BTO - British Trust for Ornithology - Technology

Cuckoo Tracking Project

WILLIAMSKELLORN — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:17:22 +0000

The Cuckoo Tracking Project has been revealing new discoveries about how British Cuckoos migrate, and the challenges they face. Follow and support this ground-breaking project.

Friday, April 1, 2011 - 00:00

Help us follow Cuckoos on migration and discover why they are in decline

We’ve been satellite-tracking Cuckoos since 2011 to find out why they are in decline:

Since 1995, the number of Cuckoos has decreased by over 30%.
The Cuckoo is currently Red-listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern in the UK.
Support this project by sponsoring a Cuckoo >

Progress so far

We’ve learned lots of vital information, such as how the different migration routes are linked to declines, and some of the pressures Cuckoos face whilst on migration, but there is still much more to discover.

We have been able to share our expertise around tracking Cuckoos with other international studies, such as the Beijing Cuckoo Project.
Read more about our Cuckoo Tracking Project.

What’s next

We now need to look more closely at how dependent Cuckoos are on, and how much their migration is linked to, the drought-busting rains of the weather frontal system known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as they move out of the Congo rainforest and begin to head back to the UK via West Africa.

Our Cuckoo Tracking Project is vital and it wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support from funders and sponsors.

Sponsor a Cuckoo

Watch the Cuckoos migrate on our map

Each Cuckoo’s tag sends us location data approximately every day, so we can follow them and learn more about their migration.

Track our Cuckoos as they migrate

Chris Hewson

5/11 - First round of five Cuckoos tagged, wintering sites in the Congo identified
3/12 - Different routes discovered on return journeys
2016 - First scientific paper published on on the routes of our Cuckoos

Spend as much time as you like following each Cuckoo's migration on the map below - use the controls to animate or step through their movements. No technical skills are required to support this project - just a love of Cuckoos.

Cuckoo declines linked to different migration routes to Africa

ongoing Farmland birdsWoodland birds funding Yes cuckoos@bto.org

BirdTrack

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

Whether you record the birds in your local park or when you go birdwatching further afield you can add them to BirdTrack and see how your records develop over months and years.

You can add casual records of species you see whilst out and about or record everything you identify at your favourite birding locations. BirdTrack is flexible with a mobile app - add your sightings on the go from anywhere in the world.

BirdTrack Thursday, January 1, 2004 - 00:00

BirdTrack is a free and convenient way of storing your bird records online. BirdTrack lets you keep up to date with what others are seeing, view the latest trends, and contribute your data to BTO science.

Created through a partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists' Club and the Welsh Ornithological Society, BirdTrack is an exciting project that looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland.

BirdTrack provides facilities for observers to store and manage their own personal records as well as using these to support species conservation at local, regional, national and international scales.

Taking part in BirdTrack is easy and fun. You simply provide some information about yourself, the sites where you go birdwatching, when you go birdwatching and most importantly, the birds you identify! BirdTrack allows you to store all of your bird records in a safe, easily accessible and interactive format.

To participate in BirdTrack you just need to do the following:

Go birdwatching and note all the species that you see.
Go to the BirdTrack web site and register an account. If you have taken part in any other online survey organised by the BTO then please use your existing username and password.
Enter the location of your chosen site(s) or select from a popular site.
Enter the date and time of your visit and the site you visited.
Record the species you saw or heard on your visit.

We hope that you will have great fun participating in BirdTrack and that you will return to the website frequently to enter more data and to find out what's happening in your area and around the country.

National and regional summaries updated every night throughout the year.
View all of your own records and compare them with the regional figures.

Record on the go with BirdTrack Apps

Log your bird sightings anywhere in the world - Learn more about our mobile apps.

Works without a network/WiFi connection
'Smart' species dropdown for adding sightings, listing most commonly recorded species first
Sync all your existing BirdTrack places and upload everything into your BirdTrack account

Go beyond just data entry and use the app to

View a map of recent sightings
View target species that you haven't seen this year / ever
View your year and life lists

Delve into your records

Use the 'Explore my records' function in BirdTrack to view your data in a range of exciting ways.

