PDF): Checklist of Cumbrian Coleoptera, including VC69 & VC 70
No 7. A List of the Birds of Cumbria
This report presents a list of the birds known to have occurred in Cumbria between 1 January 1800 and 31 December 2024, together with a summary of the status of each species and their conservation categories. It also makes clear what the criteria used to decide which species should be included in the list are, and relegates to a Supplementary List species known to have occurred, but which fail to meet all the criteria for inclusion in the main list.
Download (PDF): Â A List of Birds of Cumbria
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No 8. A Bibliography of Cumbrian Coleoptera
This bibliography is a compilation of the relevant literature published in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries on those species of coleoptera known to occur in Cumbria, which mainly includes, the old Watsonian vice counties of Cumberland 70 and Westmorland 69. It has been compiled from a large number of journals (both national and regional), survey reports (published and unpublished), printed books and on – line computerised documents: approximately 1,400 references are listed in the present document.
Download (PDF): Chronological list of publications on coleoptera in Cumbria
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No 8b. A Bibliography of Cumbrian Coleoptera
Authors arranged by year in chronological order. October 2023.
Download (PDF): A Bibliography of Cumbrian Coleoptera Authors by year (Oct 2023)Â – John Read
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No 8c. A Bibliography of Cumbrian Coleoptera (2022)
Index of families and superfamilies.
Download (PDF): Bibliography of Cumbrian Coleoptera Index (Oct 2023Â – John Read
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No 9. Cumulative index to species and families of Coleoptera recorded in The Field Naturalist (New Series) Volumes 1 – 13, 1956 – 1969
This index includes all the species of coleoptera recorded in the Field Naturalist. The volume number is indicated in bold type and the issue number is in brackets. This is then followed by the page number. Synonyms are indicated by squares brackets immediately following the specific name. An index of authors and contributors has also been provided.
Download (PDF): Field Naturalist cumulative index
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No. 10 Issue 1: Index to species of Coleoptera recorded in the Carlisle Naturalist – Volumes 1 – 20, (1993 – 2012)
This index includes all the species of coleoptera recorded in the journal, and it also includes those species that have been referred to indirectly. In some cases certain species have been recorded under common names only and these have been given the appropriate scientific name in the index. Also the same species is indexed under a different scientific name, ie. Coccinella 7-punctata is also given as Coccinella septempunctata.
Download (PDF): Index to species of Coleoptera – John Read
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No 11. A short biographical account of the life of John Walton, naturalist and entomologist, together with an annotated list of his publications on coleoptera by R. W. J. Read, October 2022
John Walton (1784 – 1862) was a British entomologist and coleopterist who specialised in the family Curculionidae. Very little is known about his life and work. However, two quite detailed obituaries are provided by (Anon 1863a) and (Anon 1863b), and Michael Darby in his online Biographical dictionary of British Coleopterists gives a brief account of his life. Rye (1874) in his annual report on British coleoptera provides a list of all Waltons publications on beetles which were published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
Download (PDF): John Walton biography and his publications on coleoptera
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No 12. The biological records and correspondence of Thomas
Coulthard Heysham (1791-1857), naturalist of Carlisle, March 2025
The purpose of this paper is to bring together in one place the natural history records of the Carlisle naturalist Thomas Coulthard Heysham, who was active during the early half of the 19th century. It provides a fully referenced catalogue of his publications and all his species records appearing in his own and other works. It includes a listing of published biographies and obituaries, and information relating to the auction dispersal sale of his library and collections of natural history specimens. The work concludes with a listing and brief notes on Thomas Heysham’s contacts and correspondents, alongside information on where such correspondence is to be found.
Download (PDF): Thomas Coulthard Heysham biological records and correspondence
