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Transcript of BTO Annual Review 2014
September-October 2014/ Issue 311 A look at the work and strategy of the British Trust for Ornithology
2014
ORNITHOLOGY
VOLUNTEERS
SURVEYTRACraptorsRESEA
AGRICULTURE
CONSERVATION
CLIMATE
SEA
HABITATS Bird
LOCAL
ETLANDWOODLAND
CITIZEN
PARTNERSHIP
The BTO’s influence comes from partnering enthusiastic
and skilled volunteers with our professional scientists. Through
structured surveys, and fieldwork targeted to answer specific
questions, we are able to collect high quality data that can
then be turned into policy-relevant products. Two recent
pieces of work, both relating to the Wetland Bird Survey
(WeBS), provide good examples of how this approach can
deliver independent and objective outputs.
Earlier this year, the BTO presented a report in
Westminster to inform the Airports Commission’s evidence-
based approach to a decision on future UK airport capacity
– specifically the proposed Thames Estuary Airport. Data from
WeBS and other sources were used to assess the numbers
and distribution of birds within the area of the proposed
development. BTO scientists also reviewed the ability of bird
populations to respond to the loss of habitat associated with
such a large-scale development. Our impartial evidence made
it clear that, should the development go ahead, compensatory
habitat sufficient in scale and quality would be unlikely to
be delivered. Our independent report was widely welcomed
by all sides of the debate. It is, for example, important that
industry should have access to impartial information early in
the development process, enabling them to determine the
likelihood of success or failure of their plans.
Making the findings of our monitoring and research
more generally available as easily accessible and useful
products is equally important. We recently launched
WeBS Report Online, a stunning new interface providing
access to a wealth of information on waterbirds (see
pages 10–11). The interface delivers a broad range of
information to decision-makers, NGOs, birdwatchers and
Government, enabling users to extract the information
they want on the status and populations of UK
waterbirds.
What these two examples show very clearly is the
power of BTO’s contribution to decision-making, which in
turn can help to ensure a more wildlife-rich and healthy
environment for all. It is our collective contribution,
as skilled volunteers in the field and researchers back
at our offices, that makes the difference. This Annual
Review contains many more examples of our recent
achievements, geared to the best use of our scientific
knowledge of birds and other wildlife.
BTO Annual Review | 20142
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
WELCOME FrOM Andy CLEMEnts, CEO
CONTACT USBTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU
Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .01842 750050Facsimile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .01842 750030Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.bto.org
BTO Scotland, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Cottrell Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA
Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01786 466560Facsimile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .01786 466561Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]
BTO Cymru, Thoday Building, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW
Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .01248 383285Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]
The BTO promotes and encourages the wider understanding, appreciation and conservation of birds. Registered Charity no. 216652 (England & Wales) no. SC039193 (Scotland)
Patron HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT
President Chris Packham
Chairman Tony Fox
Honorary Secretary Neil Bucknell
Honorary Treasurer John Osmond
BTO PRODUCTIONEditors Su Gough & Mike Toms
Editorial Board Ieuan Evans, Viola Ross-Smith
Layout, design, imagesetting and typesetting O’Connor Design Consultants
Printing Reflex Litho, St Helen’s Way, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 1HG
The views expressed by the contributors to this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Council of the BTO or its committees. © BTO 2014. Quotations should carry a full acknowledgement.
2015 BTO MEMBERSHIP
Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £33Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£43Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £825Fellow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £55Family Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £65Life Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £1,375
Monthly membership subscriptions also available.
Fellows receive Bird Study journal.
All membership subscriptions due 1st January and run for the calendar year.
2014Annual reviewBTO News 311/September–October 2014
Annual review of the British trust for Ornithology ISSN 0005 – 3392
When you have finished with this magazine, pass it to a friend or recycle it.
“Through structured surveys, and fieldwork targeted to answer specific questions, we are able to collect high quality data that can then be turned into policy-relevant products.”