View your life and year lists at global, regional or local levels
View maps of all your birding locations
Extract the data as tables and graphs

Getting started

Taking part is quick and easy.

BirdTrack apps

Add your records on the go with our iPhone and Android apps.

Explore your records

Delve into your records to view your data in a range of exciting ways.

c_bennytrapp_stock.adobe_.com_bto_55.png

Keep your finger on the migration pulse this autumn

Your BirdTrack data allows us to follow the arrival and departure of migrants through the seasons.

What's been seen this week? How will the weather affect migration next week? And which species will be arriving near you?

Visit the blog

Contact BirdTrack

Britain

BirdTrack Organiser
c/o BTO, The Nunnery
Thetford, Norfolk
IP24 2PU

Tel: +44 (0)1842 750050

Email: birdtrack [at] bto.org

Ireland

BirdWatch Ireland (BirdTrack contact)
c/o BirdWatch Ireland
Unit 20, Block D
Bullford Business Campus
Kilcoole, Greystones
Co. Wicklow, Ireland

Tel: +353 579151676

Email: bcaffrey [at] birdwatchireland.ie

Record your sightings on the go with BirdTrack

Scott Mayson

2002 Migration watch started, with the initial aim of mapping migration
2004 Re-named BirdTrack and expanded to cover all seasons
2013 BirdTrack apps released on iOS and android
2014 BirdTrack global portal released, allowing data to be entered from anywhere in the world
2019 BirdTrack moved to a single site handling both British/Irish records and those from elsewhere in the world
2021 Additional taxa added to BirdTrack: Amphibians, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Mammals, Orchids, and Reptiles can all be recorded
2022 Link to iRecord set-up to facilitate a daily flow of non-avian records from BirdTrack to iRecord
2022 New revised version of the mobile app released.

There is no minimum time commitment. Ideally you will have fairly good bird identification skills.

any time Garden birdsFarmland birdsSeabirdsUpland birdsUrban birdsWetland birdsWoodland birds volunteers

BTO Urban AppealBTO and COVID-19BirdTrack migration blog (Mid-April - May) Yes birdtrack@bto.org

Help us track the outbreak of avian influenza with BirdTrack

You can now send us sightings of sick and dead birds through BirdTrack. These records give us a real-time picture of the locations and species affected by the disease, to help us track its impact and spread.

Please remember to report all dead birds to Defra (England, Scotland and Wales) or Daera (Northern Ireland) as well, to assist in efforts to test dead birds for the disease.

More information about avian influenza can be found on our dedicated avian influenza page.

Behavioural responses of Sandwich terns following the construction of offshore wind farms

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:05:54 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Thaxter, C.B., Green, R.M.W., Collier, M.P., Taylor, R.C., Middelveld, R.P., Scragg, E.S., Wright, L.J., Cook, A.S.C.P. & Fijn, R.C. Marine Biology 10.1007/s00227-023-04353-7 Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are a key part of efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, they have the potential to negatively impact seabird species through collisions with turbine blades, displacement from preferred foraging habitat and the perception of wind farms as a barrier to migrating or foraging birds. Whilst the data available to model these impacts are increasing, many data gaps remain, particularly in relation to the impacts of barrier effects. We analyse the movements of Sandwich terns in relation to an offshore wind farm cluster using data collected as part of a multi-year GPS tracking study. Over the course of the study, two additional wind farms were built within the home range of the breeding colony. The construction of these wind farms coincided with a change in the foraging and commuting areas used by breeding terns. Whilst birds entered OWFs when foraging, they appeared to avoid them when commuting, driving an apparent ‘funnelling’ effect to important feeding locations. We discuss if this could be driven by changes to the prey base, subsequent displacement and potentially altered routes reflecting new favourable air flow patterns following OWF construction. Our results suggest that behavioural responses of birds to OWFs may be the result of a complex series of ecological and environmental interactions, as opposed to simplistic assumptions around the perception of the OWF as a barrier to movement. This study was funded by Equinor.

