BTO - British Trust for Ornithology - Conservation

Breeding Bird Survey

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 11:46:31 +0000

The Breeding Bird Survey is the main scheme for monitoring the population changes of the UK’s common and widespread breeding birds. The survey involves two early-morning spring visits to a 1-km square, to count all the birds you see or hear while walking two parallel 1-km lines across the square.

Breeding Bird SurveyButterfly Monitoring Friday, April 1, 1994 - 00:00

BBS monitors the population changes of 118 breeding bird species across the UK thanks to the dedication of almost 3,000 volunteers who survey their randomly selected 1-km square each spring.

The BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is the main scheme for monitoring the population changes of the UK’s common and widespread breeding birds, producing population trends for 118 bird and nine mammal species.

The survey involves a recce visit and two early-morning spring visits to an allocated 1-km square, to count all the birds you see or hear while walking two 1-km lines across the square and record any nest counts for colonial nesting birds in the square.

You can optionally record mammals and visit your square later in the season to survey for butterflies. There is the option to return data on paper, via field recording forms or to submit your data on BBS-Online.

Support the future of our birds

Our surveys are vital. The data they produce help us drive positive change for the UK’s birds.

But increased pressure on funding is putting our surveys and data at risk – which is why we need your support.

Donate today

bbs-report-2022-cover.jpg

Read the latest BBS report

The Breeding Bird Survey started in 1994, and a report is produced every year containing population changes and other results from the scheme.

The 2022 Breeding Bird Survey Report reveals a mixed picture, especially for birds which breed in farmland habitats.

Read the 2022 Breeding Bird Survey report

How to take part

Find out how to request a square and what the survey entails.

Results

Explore the results from the data BBS volunteers provide.

Mammal recording

Find out how to record mammals during your BBS visits.

Count butterflies on your BBS square

Take part in the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey by making additional visits to your BBS square.

How to enter BBS data online

Instructions and video tutorials on submitting your BBS data.

Download BBS forms

Download and print BBS recording forms instructions and recording forms.

Support the future of our birds

Our surveys are vital. The data they produce help us drive positive change for the UK’s birds.

But increased pressure on funding is putting our surveys and data at risk – which is why we need your support.

Donate today

Take part in BBS - counting for conservation

David White

James Heywood

February – March Forms sent or downloaded
March Reconnaissance visit
Early April – mid May Early visit
Mid May – late June Late visit
May – August Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey
End of August Data entry deadline

Undertake three site visits between April and June - a recce and two morning visits, along with data entry. Able to identify UK breeding birds by sight, song and call. If you have the necessary bird ID skills to take part in the Breeding Bird Survey but want to learn more about survey methods, there are a number of BTO training courses covering this subject.

ongoing Farmland birdsUpland birdsWoodland birdsOther species volunteers

BTO Urban AppealWider Countryside Butterfly SurveyAssessing agri-environment schemes No bbs@bto.org

Spatially targeted nature-based solutions can mitigate climate change and nature loss but require a systems approach

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:06:10 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Finch, T., Bradbury, R.B., Bradfer-Lawrence, T., Buchanan, G.M., Copping, J.P., Massimino, D., Smith, P., Peach, W.J. & Field, R.H. One Earth 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.09.005

Finite land is under pressure to provide food, timber, human infrastructure, climate change mitigation, and wildlife habitat. Given the inherent trade-offs associated with land-use choices, there is a need to assess how alternative land-use trajectories will impact the delivery of these benefits. Here, we develop nine exploratory, climate change mitigation-driven land-use scenarios for the UK. The scenario that maximized deployment of nature-based solutions reduced greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions from the land sector by 100% by 2050 but resulted in a 21% decline in food production. All mitigation scenarios delivered aggregate increases in habitat availability for 109 bird species (including 61 species of conservation concern), although farmland-associated species lost habitat. Our study reiterates the potential of nature-based solutions to address global climate and biodiversity challenges but also highlights risks to farmland wildlife and the importance of food system reform to mitigate potential reductions in primary food production.