Inside this special issue of BTO News
Making a difference
Eagle eyesMonitoring birds of prey in Scotland
Making data workHow Bird Atlas 2007–11 data are reaching new audiences
scientific research in 2013 & 2014Three fascinating findings from recent BTO papers
Wetland bird populations come aliveFantastic new resources as WeBS report goes online
northern Ireland’s seabirdsBringing together seabird research around Northern Ireland
It’s all about the weatherClimate change consequences can be unexpected
training: what’s it all about?The who, where and why of coming on a training event
The BtO in numbersSpecial pull-out summarising the BTO’s work
2014 | BTO Annual Review 3
COntEnts
separating the ‘hoo-weet’ from the ChiffMentoring new nest recorders
People powerVolunteers make key projects possible
scientific research in 2013 & 2014More insights into the breadth of BTO climate change work
BtO Accounts 2013/14How your support makes our work possible
PartnershipsWorking with other organisations brings new opportunities
Corporate supportBusinesses and BTO come together to stimulate new research
A year in BtO Cymru 2013–14News from one of the regional offices
The BtO in printSnippets from recent research papers
Acknowledgements & BtO partners
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Eagle eyes
Unfortunately raptors are far from
universally popular and have a long,
chequered and ongoing history of
‘conflict’ with man. Many raptor species
remain scarce or vulnerable to ongoing
environmental change and illegal human
activities. This makes BTO’s contributions to
raptor monitoring, and the objective advice
that we provide, all the more important.
In the 2012 Annual Review we reported
on the BTO-led work to develop methods
for producing population and breeding
performance trends for Scottish raptors
as part of our role in the Scottish Raptor
Monitoring Scheme (SRMS; see box). Since
its launch in 2002, the SRMS has produced
a manual of good practice, published annual
reports, and contributed data to underpin
planning decisions, nature conservation
management, research studies and raptor
conservation frameworks. Despite these
successes, and the massive contributions
from the Scottish raptor monitoring
community, the SRMS still faces substantial
challenges if it is to realise its full potential
for raptor conservation. During 2014, funding
was secured to allow the Scheme’s first
full-time coordinator to be appointed. Part
of the coordinator’s role will be to improve
knowledge of how survey coverage varies
between areas and years. This will allow
more rigorous population information to be
produced and will ensure that real changes
in raptor populations can be distinguished
from changes in monitoring effort.
If there is one group of birds that deserves the term ‘iconic’ it is surely raptors. Their power and majesty have firmly embedded their imagery in popular culture and, for many people, a glimpse of a bird of prey makes their day.
Coverage is currently patchy, particularly
for species such as Buzzard, Sparrowhawk
and Kestrel, which are widespread but
have recently undergone substantial
population changes. Improvements in our
understanding of survey coverage would
allow us to define more clearly the causes
and consequences of these changes. There
are other developments in the pipeline
too. An online recording system will make
it easier for raptor surveyors to submit
records and log their survey effort, while
enhanced training opportunities will help
volunteers who are keen to develop their
raptor monitoring skills. The SRMS also
aims to broaden the types of monitoring
currently being undertaken, building on
initiatives like the Hen Harrier Winter Roost
Survey (currently administered by BTO
Scotland, in partnership with the Hawk &
Owl Trust, and by Chris Rollie of Dumfries
and Galloway RSG for Scotland). Monitoring
raptor populations in winter is more difficult
than during the breeding season. However,
increased winter monitoring would inform us
about bird numbers and distributions during
a season in which survival and condition
can strongly influence population trends.
Together with existing elements of the SRMS,
these new initiatives will hopefully contribute
to the development of coordinated raptor
monitoring in other parts of the UK.