Flight heights obtained from GPS versus altimeters influence estimates of collision risk with offshore wind turbines in Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 09:34:08 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Johnston, D.T., Thaxter, C.B., Boersch-Supan, P.H., Davies, J.G., Clewley, G.D., Green, R.M.W., Shamoun-Baranes, J., Cook, A.S.C.P., Burton, N.H.K. & Humphreys, E.M. Movement Ecology 10.1186/s40462-023-00431-z The risk posed by offshore wind farms to seabirds through collisions with turbine blades is greatly influenced by species-specific flight behaviour. Bird-borne telemetry devices may provide improved measurement of aspects of bird behaviour, notably individual and behaviour specific flight heights. However, use of data from devices that use the GPS or barometric altimeters in the gathering of flight height data is nevertheless constrained by a current lack of understanding of the error and calibration of these methods. Uncertainty remains regarding the degree to which errors associated with these methods can affect recorded flight heights, which may in turn have a significant influence on estimates of collision risk produced by Collision Risk Models (CRMs), which incorporate flight height distribution as an input. Using GPS/barometric altimeter tagged Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus from two breeding colonies in the UK, we examine comparative flight heights produced by these devices, and their associated errors. We present a novel method of calibrating barometric altimeters using behaviour characterised from GPS data and open-source modelled atmospheric pressure. We examine the magnitude of difference between offshore flight heights produced from GPS and altimeters, comparing these measurements across sampling schedules, colonies, and years. We found flight heights produced from altimeter data to be significantly, although not consistently, higher than those produced from GPS data. This relationship was sustained across differing sampling schedules of five minutes and of 10 s, and between study colonies. We found the magnitude of difference between GPS and altimeter derived flight heights to also vary between individuals, potentially related to the robustness of calibration factors used. Collision estimates for theoretical wind farms were consequently significantly higher when using flight height distributions generated from barometric altimeters. Improving confidence in telemetry-obtained flight height distributions, which may then be applied to CRMs, requires sources of errors in these measurements to be identified. Our study improves knowledge of the calibration processes for flight height measurements based on telemetry data, with the aim of increasing confidence in their use in future assessments of collision risk and reducing the uncertainty over predicted mortality associated with wind farms. This project was funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)’s Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment research programme.

Flight Paths: the story of bird migration science

WEBSITEEDITOR — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 15:00:46 +0000

Science writer Rebecca Heisman tells us how she came to write her first book, Flight Paths, and why it’s vital that we tell the stories of the birds around us.

Rebecca Heisman Science writer Visit Rebecca’s website Rebecca has written for many leading ornithological organisations including the Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Ornithological Society. Her first book, Flight Paths, was published in 2023 by Swift Press.

During that initial round of COVID-19 lockdowns, people all over the world were searching for a way to keep themselves occupied at home, and began to take fresh notice of the birds in their neighbourhoods. I was one of them – though I was already a casual birder, I found particular solace in the return of migrating birds that spring. They were a reminder of hope and continuity beyond the personal and professional turmoil I was experiencing.

Before COVID-19, I worked full-time as a communications staffer for the American Ornithological Society, the world’s largest professional organisation for bird scientists. A large part of my job was reading scientific studies being published in their journals and promoting them to journalists and the public. I read a lot of papers and talked to a lot of researchers, and I was fascinated by the methods used in many of the studies. I was amazed that you could study bird migration using weather radar, for example, by analysing hydrogen isotopes in feathers, or by recording the calls of birds passing overhead.

By the summer of 2020, I had left that job, overwhelmed by the demands of pandemic childcare and a serious medical diagnosis of my own. But my fascination with how we know what we know about migrating birds stuck with me, and I began to write a book proposal in hopes of exploring the subject further.

Never having written a book before, I found myself figuring out the process as I went. There were definitely some surprises along the way. Yes, I got to join ornithologists in the field as they did their work, tagging along as they snuck up on nesting Long-billed Curlews on the Montana prairie, or attempted to recapture Swainson’s Warblers carrying tracking devices as they returned to the swamps of Louisiana. But I also talked to experts from a range of other disciplines that I didn’t necessarily expect – computer scientists, electrical engineers, geochemists, and at one point even a philosopher.

