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.
New Publication for 2023:
CUMBRIA WILDLIFE REPORT 2022: Beetles by John Read, March 2023.
Despite the extremes of weather during the spring and summer months 2022 was quite a good year for beetles and beetle recording in Cumbria. A number of interesting and notable species were discovered and recorded during the season from both vice counties 69 and 70, which included a number of new hectad records and two species that were new to the county.
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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: 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 5. Transcripts of the Annual Reports of the Natural History Record Bureau, Carlisle, 1902-1912
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 2022, 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): 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 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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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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CUMBRIA WILDLIFE REPORT 2022: Beetles by John Read, March 2023.
Despite the extremes of weather during the spring and summer months 2022 was quite a good year for beetles and beetle recording in Cumbria. A number of interesting and notable species were discovered and recorded during the season from both vice counties 69 and 70, which included a number of new hectad records and two species that were new to the county.
Download (PDF): CUMBRIA WILDLIFE REPORT 2022: Beetles – John Read