Periodic national surveys of individual
raptor species are valued by conservation
practitioners, including RSPB and the
statutory conservation agencies. These
surveys provide enhanced estimates
of population size and change, to
complement the information from annual
monitoring. In 2014 it was the turn of
the Peregrine, following the last UK-wide
survey in 2002. Since the post-war decline
to around 350 pairs, caused principally by
organochlorine pesticides, the UK Peregrine
population has recovered substantially. The
species has colonised many lowland areas,
BTO Annual Review | 20144
The eight SRMS partners are: Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH); the Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG); British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Scotland; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB Scotland); the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC); the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP); the
Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC); and Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS). The SRMS is currently funded by SNH, BTO, RSPB and FCS, with additional in-kind support from all eight partners. After supporting the SRMS for more than 10 years, its first Raptor Monitoring Officer, Brian Etheridge,
retired in 2014, and the Scheme now has a full-time Scottish Raptor Monitoring Coordinator, Amy Challis, employed by BTO Scotland on behalf of the partners. More information on the SRMS and its outputs can be found at: www.scottishraptorstudygroup.org/srms.html
The ScoTTiSh RapToR MoniToRing ScheMe (SRMS)
helped by an increasing tendency to nest
on man-made structures. However, Bird
Atlas 2007–11 shows that these lowland
gains contrast with declines in some
upland areas. The 2014 survey set out to
improve understanding of these regional
differences and to provide robust, up-to-
date population estimates. To carry out the
survey, BTO worked closely with the SRSG
branches, BTO RRs, RSPB and hundreds of
dedicated volunteers. As well as monitoring
known breeding sites, a new study design
was introduced, with participants also
looking for Peregrines in randomly selected
5-km x 5-km squares. This will help to
reduce the distorting effects of regional
variation in survey effort and will ensure
that population estimates are scientifically
robust. In total, at least 1,200 random
squares were surveyed across the UK,
representing between 10 and 20% of
each survey country or contributing region.
The final results of the survey will be
submitted as a peer-reviewed paper and
will inform the design of future monitoring
programmes and help to inform Peregrine
conservation strategies.
So, with the help of many hundreds of
volunteers and in close collaboration with a
range of partners, BTO is working in a number
of ways to ensure that the highest quality
information is available on raptors to inform
conservation. Why does that matter? Raptors
can undoubtedly be of value as indicators of
ecosystem health and for the opportunities
they present for wildlife tourism. Many
people, however, simply enjoy having
birds of prey above and around them.
Keeping tabs on their populations will
help to ensure that they continue
to grace our skies.
Facts Figures
&
22
30,000 km2
RAPTORS
The number of birds of prey (16 Red Kites and six Buzzards) found in one of the worst single cases of illegal raptor killing revealed in recent years (in Ross-shire in 2014). Post-mortems have suggested ‘ingestion of an illegally-held poisonous substance’.
The land area covered by the 5-km x 5-km random squares surveyed for the Peregrine Survey across the UK. In 2002, 1,530 Peregrine nesting ranges were estimated as occupied. The 2014 estimates are in preparation.
The number of nest sites or home ranges of raptors checked each year by more than 300 (mainly) volunteer raptor observers for the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme. The main contributors are members of the 12 branches of the Scottish Raptor Study Group. The scheme regularly receives information on 17 species (raptors, owls and Raven).
5,000
2014 | BTO Annual Review 5
acknowledgeMenTS We are extremely grateful to the hundreds of volunteers who contribute to the raptor monitoring projects mentioned in this article and to all our partners in raptor work across the UK. We thank in particular our partners in the SRMS for their funding and support (see box), and funding contributors to the 2014 Peregrine Survey: SNH, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
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The breeding distribution of goshawk
has increased over the last 40 years, but high levels of illegal killing
in some areas have had a major impact.