A researcher removes a tracking device from a Swainson’s Warbler as part of a migration study. Rebecca Heisman

The study of bird migration, it turns out, has drawn from almost every branch of science. The use of weather radar to study ornithology had its origins in the earliest days of military radar usage in World War II. Early attempts to track birds using radio transmitters were made possible by the invention of the transistor and inspired by the launch of Sputnik. Researchers who study nocturnal flight calls rely on artificial intelligence to help identify and categorise the calls in their recordings. Efforts to determine birds’ geographic origins using their DNA, a sort of 23andMe for birds, were spurred by the advances of the Human Genome Project. I found myself joking that what I was really writing was writing a comprehensive history of the technological advancements of the 20th century, as told through the history of bird migration research.

Of course, my challenge was to distil this highly technical information into a book that would be engaging and hopefully even entertaining to read, regardless of whether someone had a background in the sciences. Ultimately, what draws people in are stories, not facts and figures, and the scientists I spoke with were generous in sharing their stories with me.

Ultimately, what draws people in are stories.

I talked to an ornithologist in Mongolia whose interest in birds was sparked by participating in a young naturalists’ club run by the Soviets when he was a child and his country was part of the USSR; a scientist in the USA who recalled struggling to string grants together to fund her research into bird genetics while also dealing with the demands of young motherhood; and a researcher who was astonished when a thrush she’d fitted with a radio transmitter in her home country of Colombia was then detected by a receiver only 200 km from the university campus in Canada where she was studying for her graduate degree. BTO’s own Nigel Clark spoke with me about his experiences tracking critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers via satellite, packing three precious miniature transmitters on a flight to Asia in 2016 to try and uncover the details of their migratory routes and improve biologists’ chances of saving the species.

Stable isotope analysis examines the atoms in feathers to determine the geographic areas inhabited by the bird when the feathers were grown. It has been used in BTO research on several species, including Shelduck. Philip Croft / BTO

Sometimes, though, I had to get pretty creative to find a story in the science. The chapter of Flight Paths that covers stable isotope analysis opens with the sentence “Imagine you’re a deuterium atom,” cheekily inviting the reader along on the atom’s journey from the ocean into a raincloud and from there into a tree, a caterpillar, and finally, the feather of a Prothonotary Warbler.

One of the most satisfying chapters to write was the one that covered ‘citizen’ or ‘community’ science – the ways in which everyday birders who aren’t scientists in their day jobs can make real contributions to our understanding of migration. Birders who record their observations and submit them to databases such as BirdTrack aren’t just keeping busy. They’re adding to a massive dataset that scientists are using to drill down with incredible detail into where on the globe any given species is most likely to turn up on any day of the year.

Today, efforts like these are more crucial than ever before, because migratory birds are in trouble. Populations are in decline around the world. A recent analysis of North America’s birdlife found that there are around three billion fewer birds living on the continent today than there were in 1970. Similarly, BTO has calculated that the number of birds in the UK has decreased by 73 million in the same time period (a startling number when you consider that the UK is approximately 100 times smaller than North America in land mass), and that up to 46% of the regularly occurring bird species are in danger of being lost.

I hope that everyone who reads Flight Paths comes away with a feeling of optimism that it’s still possible to tackle the environmental challenges facing us.

Insights into the migration of species such as the Cuckoo have been revealed by BTO research. Neil Calbrade / BTO

In order to effectively target conservation efforts, we need detailed data on the breeding ranges, wintering ranges, migratory routes, and stopover sites used not just by species but by the individual populations that make up those species (a concept known as ‘migratory connectivity’) – but for many birds, this information is still not available. So migration research, from the very high-tech to the simple submitting of checklists by amateur birders, is continuing with new urgency.

I hope that everyone who reads Flight Paths comes away with a new appreciation of the hard work and creativity that went into uncovering every impressive fact we know about bird migration, and with a feeling of optimism that it’s still possible to tackle the environmental challenges facing us.