This study was funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Natural England (project code ECM 58632). The Breeding Bird Survey is a Partnership between the BTO, RSPB, and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (on behalf of Natural Resources Wales, Natural England, Council for Nature Conservation and Countryside, and NatureScot) and relies on volunteer surveyors.

Travel far, breed hard, die young! The surprising lifestyle choices of Short-eared Owls

MIKETOMS — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 08:53:47 +0000

2024-02 16 Jan 2024

'Travel far, breed hard, die young' – while this might sound like a hedonistic rock-and-roll lifestyle, a new study by researchers at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), with collaborators in Iceland and Spain, reveals this is how Short-eared Owls live their lives. Describing the incredible and surprising movements of Short-eared Owls across Europe and south into Africa, these new results underline a need to plan conservation action for this species at larger scales than previously considered.

The Short-eared Owl, whose appearance and disappearance from regions has fascinated birdwatchers and ecologists for decades, was a bird for which we lacked key information on movements and the degree of connectivity between populations. A new study by BTO researchers, along with the University of Iceland and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), just published in the journal Ibis, fills this important knowledge gap and provides new evidence that will enable us to better protect and conserve this enigmatic species.

The Short-eared Owl has an extensive, but declining, distribution, across which it is predominantly a specialist predator of small mammals. The abundance of its favoured vole prey can vary markedly, both in time and space, making these rodents an unpredictable food resource. While Short-eared Owls can switch to other prey when voles are not available, their more common response is to move to other areas, resulting in irruptive or nomadic movements. Studying these movements has proved challenging, but advances in tracking technologies have enabled BTO Senior Research Ecologist John Calladine and colleagues to collect new information.

The movements of 47 Short-eared Owls, from multiple European locations (Iceland, Scotland, and Spain), were tracked with GPS devices. The study reveals an unexpectedly large degree of movement in the tracked individuals, with some of the birds tagged in Scotland and Spain travelling widely across Europe and North Africa, and one bird tagged in Iceland travelling to Britain. Nine individuals of these 47 were monitored while nesting over two seasons, and the distances between nest sites used by the same individuals in sequential years ranged from 41 to 4,216 km. As far as we are aware, these represent some of the longest known distances between nest sites by any bird.

Of two females tagged while nesting just 2 km apart on the Isle of Arran (Scotland) in 2021, one went on to breed in northern Norway in 2022 and the other to the Pechora Delta in Arctic Russia. Incredibly, another female tagged at its nest in Scotland in 2017 – bred twice in 2018, once in Scotland and again in Norway. However, travelling so widely to find places where there is sufficient prey where large broods can be reared does have its consequences – less than half the adult birds survive from one year to the next.

So, rather than leading a hedonistic lifestyle, these birds are actually behaving selflessly. Their extensive travel to find enough voles to rear the next generation of owls has a knock-on effect on the condition of the individual and its chances of surviving for another year.

Out of 18 successful breeding attempts by 14 tagged females, in all but two instances the females departed before the youngest chick was fully independent, leaving the male to finish rearing the brood. Again, this is new information that was not even suspected before this study.

The types of movements recorded in this study, and the scale of these, implies that there are not distinctly separate populations of Short-eared Owls across much of Europe. Rather, there is a single potentially integrated population across most of the range, albeit with some comparatively more – but not completely – isolated populations (such as that in Iceland).

John Calladine, BTO and lead author on the research paper, said "This new knowledge has significant implications for attempts to protect and conserve this species, and underlines a need to collect information on Short-eared Owl populations from sufficiently wide geographic scales and/or over the long term. Importantly, conservation action for the birds will need to be on a similarly wide scale."

John continued "This study was only possible because of the generosity of those individuals and organisations who provided the funding necessary to purchase and deploy the tracking devices fitted to these amazing birds."