Sparrowhawk nest
BTO Annual Review | 20146
Opening up the atlas
A DATASET OF GREAT VALUEThe individual records that make up the
Bird Atlas 2007–11 dataset, coupled
with the summary detail on distribution
and abundance, provide an incredible
resource for researchers, birdwatchers,
conservationists and policy-makers. The
data will prove invaluable for a whole suite
of research work, much of it carried out by
BTO, and will help to steer conservation
priorities for many years to come. For
example, atlas data have a particular role
to play in research looking at range shifts
and in efforts to understand and model
the impacts of a changing climate. Much
of the BTO research being supported by
the ‘Beyond the Maps’ Appeal will focus on
climate change impacts, but we will also
be looking at the drivers behind declines
in upland bird populations and at how
birds use urban areas, the latter delivering
evidence-based recommendations for
improved management of urban areas for
wild birds.
It is not just BTO researchers and our
Bird Atlas 2007–11 partners that will
be making use of the data (see BTO
News 310 for an article on how this
research is progressing). A data sharing
agreement with RSPB means that atlas
data are already being used for ‘frontline’
conservation activities, like site and species
safeguarding, species recovery and reserve
management. Similar agreements with the
The publication in 2013 of Bird Atlas 2007–11 was the culmination of a huge amount of effort to deliver the 720 page book. But this wasn’t the only output; as this article reveals, the legacy of Bird Atlas 2007–11 reaches far more widely.
statutory conservation agencies ensure that
atlas data support policy discussions and
help to inform the decision-making process.
Our academic partners can utilise atlas data
in their own research, and there is also
a range of ‘data products’ – summarised
outputs from the atlas – that are now
appearing more widely.
DELIVERING DATA PRODUCTSThe Collins Bird Guide is the field guide
of choice for most British and Irish
birdwatchers. The development of an
electronic version – the Collins Bird Guide
App – brings the guide into the digital age.
Initially launched on the Apple platform
through developers Touchpress, the app
contains the text, maps and artwork from
the original publication. In addition, it
brings in sound clips of bird songs and
calls, videos and the distribution maps
from Bird Atlas 2007–11. These last two
features are offered as ‘in-app’ purchases,
allowing users to add all of the breeding
and winter distribution maps for just £1.99.
The addition of the maps also delivers
functionality that enables the user to refine
the list of species presented based on the
underlying atlas data. Delivering the data
from Bird Atlas 2007–11 into a product
like the Collins Bird Guide App, extends the
reach of the project and provides additional
income for the research work that is being
undertaken on the wider atlas dataset.
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2014 | BTO Annual Review 7
The Collins Bird Guide App is not
the only place where the maps from
Bird Atlas 2007–11 feature. All of the
maps from the book, plus others that
did not make it in because of space
constraints, are available on the Bird Atlas
Mapstore (www.bto.org/mapstore). This
free resource also holds all of the maps
from previous breeding atlases and the
previous winter atlas. These maps, which
should be used in conjunction with the
published books to bring in vital detail
on methods and interpretation, provide
a one-stop shop for anyone interested in
where our birds occur and how patterns
of distribution and abundance have
changed over time.
A WIDER LEGACYOne of the big features of the Bird Atlas
2007–11 project was the online system
developed for data capture and validation.
The development of this system by the
BTO’s Information Services team not only
provided a web-based tool for this British
and Irish study but it also delivered a tool
for the 45 county atlas projects taking place
over a similar period. In fact this component
of the online system is still active; fieldwork
for the Clyde Tetrad Atlas 2007–14 project –
the last of those still collating and validating
records – finished this summer. In excess of
300,000 records have been collected by the
Clyde team and these are being validated
through the tools built into the Bird Atlas
2007–11 online system.
The uses to which data from the atlas
will be put are likely to be many and varied.
From academic research, through ‘frontline’
conservation outputs and on to the maps
that will appear in field guides and books
over the coming years, data from Bird Atlas
2007–11 will have tremendous reach. This
will be a truly fitting legacy for the efforts of
our volunteers, staff and partners.
“Much of the BTO research being supported by the ‘Beyond the Maps’ Appeal will focus on climate change impacts.”
ACkNOWLEDGEmENTS Bird Atlas 2007–11 was a partnership between BTO, BirdWatch Ireland and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club.