During the early days of COVID-19, birds were a source of hope for me, and for millions of others. Now it’s our turn to be a source of hope for them.

flight-paths-rebecca-heisman-uk-cover.jpg

Flight Paths: How the Mystery of Bird Migration Was Solved

“This fascinating book opens with a question: where do the birds go? People have, of course, been asking this question for centuries...the book does not answer this question directly but delves into the question of how we know where birds go.”

Rebecca’s first book, Flight Paths, tells the story of the study of bird migration, from ringing and radio-tagging to cross-continent citizen science projects.

BTO’s Associate Director of Research Rob Robinson lends his expertise to our book review.

Read the review

Science writer Rebecca Heisman tells us how she came to write her first book, and why it’s vital that we tell the stories of the birds around us.

July 2023

The idea that became Flight Paths, my first book, was born in the spring of 2020.

07 Jul 2023 no

Reduced breeding success in Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus due to harness-mounted GPS device

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 08:39:23 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Langlois Lopez, S., Clewley, G.D., Johnston, D.T., Daunt, F., Wildon, J.M., O'Hanlon, N.J. & Masden, E. Ibis 10.1111/ibi.13247 Animal-borne bio-logging devices are routinely fitted to seabirds to learn about their behaviour and physiology, as well as their interactions with the marine environment. The assessment and reporting of deleterious impacts from such devices on the individuals carrying them is critical to inform future work and improve data quality and animal welfare. We assessed the impacts of thoracic-harness attachments on the breeding performance and inter-annual return rates of Great Black-backed Gulls. We found that tagged individuals hatched fewer eggs per nest (0.67) than two different control groups (handled but not tagged – 2.0, and not handled – 1.9) and had lower hatching success rates per nest (27% compared to 81% and 82% in control groups). Inter-annual return rates were similar between tagged and control groups, but the harness attachment potentially caused the death of an individual five days after deployment. Overall, the harness attachment was a lead driver of nest failure. We urge extreme caution to those wanting to use harness-mounted devices on Great Black-backed Gulls. NatureScot allowed this work to be carried out on the Isle of May. The Isle of May Bird Observatory provided metal and colour rings to mark Great Black-backed Gulls and fieldworkers. This work was funded under the NERC Scottish Universities Partnership for environmental Research (SUPER) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) (Grant reference number NE/S007342/1 with additional funding provided by the University of the Highlands and Islands, and the Scottish Government.

Using satellite data to assess spatial drivers of bird diversity

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:31:18 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Hunt, M.L., Blackburn, G.A., Siriwardena, G.M., Carrasco, L. & Rowland, C.S. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 10.1002/rse2.322 Birds are useful indicators of overall biodiversity, which continues to decline globally, despite targets to reduce its loss. The aim of this paper is to understand the importance of different spatial drivers for modelling bird distributions. Specifically, it assesses the importance of satellite-derived measures of habitat productivity, heterogeneity and landscape structure for modelling bird diversity across Great Britain. Random forest (RF) regression is used to assess the extent to which a combination of satellite-derived covariates explain woodland and farmland bird diversity and richness. Feature contribution analysis is then applied to assess the relationships between the response variable and the covariates in the final RF models. We show that much of the variation in farmland and woodland bird distributions is explained (R2 0.64–0.77) using monthly habitat-specific productivity values and landscape structure (FRAGSTATS) metrics. The analysis highlights important spatial drivers of bird species richness and diversity, including high productivity grassland during spring for farmland birds and woodland patch edge length for woodland birds. The feature contribution provides insight into the form of the relationship between the spatial drivers and bird richness and diversity, including when a particular spatial driver affects bird richness positively or negatively. For example, for woodland bird diversity, the May 80th percentile Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for broadleaved woodland has a strong positive effect on bird richness when NDVI is >0.7 and a strong negative effect below. If relationships such as these are stable over time, they offer a useful analytical tool for understanding and comparing the influence of different spatial drivers.

Landsat data courtesy of US Geological Survey. The authors are thankful to all the volunteers and professional ecologists who collected bird, habitat and vegetation data in Countryside Survey (CS) and to CEH and BTO staff who co-ordinated the survey and data collation.