Neil Morrison, of the Tay Ringing Group and who has been key to the study right from its conception, said "I've been studying these owls for decades and thought I knew what they did. How wrong could I have been! To think that owls breeding in 'my glens' could then go on to breed in the Arctic or try and cross the Sahara –, who would have thought that! It's been a real privilege to be able to follow these birds in such detail. Now we have the knowledge to help ensure they continue to amaze us into the future."

Publication details

The paper detailing this new work is:

Calladine, J., Hallgrimsson, G.T., Morrison, N., Southall, C., Gunnarsson, H., Jubete, F., Sergio, F. & Mougeot, F. (2024). Remote tracking unveils intercontinental movements of nomadic Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus with implications for resource tracking by irruptive specialist predators. Ibis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ibi.13304.

Please email press [at] bto.org for a copy of the paper for media use.

Images

Images are available for use alongside this News Release. These can be downloaded from this link for which you will need to enter the password: sheow_2402

Alternatively, please contact press [at] bto.org quoting reference 2024-02.

Further information

More information about the history of this work is available on our Short-eared Owl tracking project page.
Facts and figures about Short-eared Owl populations in the UK can be found on our Short-eared Owl BirdFacts page.
Learn more about the biology of the Short-eared Owl on our Project Owl pages.

Remote tracking unveils intercontinental movements of nomadic Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus with implications for resource tracking by irruptive specialist predators

MIKETOMS — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:35:54 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Calladine, J., Hallgrimsson, G.T., Morrison, N., Southall, C., Gunnarsson, H., Jubete, F., Sergio, F. & Mougeot, F. Ibis 10.1111/ibi.13304 Nomadic species can rely on unpredictable resources making them challenging to understand and, consequently, to conserve. Here, we present knowledge advancement for a nomadic predator, the Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus, by tracking individuals from a wide latitudinal range inclusive of most breeding populations in western Europe (Iceland, Scotland and Spain). Tracked owls showed pronounced plasticity in both inter- and intra-individual behaviour. Distances between sequential breeding areas of individual owls ranged from 41 to 4216 km, with similar low fidelity to areas used at other times of year. Owls spent most (> 60%) of their time occupying home-ranges (including breeding) and least (< 10%) undertaking long-distance movements. The propensity for long-distance movements was least for the most geographically isolated population, Iceland. Annual survival rates of 47% were lower than expected for an owl of comparable body mass with mortality concentrated during long-distance displacements and immediately after breeding. Extensive, nomadic travel to find areas where large broods might be reared may incur carry-over costs that lower survival. Conservation planning and assessment for nomadic species and their habitats must acknowledge the uncertainties associated with nomadism at scales from local to international. Funding and other support was from many individual donors, the Abertbrothock Skea Trust, AEB Trust, Arran Natural History Society, British Birds Charity, Callander SWT Group, DOPP (BirdLife Slovenia), Gilman Trust, the Henry Robb bequest, J & JR Wilson Trust, Loch Lomond Bird of Prey Centre, Muncaster Castle, NBI Ljubljana, Newstead Charity, Sound Approach, Stirling SOC Group, Tan International, Tayside Raptor Study Group, Tay Ringing Group, University of Iceland Research Fund, Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the Migra Programme (SEO/Birdlife with funding from Fundacion Iberdrola Espana), the Government of Spain (BOOMRAT project, grant no. PDI2019-109327RB-I00), the Instituto Tecnologico Agrario de Castilla-y-Leon–Junta de Castilla-y-Leon, Diputacion Provincial de Palencia and Diputacion Provincial de Valladolid (GESINT-TOP Project); to all of whom we are most grateful. Changing migration patterns of the Short-eared Owl <em>Asio flammeus</em> in Europe: an analysis of ringing recoveriesSensitivities to land use change by breeding Short-eared Owl (<em>Asio flammeus</em>) in BritainTracking Short-eared Owls: Notes from the field

Evidence suggests that protected areas should be extended.

