What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store. It lets the site remember things between visits, measure traffic, and (in the case of advertising) recognise you across sites. You can delete them at any time from your browser settings.
Cookies we use
Birds & Wetlands uses cookies in three categories:
Strictly necessary
Required for the site to work (load balancing, security, the contact form's anti-spam check). We can't switch these off.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 (property G-ZQ6K62DL0H) to count visitors and see which articles get read. The cookies it sets are _ga, _ga_*, and _gid. Data is anonymised and used in aggregate. To opt out, install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Advertising
We display Google AdSense ads (publisher ID ca-pub-6044819150233834). AdSense and its partners may set cookies to:
- show ads they think are relevant,
- cap the number of times you see the same ad,
- measure ad performance,
- detect and block fraudulent clicks.
You can manage personalised advertising at Google Ad Settings and youronlinechoices.com. Turning off personalised ads doesn't remove the ads — it just makes them less relevant to you.
Controlling cookies
You can clear or block cookies from your browser settings. Help links:
Changes to this policy
We update this list whenever the cookies we set change. The date at the top reflects the most recent revision.
Contact
Cookie questions go to editors@birdsandwetlands.com.