MH was funded by Lancaster University through a Lancaster Environment Centre PhD Studentship as part of the Graduate School for the Environment. CR, LC and MH were funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) National Capability award NE/N018125/1 ASSIST—Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems www.assist.ceh.ac.uk. ASSIST is an initiative jointly supported by NERC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Bailiwick Bat Survey 2022 Report

MIKETOMS — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 08:46:47 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Newson, S.E., Allez, S.L., Coule, E.K., Guille, A.W., Henney, J.M., Higgins, L., McLellan, G.D., Simmons, M.C., Sweet, E., Whitelegg, D. & Atkinson, P.W. 978-1-912642-45-8

Background Working with a network of fieldworkers, static acoustic bat detectors were deployed over a 7-month survey season, to provide a second year of baseline data for bats for Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark. This report provides an overview of the survey coverage and main results from 2022.

Coverage During 2022, 622 different locations across the Bailiwick of Guernsey were surveyed. Recording was undertaken on 209 different nights mainly between April and the end of October, amounting to a total of 2,416 nights of recording effort across sites. Sound recordings (wav files) were uploaded by volunteers to the BTO Acoustic Pipeline, where a first automated analysis 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.

Results Overall, 3,389,138 recordings were collected which, following analyses and validation, were found to include 872,126 bat recordings, and 8,587 small terrestrial mammal recordings. Over 2 million recordings of 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 13 bat species, 5 small mammal species, 5 species of bush-crickets, and 2 audible moth species. This includes the first records of Serotine Eptesicus serotinus for Jethou, the first Leisler’s Bat Nyctalus leisleri for Herm, and the first Common Noctule Nyctalus noctula for Alderney. More generally, we have a better understanding now of the status of all species of bats across the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and of the relative importance of different areas. In addition, the bush-cricket Large Conehead Ruspolia nitidula was recorded for the first time on Herm, with records from two new locations on Guernsey, which follows the first records for Alderney, Guernsey and Lihou in 2021. Lastly, the project provides the first large-scale data on the distribution activity of several species of small terrestrial mammals for the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The report includes a full species-by-species breakdown of spatial, seasonal, and through-the-night patterns of activity.

Bailiwick Bat Survey: 2021 ReportAcoustic PipelineBTO goes batty: how our Acoustic Pipeline project is contributing to bat conservation in some of Europe’s most threatened landscapes

A global biological conservation horizon scan of issues for 2023

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 12:24:30 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Sutherland, W.J. Bennett, C., Brotherton, P.N.M., Butterworth, H.M., Clout, M.N., Côté, I.M., Dinsdale, J., Esmail, N., Fleishman, E., Gaston, K.J., Herbert-Read, J.E., Hughes, A., Kaartokallio, H., Le Roux, X., Lickorish, F.A., Matcham, W., Noor, N.,Palardy, J.E., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Peck, L.S., Pettorelli, N., Pretty, J., Scobey, R., Spalding, M.D., Tonneijck, F.H., Tubbs, N., Watson, J.E.M., Wentworth, J.E., Wilson, J.D. & Thornton, A. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.005 We present the results of our 14th horizon scan of issues we expect to influence biological conservation in the future. From an initial set of 102 topics, our global panel of 30 scientists and practitioners identified 15 issues we consider most urgent for societies worldwide to address. Issues are novel within biological conservation or represent a substantial positive or negative step change at global or regional scales. Issues such as submerged artificial light fisheries and accelerating upper ocean currents could have profound negative impacts on marine or coastal ecosystems. We also identified potentially positive technological advances, including energy production and storage, improved fertilisation methods, and expansion of biodegradable materials. If effectively managed, these technologies could realise future benefits for biological diversity. This exercise was coordinated by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Daily, seasonal and annual variation in area use of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) related to offshore renewable developments

VIOLA.ROSS-SMITH — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:59:10 +0000

The Cuckoo cohort of 2024 takes flight!

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Clewley, G.D., Thaxter, C., Scragg, E.S., Masden, E.A., Barber, L.J., Conway, G., Clark, N.A. & Burton, N.H.K. Bird Study 10.1080/00063657.2023.2190080

Capsule

Individually tracked Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus rarely visited offshore areas in this study but showed high variation across multiple time scales in overall area use.