MIKETOMS — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 09:13:28 +0000

2024-01 04 Jan 2024

A new study, involving BTO and the Wash Wader Research Group, has highlighted the importance of agricultural fields adjacent to The Wash for wintering Curlews. These sites, which fall outside of the current protected areas, were particularly important for the shorter-billed males. With pressures on land around The Wash for development, the current lack of conservation protection on these sites is a concern.

Ongoing declines have been reported for many of our wader species, and there is an urgent need to both understand the reasons for these declines and assess the effectiveness of any associated conservation action.

Intertidal habitats are often well-used by waders outside the breeding season, but some species also make use of other adjacent habitats during this period, including agricultural fields. Understanding the importance of these non-tidal habitats for waders is crucial, especially as such land is rarely included within the protected areas designated for these species. A new study, just published in the journal Wader Study, highlights the importance of agricultural land adjacent to The Wash in eastern England, for wintering Curlews. The Curlew has been described as our highest conservation priority and is a Red-listed species of conservation concern because of its rapidly declining numbers.

Information on the winter-feeding distribution of Curlews was collated from resightings of individually colour-marked birds, caught and ringed at sites around The Wash by the Wash Wader Research Group. The sex of individual birds was determined from measurements taken in the field, and this provided an opportunity to establish if males and females differed in their use of the available habitats.

Colour-marked Curlews were regularly observed feeding on agricultural fields adjacent to The Wash. Importantly, those Curlews seen feeding in fields were significantly more likely to be male and those on the estuary more likely to be female. Although there is a small degree of overlap, female Curlews have longer bills than males. The difference in habitat use evident in the resighting data probably reflects the fact that the longer-billed females can access more intertidal worms and are more efficient feeders when probing. Shorter-billed individuals may be better suited to feeding in the denser substrate typical of agricultural fields, and they may also struggle to find sufficient prey when using intertidal areas.

Rob Robinson, BTO Associate Director and one of the authors of the study, said "That inland fields are used by increasing numbers of Curlews, particularly males, through the winter months has implications for existing conservation approaches. The Wash is protected by various national and international designations, but these relate primarily to the intertidal habitats; the inland fields are not protected and are subject to pressure on land for development. Should these inland feeding sites be lost this is likely to affect males (particularly those with the shortest bills) disproportionately, which may have implications for the wider Curlew population."

Jacquie Clark, Wash Wader Research Group and one of the authors of the study, said "The study’s findings, that fields adjacent to The Wash are important to wintering Curlews, suggests that serious consideration should be given to extending the area around The Wash receiving protection. Without this, there is a risk that these important sites will be lost to development, to the detriment of a species whose populations are already under significant pressure."

Notes for editors

BTO is the UK's leading bird research charity. A growing membership and up to 60,000 volunteer birdwatchers contribute to BTO's surveys, collecting information that underpins conservation action in the UK. BTO maintains a staff of 100 at its offices in Thetford, Stirling, Bangor (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland), who analyse and publicise the results of surveys and projects. BTO's work is funded by BTO supporters, government, trusts, industry and conservation organisations. www.bto.org

The Wash Wader Research Group is a group of volunteer bird ringers dedicated to studying the wading birds that live in, or pass through, The Wash on the east coast of England. The WWRG undertakes fieldwork approximately once a month, mainly at weekends, but with longer trips during the main migratory period in the summer and early autumn. Members of WWRG live across Britain & Ireland, and even further afield, and the Group welcomes volunteer ringers from home and abroad who are interested in taking part in the fieldwork. www.wwrg.org.uk

The Curlew has always been scarce as a breeding species in lowland landscapes and but has strongholds in the uplands of England, Scotland and Wales. The bird's evocative bubbling call, echoing above the heather moorlands and upland-edge grazing, is a well-loved feature indicating the health of these important habitats. Survey data have documented the decline in breeding Curlew populations across Britain & Ireland, prompting research and conservation efforts to support the species. In winter the population moves to the coasts and its adjacent farmland, where it is joined by large numbers of migrants from Fennoscandia. The Wetland Bird Survey records the two most important sites for Curlew as The Wash and Morecambe Bay, demonstrating its wide winter distribution.

