Talk:List of RSPB reserves

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This list with alphabetic categories is ugly, do we need the categories ? Stamford spiney 10:25, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] RSPB reserve list

Reviewing this section and doing some work on correcting areas and wikilinks I began to feel that this list - in its current format - may not serve Wikipedia or its readers well. For those requiring an alphabetical list of reserves there are the categories Category:Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves (tho oddly not one for Northern Ireland?). The fact that the list is in alphabetical order mitigates against a Table of contents which might well be useful.

All in all I feel that this list could be re-ordered to reflect region or county or, possibly better, to become "by habitat type". Anyone got any views? I'll cross post this to the organisation talk page too on the off chance someone is watching that. Regards --Herby talk to me 10:09, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I think this will be better organised by region, with a separate List of RSPB reserves by habitat type for your other suggestion. At the top of both pages, a note along the lines of "For a list in alphabetical order, see Category:Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves". Thryduulf 10:24, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Alternatively, if there are lots of a particuarly type, we might want e.g. List of RSPB wetland reserves, with all lists in see also sections. Thryduulf 10:26, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Herby, thanks for the notice at my Talk. Mmmm... lists! Well, there are usually several ways to organise a list, and in this case alphab. order does not seem to be particularly useful for the reader. I suspect that that was not a conscious decision: it is just easier when an article starts up. I think organising by local areas is an excellent idea (I can do the Scottish ones by council area if you like), however I also like your "by habitats" suggestion. Intially why don't we just mention the habitat types of the ones we know, and eventually we could also do a 2nd listing by habitats? But 2 listings seems like overkill just now when the article is so bare. --Mais oui! 10:29, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

You could expand the list to include other columns which might include type, area etc - along the lins of the lists of SSSIs for Somerst, Avon etc. I think region would be most useful division for potential visitors etc. Is there a suitable infobox or similar, perhaps showing area information which could be added to all the relevant articles?— Rod talk 10:50, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
A quick look at a few of the articles suggests there isn't an infobox, but it is an excellent idea. It might include Name, location, habitat, area, year it became a reserve, any designations (e.g. SSSI) and a picture (a 300px landscape photos seems to work for other infoboxes). Perhaps also something about particularly important birds, e.g. if its the most important breeding site for lapwing in the British Isles, although I'm not certain if this work easily fit into an infobox. Thryduulf 11:22, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
These suggestions are really great. We could turn what is frankly a boring list into something that would be much more useful and readable. The table suggested by Thryduulf is great. I hadn't thought of the SSSI aspect but the habitat and important birds would greatly improve it. --Herby talk to me 11:27, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
If you want to see some great ideas, have a browse of Wikipedia:Featured lists. --Mais oui! 11:33, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
The SSSI ones as a model look interesting - worth trying something? --Herby talk to me 11:36, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Hi all, a table sounds cool, so does sorting the reserves by county :) and that way you could start a new page and leave the old list as it is as an alphabetical one, anyway, heres a small table to start off with sbandrews 16:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
List of RSPB reserves by county
Reserve County Habitat Key species Notes Web
Arne Dorset .. .. .. ..
Bempton Cliffs Yorkshire .. .. .. ..
Berney Marshes Norfolk .. .. .. ..

That's a good start, although I would left align everything other than the header rows, and add two area columns - acres and hectares. Is your "web" column for a link to a website? Thryduulf 16:38, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

For me to that is a very good start and way more interesting than what we have at present. I would certainly like to see the RSPB bit "piped" out of the names, we know that they are RSPB reserves as that is what the page is about. Not sure what point Thryduulf might be going to make but I do feel encouraging WP:EL should probably be avoided (obviously a link to rspb/reserves somewhere but I would prefer not to make people think we want additional links). I'll happily help where I can --Herby talk to me 17:23, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
I agree about the external links, they're apropriate for the articles in question but not for a list like this.
Based on my experience of converting List of London Underground stations from a bulleted list to a table (compare this version), when we've agreed on a format for the table it will probably be best to put a copy of the article in userspace and convert it there. Then when it is done replace the article space version with the tabulated copy. Hopefully though this list wont take as much effort to convert as that one did! Thryduulf 20:44, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
List of RSPB reserves by County
Reserve County Area Habitat Key Species Notes
hectares acres
Arne Dorset ... ... .. .. ..
Garston wood " .. ... .. .. ..
Lodmoor " .. ... .. .. ..
Bempton Cliffs Yorkshire ... ... .. .. ..
Blacktoft Sands " ... ... .. .. ..
Berney Marshes Norfolk ... ... .. .. ..
.. .. .. ... .. .. ..

i'm the table junky :) sbandrews 21:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I prefer the wikitable style of the first, and I'm not certain about the different colour for area, but apart from that I think that is the layout we're looking for. Do we want the start year added as well? Its better not to use ditto marks, but to repeat the county name, particularly if bugzilla:7543 ever happens. Thryduulf 23:31, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
Good work from the "table junky". Happy to go with more knowlegeable folk on style. General point & so that I learn - would only the first instance of a county be wikilinked in such a table. I see/understand that over linking is possibly not such a good thing?
More generally, anyone reading this who is a "birder" in the sense of understanding Latin species type stuff as I have a query relating to another page (my talk page will be fine as it is not RSPB related). Thanks --Herby talk to me 12:02, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] the table...

List of RSPB reserves by County
Reserve County Area Habitat Key species Year opened Notes
hectares acres
Arne Dorset ... ... .. .. .. ..
Garston wood Dorset .. ... .. .. .. ..
Lodmoor Dorset .. ... .. .. .. ..
Bempton Cliffs Yorkshire ... ... .. .. .. ..
Blacktoft Sands Yorkshire ... ... .. .. .. ..
Berney Marshes Norfolk ... ... .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. ... .. .. .. ..

This is just a very quick modification of the one above with my suggestions implemented. I'm not certain the Year opened is in the right place? Thryduulf 12:40, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, to make editing of the page easier, it might be better to have one table per region or even one table per county? In the latter case the "county" column wouldn't be needed, but it might be useful to retain? Thryduulf 12:42, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Apologies - previous post was in the wrong place and can't see an easy way to re-organise it! While I like "county" I wonder if that is going to make rather a large page? Region (tho how defined) might be more compact? I think "county" should probably be there - my 0.02p! --Herby talk to me 12:53, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
The best way to define will probably be the Regions of England plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Thryduulf 13:29, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Do these regions of England correspond to the RSPB regions? There is precedent for using other than Regions of England eg SSSIs using Area_of_Search based on 1974-1996 counties because that is what English Nature uses.— Rod talk 14:05, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is anyone there?

Why has this table idea come to a screeching halt?

Here are my suggestions.

  • Only have one area measurement (Acres or Hectares is another debate).
  • Remove notes as its too vague for a table heading of key facts.
  • Add Visitor centre Yes/No, and number of hides. This helps to distinguish between "Serious Birdwatching" site or "Family day out" site.
  • Add Nearest town, for non-local readers.
  • Keep Year opened only if that information is available for the majority of sites.
  • Separate tables for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


List of English RSPB reserves by County
Reserve Nearest Town County Acres Habitat Key species Year opened Visitor Centre Hides
Arne Wareham Dorset  ? Heathland Dartford Warbler,Nightjar  ? No 2
Dungeness Lydd Kent 2400 Shingle Smew,Bittern,Slavonian Grebe  ? Yes 5
.. .. .. .. .. .... .. .. ..

MortimerCat 13:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)