Aims

To quantify the variation in space use by Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a species of conservation concern, from short- and long-term data on tracked individuals, and to assess the time spent offshore and interacting with offshore wind farms (OWFs) before and after their construction.

Methods

GPS tracking data were collected between 2016 and 2019 from 36 Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding in a declining colony in the UK with several operational OWFs nearby. Variations in home ranges, foraging trip metrics and the proportion of time spent offshore or within OWFs were analysed at three temporal scales: (i) over a daily cycle, (ii) across the breeding season and (iii) between years.

Results

Individuals predominantly used terrestrial areas. Less than 1.25% of the overall breeding season time budgets were spent offshore across years, and offshore use and time within OWFs did not vary significantly between years. However, home range sizes and foraging trip metrics did vary significantly across all time scales and individual variation was significant.

Conclusion

Our results suggested that there was little change in the relative use of offshore areas over time and thus in the macro-scale response of Lesser Black-backed Gulls to the OWFs, one of which was under construction during the period of study. Colony productivity and changes in the terrestrial environment were likely to be more important for influencing foraging movements at this colony.

This work was funded by Orsted.

BTO scientists have deployed hundreds of GPS tags on Lesser Black-backed Gulls since 2010. In this study, long-term GPS tracking devices were fitted to 36 adult gulls breeding at South Walney, in Cumbria. During the course of data collection (2016–19), two more offshore wind farms were built in addition to those already present in the area. This allowed the researchers to examine how tagged gulls’ habitat use might or might not change before, during and after the construction of these new developments.

Overall, the study showed that tagged Lesser Black-backed Gulls did not spend a lot of their time offshore (less than 1.25% of their overall time budgets). They spent slightly more of their time offshore at night (1.82%) than during the day (1.00%). The gulls’ individual ‘home ranges’ (the total area an animal uses for foraging and breeding) varied significantly from bird to bird, and through time. For instance, home ranges were smaller at night than during daylight hours, and they shrank in late May (when birds were spending a lot of time incubating their eggs) and again in late July (at the end of the breeding season). Similarly, the distance gulls covered on their trips away from the colony varied, with the shortest trips coinciding with late May and longer trips from August onwards, as birds began to lose their association with the colony and disperse after the end of the breeding season.

Only two tagged gulls had home ranges that overlapped with offshore wind farms, and fewer than half of the birds tracked visited an offshore wind farm in any given year. The proportion of birds visiting offshore wind farms did not vary significantly from year to year, including in areas of sea where wind farms were being built or coming into operation during the course of data collection.

The results from this tracking study were perhaps surprising. Although gulls are known to use a range of terrestrial areas, traditional thinking is that they still widely use offshore areas, especially during the chick rearing period. The lack of offshore movements in this study meant that broad responses in foraging and home ranges were not detected directly in relation to the construction of new developments.

Nonetheless, it was useful to show variation in these measures between years and to highlight the importance of a multi-year dataset. It was also useful to collect evidence specifically from a protected area located close to new offshore developments. South Walney is a nature reserve designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area. In the past, potential impacts on birds using protected areas close to new or existing developments were inferred from data collected at other sites. Thanks to this study we now have evidence from individuals at a protected site directly affected by the new developments.

BTO - British Trust for Ornithology - Technology

Cuckoo Tracking Project

Help us follow Cuckoos on migration and discover why they are in decline

Progress so far

​What’s next

Support the project

Watch the Cuckoos migrate on our map

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Behavioural responses of Sandwich terns following the construction of offshore wind farms

Flight heights obtained from GPS versus altimeters influence estimates of collision risk with offshore wind turbines in Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus

Flight Paths: the story of bird migration science

Flight Paths: How the Mystery of Bird Migration Was Solved

Reduced breeding success in Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus due to harness-mounted GPS device

Using satellite data to assess spatial drivers of bird diversity

Bailiwick Bat Survey 2022 Report

A global biological conservation horizon scan of issues for 2023

Daily, seasonal and annual variation in area use of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) related to offshore renewable developments

Capsule

Aims

Methods

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