The paper was published in Wader Study, details for which are: Pell, R.J., Clark, J.A. & Robinson, R.A. (2023). Contrasting habitat use between and within Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew wintering on the Wash, England. Wader Study 130 (3). A copy of the paper for media use can be requested from press [at] bto.org.

Seabird abundances projected to decline in response to climate change in Britain and Ireland

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:57:57 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Davies, J.G., Humphreys, E.M., Evans, T., Howells, R., O’Hara-Murray, R. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W. Marine Ecology Progress Series 10.3354/meps14462

Estimating species’ vulnerability to climate change is a key challenge in conservation. Many seabird species are particularly sensitive to negative effects of warming and are thus threatened by climate change. We projected seabird abundance in 2050 in Britain and Ireland, an internationally-important region for seabirds, under climate change scenario RCP8.5. Our projections were based on fitted relationships between abundance and both climatic (air temperature, precipitation) and oceanographic (sea surface temperature, potential energy anomaly) variables, estimated using a Bayesian hurdle model with spatial random effects. The most consistent responses to environmental variables were negative relationships between species presence or abundance and breeding season maximum terrestrial air temperature. Although data and modelling issues meant that future projections could be made for only 15 of the 25 species and with low predictive power for spatial abundance, predictive power was high for spatial presence and moderate for temporal abundance change. Projections suggest that seabirds will generally fare poorly under climate change in Britain & Ireland, with 10 species projected to decline in abundance by 2050. Variable model fit and projection uncertainty limited confidence, which was generally greater for declines than for increases. Fulmar, puffin and Arctic tern were each projected to decline by over 70% with higher confidence. For a few species, colonisation of new areas may reduce projected losses, but this is potentially limited by suitable habitat. Projected abundance change was more negative for marine specialists than for generalists. Our findings highlight the vulnerability and conservation needs of seabirds in a changing climate.

This paper was supported by funding from gifts in Wills to the BTO, for which the authors are extremely grateful. This paper is an output from the Marine Protected Areas Management and Monitoring (MarPAMM) project; the authors thank the project steering group for useful feedback at all stages of the development of the study and Naomi Wilson for the financial administration of the project on behalf of Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI). This project has been supported by the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).

Ryevitalise – Bats and ancient trees report: 2023

MIKETOMS — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 10:04:19 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Newson, S.E. & Panter, T.L. 978-1-912642-59-5

Over 2023, 134 different locations across the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area were surveyed. Recording was undertaken on a minimum of 139 different nights mainly between May and the end of September, amounting to a total of 605 nights of recording effort across sites. Sound recordings (wav files) were uploaded by volunteers to the BTO Acoustic Pipeline, through which a first automated analyses was carried out and provisional results returned. Recordings were then moved to deep glacial storage for later auditing. At the end of the survey season, a copy of the recordings was pulled back and manual auditing of the results/recordings carried out.

Overall, 797,360 recordings were collected which, following analyses and validation, were found to include 384,151 bat recordings, and 135 small terrestrial mammal recordings. Bush-crickets and audible moth species were also recorded as ‘by-catch’, for which we report species presence on a site and night basis. Following validation, the study confirmed the presence of at least 8 bat species, 3 small mammal species, 2 species of bush-cricket, and 2 audible moth species. More generally, this season of data adds to our understanding of the status of all species of bats across the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership area, and of the relative importance of different areas. In addition, the bush-cricket species Roesel’s Bush-cricket Roeseliana roeselii was recorded for the first time for the survey from four locations. Lastly, the project provides data on the distribution and activity of several species of small terrestrial mammals for the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area. The report includes a full species-by-species breakdown of spatial, seasonal, and through-the-night patterns of activity.