1. RIChLY COLOURED The vast amount of information collected through Bird Atlas 2007–11 for species such as Goldfinch provides a unique perspective on the distribution and abundance of Britain and Ireland’s birds. This information is being used in many different ways, highlighting the power of volunteers to deliver data to a much broader audience.
2. A NEW WAY OF LOOkING The Collins Bird Guide App sets a new standard and is likely to become a defining product, used by birdwatchers and others wanting to access key informationon Britain and Ireland’s birds.
3. ALL mAPPED OUT making Bird Atlas 2007–11 data available to apps like the Collins Bird Guide is just one way in which your data are being made available to those who wish to use them.
Behind the ImageS…
BTO data sets are being used to investigate sparrow productivity Understanding seabird breeding failures
House Sparrows are conspicuous birds
that are still numerous enough to be found
chirruping away in many areas of the United
Kingdom, but their numbers have fallen sharply
in recent decades, leading to their inclusion
on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red
List. Declines are greater in urban than in rural
areas, and in eastern and south-eastern Britain
than in other parts of the country (where the
population is stable or increasing). In early
2014, scientists from the BTO’s Demography
and Garden Ecology teams published a
paper in the journal Bird Study, analysing data
collected by volunteers participating in Garden
Birdwatch (GBW), the Nest Record Scheme
(NRS) and the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS),
to investigate possible reasons underpinning
these trends.
The research focused on measures of
breeding performance. In keeping with
population trends, GBW data showed that
annual productivity was highest in Wales (1.45
fledglings per adult) and lowest in the east of
England (1.30 fledglings per adult), but that
there was no significant difference between
rural and urban areas. The regional difference
in GBW productivity was mirrored by NRS
data, which revealed that House Sparrow
clutch and brood sizes were significantly lower
in the east of Britain than in the west. The
number of breeding attempts per year and
Research led by BTO and funded by JNCC
shows that the UK’s internationally important
seabird populations are being affected
by North Sea fishing. Sandeels, which are
typically fished for use in animal feed and
fertilizer, are an important prey species
and the large fishery on Dogger Bank is
within the foraging range of many seabirds
breeding along our North Sea coast.
Under the European Marine Strategy
Framework Directive, the UK is legally bound
to ensure that human activities are kept at
levels consistent with ‘clean, healthy and
productive’ seas. Since many seabirds are top
predators, monitoring their populations can
give insights into the state of the wider marine
environment. As seabirds are long-lived and
can skip breeding seasons altogether when
conditions are poor, monitoring breeding
success can provide an effective and quick
way of assessing the impacts associated with
environmental pressures.
Scientists at BTO and JNCC explored the
large-scale patterns present within the
Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP)
data sets, using these long-term data to
develop indicators of breeding failure and
seabird abundance at breeding colonies.
The two indicators were significantly and
strongly correlated with each other, with the
post-fledging survival did not differ between
areas, so are not thought to contribute to the
regional variation in population trends.
The results suggest that the processes
driving regional differences in House
Sparrow productivity are likely to be complex,
operating over large spatial scales (e.g.
climatic processes or regional landscape
changes) but interacting with local factors
(e.g. habitat changes). The absence of
productivity differences between rural and
urban areas suggests other factors contribute
to the varying population trends between
these habitats, for instance differences in
food availability affecting adult survival. This
work demonstrates the role that large-scale
data sets, collected through citizen science
projects, can play in understanding the
drivers of population change. In this instance
the data collected by GBW volunteers
provide a measure of annual productivity,
complementary to a measure derived per
nesting attempt from NRS. Such information
is vital for determining and implementing
effective conservation measures.
Find OuT mOReFull citation: morrison, C.A., Robinson, R.A., Leech, d.i., dadam, d. & Toms, m. 2014. Using citizen science to investigate the role of productivity in House Sparrow Passer domesticus population trends. Bird Study 61, 91–100. doi: 10.1080/00063657.2013.874975
1. HoUSe Sparrow decline 2. all aT Sea
BTO Annual Review | 20148
Scientific research in 2013 & 2014Here are three of the fascinating stories that have emerged from papers published by BTO scientists over the past year. Together they demonstrate some of the breadth of our work.
