Monks’s House Bird Observatory Annual Reports
Situated some 2 km north of Seahouses, Monks’ House Bird Observatory was founded in 1950 and separated as an accredited bird observatory during 1951 to 1961. The founder and Director of the Observatory was the well-known bird artist, Eric Ennion, and the full story of its creation and operation will be no stranger to most Northumberland birders, being described in Ennion’s book ‘The House on the Shore’ which was published in 1959.
For many years, annual reports on the Observatory’s operations were produced, which detailed the species recorded, birds ringed and so on, with the recording area including other well-known sites in the north of the county such as Budle Bay, the Breamish and Cheviot valleys. The annual reports consisted of a 4-page fold out, slightly larger than A4 in size, and whilst actual numbers of reports produced are not known, the reports are extremely hard to find. Over the past ten years I have managed to locate five annual reports, covering the years 1953, 54, 55, 56 and 58, which I am now pleased to put back into circulation as pdfs via this note. I hope readers will find the reports of interest and if anyone knows the whereabouts of any of the missing annual reports, I’d be delighted to hear from them.
Steve Holliday
NB I have one spare set of specially produced paper copies of the five annual reports available at £12.00 including postage; this is at cost and non-profit making.
To access the reports, click on the appropriate link below.