Contrasting habitat use between and within Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew wintering on the Wash, England

MIKETOMS — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:51:14 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Pell, R.J., Clark, J.A. & Robinson, R.A. Wader Study Near Threatened Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica lapponica and Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata winter on the Wash in eastern England in internationally and nationally important numbers respectively. For both species we confirm that there is an excess of males in the wintering population on the Wash; there are different sex ratios on other estuaries. In addition, we found that in winter on the Wash, Curlew, but not Bar-tailed Godwit, use inland areas to feed, with increasing numbers feeding inland through the winter as prey on the intertidal become fewer and less available. Male Curlew are more likely to feed inland on the Wash than females. Although the Wash is protected by various international and national designations and both species are listed features of the Wash Special Protection Area and Ramsar Site, land away from the shore is not protected. However, we demonstrate that these inland fields are functionally linked for Curlew. Should the opportunity for inland feeding on the Wash be lost, this is likely to affect males (particularly the individuals with the shortest bills) disproportionately, which may have implications for the population as a whole (including birds wintering on other estuaries). We recommend consideration of an extension to the protected area to include the field-feeding sites. Furthermore, the phenotypic-related distribution of both species across their wintering range reinforces the need for coordinated range-wide (international) protection to avoid any issues affecting one sex disproportionately. Changes in fisheries practices and Oystercatcher survival, recruitment and body mass in a marginal Cockle fisherySupporting Curlew conservation and understanding wader declinesIdentifying Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwit

Winter Gull Survey relaunched after 20 years to assess vulnerable gull populations

WEBSITEEDITOR — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 17:09:38 +0000

13 Nov 2023

The Winter Gull Survey (WinGS) was created in 1952 to collect information about the population size and distribution of gulls wintering in the UK, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. Over 70 years later the survey’s overarching objective remains the same but is underpinned by a new urgency: a need to understand and address the various gulls’ recently acquired Red and Amber conservation status.

All the gull species that regularly occur in the UK are listed in Birds of Conservation Concern on the Amber or Red List.

Recent assessments of bird populations in the UK have revealed a decline in both breeding and overwintering populations of gulls. As a result, all gull species that regularly occur in the UK are now listed in the assessment on the Amber or Red List in Birds of Conservation Concern.

The declines are worrying because the UK harbours a significant proportion of the global population of breeding gulls of various species: currently, there are over 50 sites in the UK that have been designated as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) or Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) due to the presence of internationally important numbers of gulls during the breeding season. These sites have enhanced legal protection for wildlife, and are often managed by conservation organisations to help boost populations of vulnerable species.

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Winter gull roost, by Ian Sheppard.

Wintering gulls in the UK

The UK is also recognised as an important area for gulls during the winter period. Over the colder months, the gulls’ geographic distribution shifts significantly, and the birds often occupy regions outside of their breeding areas. However, these winter ranges are not considered when designating protected sites, which means that there is little targeted conservation for wintering gulls.

In the upcoming WinGS surveys, we aim to address this gap in protected site designation by monitoring overwintering gulls, collecting key information about their population size and distribution, and providing evidence to underpin the conservation of these species.

How will BTO monitor gulls?

wings-volunteer-at-a-roost-count-by-teresa-frost.jpg

WinGS volunteers will visit key gull roost sites at dusk.

Gulls disperse widely over the landscape during daylight hours, making them a tricky group of species to monitor. Their habit of gathering to roost at dusk provides the best way to make accurate assessments of their numbers. WinGS, which will run during the winters of 2023/24 and 2024/25, is a bespoke survey designed to take advantage of this roosting behaviour.

WinGS volunteers will survey known roost sites at large estuaries and reservoirs – ‘key’ sites – and identify and count the gulls in flight as they arrive in huge numbers around dusk. Some major key sites will necessitate team coordination and create fantastic opportunities for surveyors to connect with fellow gull enthusiasts! WinGS also includes planned visits to ‘random’ sample sites at both inland and coastal locations, which will enable us to generate complete UK-wide population estimates.

The comprehensive WinGS roost counts that we will carry out over the next two years will make a significant step towards addressing the information gaps about gull populations that have arisen in the past two decades.

Both the key and random sites need to be visited at least once in January of 2024 and 2025, and also in the autumn of 2024, when we will assess what are known as ‘post-breeding aggregations’ of birds.