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Working to halt the continued decline of moorland birdsUnderstanding seabird breeding failures
British moorland habitats are a result of
management, in particular for sheep grazing
and the sport shooting of Red Grouse.
Moorland conservation may additionally be
shaped by financial payments made through
agri-environment schemes, using management
prescriptions to maintain, restore or enhance
particular components. While a suite of such
prescriptions has been widely taken up, there
has been an ongoing decline in moorland bird
populations.
BTO ecologists worked with ADAS UK and the
former Scottish Coal to examine the effectiveness
of moorland management over 10 years at a site
within the Muirkirk and North Lowther Uplands
Special Protection Area in south-west Scotland.
Management prescriptions advocated widely as
best practice for moorland birds were assessed,
including muirburn and cutting, grazing, legal
predator control and the restoration of hydrological
features.
Annual surveys were carried out and
compared against bird population trends for
moorlands derived from the BBS, additionally
accounting for factors such as weather. The
study’s authors expected that the breeding bird
community would increase in response to the
management prescriptions adopted, but this
was not fulfilled. Only two species increased
relative to the general trend for moorland and
one of these was Carrion Crow, a species that
was being actively removed as part of predation
control measures. Most species showed no
change or actually declined, and these decreases
were common across species with different
habitat associations, so a causal relationship with
the management changes appeared unlikely;
similarly an effect of disturbance was unlikely. It
is possible that the failure to effectively control
predators could have contributed to the inability
to achieve the principal objective of increasing
breeding bird populations.
Although this work was based on monitoring
the effects of management prescriptions
rather than a controlled experimental design, it
highlights the difficulties in establishing effective
management regimes to benefit moorland
birds. It also underlines a need to improve
our understanding of the factors that shape
moorland bird communities. Additionally, it raises
an important question about whether moorland
bird conservation can be effective where species
remain vulnerable to predation, and therefore
contributes to the wider debate on the future of
British uplands.
abundance indicator typically lagging behind
that for breeding failure by two to three years.
Investigating how sensitive these indicators were
to the impacts of fishing, the team found that
species with the greatest increases in breeding
failure over the study period were those most
sensitive to fisheries pressure. Levels of seabird
breeding failure were higher in years when a
greater proportion of the North Sea’s sandeels
was commercially fished. The study also found
that seabirds breeding on the UK’s western
colonies were faring better than those on the
North Sea coast.
The results confirm that monitoring seabird
breeding performance can reveal how these
species are responding to environmental
pressures before such changes become
evident at the population level. Detecting such
impacts as early as possible is vital, as the
management of the marine environment is
undergoing rapid change, with expansion of
offshore developments, the introduction of
Marine Protected Areas and modification of
fishing discards policy.
Find OuT mOReFull citation: Cook, A.S.C.P., dadam, d., mitchell, i., Ross-Smith, V.H. & Robinson, R.A. 2014. indicators of seabird reproductive performance demonstrate the impact of commercial fisheries on seabird populations in the north Sea. Ecological Indicators 38, 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.10.027
Find OuT mOReCalladine, J., Critchley, C.n.R., Baker, d., Towers, J. & Thiel, A. 2014. conservation management of moorland: a case study of the effectiveness of a combined suite of management prescriptions which aim to enhance breeding bird populations. Bird Study 61, 56–72. doi: 10.1080/00063657.2013.876615
2. all aT Sea 3. Managing THe UplandS
2014 | BTO Annual Review 9
Behind the iMageS…1. HOuSe SPARROw deCLineS
data collated by ‘citizen scientists’ have highlighted regional differences in House Sparrow breeding performance, which may help explain population trends for this red-listed bird.