Our focus will be directed towards the six most prevalent gull species in the UK: Black-headed, Common, Herring, Lesser Black-backed, Great Black-backed and Mediterranean Gulls. The Mediterranean Gull was not included as a target species in previous survey seasons of WinGS, but we have decided to include this elegant gull in the scheme in the upcoming surveys due to its increasing reliance on UK sites in the winter months, and the UK’s increasing responsibility for its conservation. This trend was revealed by the BTO/RSPB/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), which saw a sharp increase in the number of these birds recorded at WeBS count sites after 2017.

Charting change

black-headed-gull-by-alan-drewitt-bto.jpg

The Black-headed Gull was the most numerous species during the previous WinGS survey season (2003/04–2005/06), but has declined by as much as 40% since that time.

Long-time BTO survey participants may remember the last WinGS season, which took place during the winters of 2003/04 and 2005/06. At that time, data collected by the survey participants concluded that inland and near-shore coastal waters of the UK supported over 3.8 million wintering gulls.

The most abundant gull species recorded during that survey period was the Black-headed Gull, with an estimated two million birds wintering across the UK. However, more recent population trends based on WeBS data have pointed towards substantial declines of around 40% in this species’ wintering numbers. This trend has no doubt been exacerbated by the effects of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which is thought to have killed around 10% of the total UK breeding population of Black-headed Gulls since March 2023.

WinGS will produce robust evidence and support the development and implementation of effective conservation strategies for the UK’s gulls.

As the previous survey season was so many years ago, we expect to find other changes in the gull populations too. The comprehensive WinGS roost counts that we will carry out over the next two years will make a significant step towards building an up-to-date understanding of how gull populations have altered in the last two decades.

We will combine the information revealed by the WinGS data with that of other key monitoring schemes, including WeBS and the Seabird Monitoring Programme, to produce robust evidence and support the development and implementation of effective conservation strategies for the UK’s gulls.

Learn more about WinGS

Learn about the project’s history and aims, and how to get involved.

Yes

Winter Gull Survey

Linking climate warming and land conversion to species’ range changes across Great Britain

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 10:29:10 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Suggitt, A.J., Wheatley, C.J., Aucott, P., Beale, C.M., Fox, R., Hill, J.K., Isaac, N.J.B., Martay, B., Southall, H., Thomas, C.D., Walker, K.J. & Auffret , A.G. Nature Communications 10.1038/s41467-023-42475-0 Although increased temperatures are known to reinforce the effects of habitat destruction at local to landscape scales, evidence of their additive or interactive effects is limited, particularly over larger spatial extents and longer timescales. To address these deficiencies, we created a dataset of land-use changes over 75 years, documenting the loss of over half (>3000 km²) the semi-natural grassland of Great Britain. Pairing this dataset with climate change data, we tested for relationships to distribution changes in birds, butterflies, macromoths, and plants (n = 1192 species total). We show that individual or additive effects of climate warming and land conversion unambiguously increased persistence probability for 40% of species, and decreased it for 12%, and these effects were reflected in both range contractions and expansions. Interactive effects were relatively rare, being detected in less than 1 in 5 species, and their overall effect on extinction risk was often weak. Such individualistic responses emphasise the importance of including species-level information in policies targeting biodiversity and climate adaptation. The authors thank the many thousands of volunteer surveyors of land use and biodiversity, without whom these analyses would not have been possible. Data and imagery from the Land-Utilisation Survey of Great Britain are reproduced with permission of the copyright holder Giles N. Clark. Chris Fleet at National Library of Scotland provided assistance with land-use maps covering Scotland, and Natural England provided assistance with maps covering England and Wales. This work was supported by a UKRI Natural Environment Research Council grant (NE/M013030/1, for A.J.S., J.K.H. and C.D.T.), a Northumbria University Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellowship (for A.J.S.), and grants from the Swedish Research Councils Formas and VR (2015-1065 and 2020-04276, for A.G.A.).