2. kiTTiwAke measures of breeding failure can provide an early warning of problems linked to fisheries operating in the north Sea. The SmP annually assesses both breeding numbers and success of the uk’s seabirds.
3. mOORLAnd management prescriptions are widely used to maintain, restore or enhance particular habitats, but it is important to assess how effective such measures are.
BTO Annual Review | 201410
Wetland bird populations come alive
Monitoring waterbirds through the wetland bird survey (webs)The UK’s position on the western edge of
Europe places it on the major flyways for
a number of Arctic-nesting species. Large
numbers of waterbirds are attracted to our
shores, particularly during winter, by the
relatively mild climate and the extensive
areas of wetland habitat, making the UK of
outstanding international importance for
waterbirds. Keeping tabs on the numbers of
birds using these wetland habitats supports
conservation action and informs policy,
fulfilling our obligations under the Agreement
on the Conservation of African–Eurasian
Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), which is part of
the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
None of this would be possible without
the efforts of the volunteers who participate
in WeBS and who contribute their records
to this partnership survey. Interpreting the
data that have been collected and making
them available to stakeholders are core
aims of the project. With so many data
available – WeBS started in 1947 and the
database contains counts amounting to
Do you know which of our estuaries support the most diverse communities of wetland birds, or which of our wintering wader populations have declined by at least a third over the last 25 years? As CHAS HOLT reveals, such information is now available through an online WeBS report, a new resource that opens up a wealth of data to a wider audience.
over 75 million waterbirds – and with
several different components sitting within
the wider WeBS project, there has been a
desire to use emerging web technologies
to open the data set up in ways that allow
different audiences to explore and utilise
the wealth of information available.
the developMent of webs onlineIn September 2012, a WeBS stakeholder
workshop was held at the BTO
headquarters in Norfolk. By bringing
stakeholders together it was possible
to assess how different groups and
organisations made use of WeBS data,
highlighting the sorts of developments
needed if we were to maximise the benefits
of WeBS outputs for all. Just 18 months
later, with the web development work
complete, WeBS now provides information
on the status of the UK’s non-breeding
waterbirds via an interactive interface
(www.bto.org/webs), driven dynamically
from the underlying database of waterbird
records.
A major benefit of the WeBS reporting
interface is the integration of the different
elements of WeBS in one place, with separate
tabs available for Numbers & Trends, WeBS
Alerts and Low Tide Counts. The functionality
of the report is further enhanced by the
ability to sort species taxonomically or
alphabetically, to arrange data columns in
ascending or descending order and to access
supplementary non-WeBS data at the click of
your mouse. The online interface features a
series of tutorials providing help for users to
navigate the portal and make best use of the
information available.
nuMbers and trendsThe main tab of the report, Numbers & Trends,
can be used to search by species or by site.
search by species
The Oystercatcher page from the ‘Numbers & Trends’ section of the report. search by site
A site-focused page, here The Wash, from the online report.
“A major benefit of the WeBS reporting interface is the integration of the different elements of WeBS in one place, with separate tabs available for Numbers & Trends, WeBS Alerts and Low Tide Counts.”
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2014 | BTO Annual Review 11
There are separate pages for each species and,
whereas annual WeBS reports were formerly
restricted to showing only the most important
sites for each species over the course of the
most recent five years, the new interface
allows the user to scroll back and forth in time
and to view historical data – generating a more
interactive experience. All sites that surpass
thresholds for international and national
importance are denoted, and there are also
links to relevant external content. The species
pages offer the facility to filter the sites that are
shown by county and/or habitat. The county
filter represents a significant advance for county
bird clubs, many of which include WeBS
data within their annual county bird reports.
Separate graphs showing species’ population
trends in each county are also included.
Selecting by site provides access to non-
breeding waterbird information for all locations,
from large sites such as The Wash to smaller,
more unfamiliar wetlands. Until recently, the
latter tended not to feature within annual WeBS
reports; now all WeBS counters can now view
the annual maxima for the sites that they visit.
other features
Ireland Environment Agency) and can help
to direct research and investigations into
potential causes of population change
at different sites. Comparing site trends
with those at the regional and national
scales can identify local issues; these
comparisons are available within the Alerts
tab of the online report.
Feedback on the new report has been
very positive. The new format will reduce
future costs, speed up the reporting
of WeBS results and also provide the
opportunity to integrate further non-
breeding waterbird information in the
future. For example, we envisage that
the next Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey
(NEWS), planned for winter 2015/16, will
be integrated into the system.
of the reportMost of the information provided under
Numbers & Trends is based on WeBS Core
Counts, which, at coastal sites, involve
counting birds close to high tide. However,
all the UK’s major estuaries are also
covered every few years at low tide as part
of the WeBS Low Tide Counts scheme.
The new report provides the facility to view
low-tide distributions and densities of all
waterbirds on these estuaries. Planned
developments to the system will increase
the interactive nature of this low-tide count
resource.
Every three years, WeBS assesses the
short-, medium- and long-term trends of
waterbirds at sites within the UK’s network
of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)
to deliver WeBS Alerts. declines of 50%
generate a High Alert, while declines of
25% generate a Medium Alert. These
serve as warnings, providing an extremely
useful resource for the Country Agencies
(Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage,
Natural resources Wales and Northern
acknowledgeMents WeBS is a partnership between BTO, RSPB and JNCC, in association with WWT. We are particularly grateful for the investment provided by JNCC, which enabled the necessary IS developments for WeBS to deliver an online report, and for the efforts of the volunteers who collect the data on which the report is based.
a shake-up for webs: oystercatcher numbers in the uk have fallen by 14% since 1986/87 and there are 12 sites with internationally important numbers: all the detail is now available online. a paper report summarising the results and associated research is also produced.
Northern Ireland’s Seabirds
The coastline and loughs of Northern
Ireland provide important sites for breeding
seabirds. Rathlin Island, for example, situated
some 4 km from the north Antrim coast and
famous for its formidable basalt and chalk
cliffs, is designated a Special Protection Area
(SPA) because of its seabird populations;
the numbers of breeding Guillemots and
Razorbills are of particular importance.
Interest in the marine environment,
whether driven by commercial or societal
factors, has seen the development of
legislative frameworks, such as the European
Commission’s Marine Framework Strategy
Directive, and national legislation, such as
the Marine Act (Northern Ireland) 2013.
Such frameworks require high quality
biodiversity data to inform and support
political or legislative decisions and this is
where the monitoring of breeding seabirds
becomes important.
In February 2013, BTO appointed Kerry
Leonard to the role of Northern Ireland
Seabird Coordinator, a post funded by the
Northern Ireland Environment Agency. This
role provides a focus for the volunteers
working on Northern Ireland’s breeding
seabirds, bringing together the information
needed to support the assessment and
designation of Marine Protection Areas
(MPAs) and SPAs, and the consideration of
planning and development interests.
Just 12 months later the first Northern
Ireland Seabird Report (2013) was published
by BTO and the Northern Ireland Environment
Agency, where volunteer-collected data were
presented alongside those from a number of
environmental NGOs. The report also provides
the opportunity to highlight current seabird
research being undertaken in Northern Ireland
by both professionals and volunteers.
These initiatives, operating under the
banner of the Northern Ireland Seabird
Network, are about building the capacity
to collect the information needed and to
then share it with a wider community. New
volunteers are encouraged to get involved
in data gathering, and are given training
and guidance on seabird colony survey
The first Northern Ireland Seabird Report, for 2013, has just been published, bringing together a summary of what we know about our seabirds, as well as reports from seabird research being undertaken around the province.
BTO Annual Review | 201412
The Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP), a partnership of 19 organisations coordinated by JNCC, enables its partners to monitor the health of the marine environment and inform seabird conservation issues. Monitoring seabirds is important for a number of reasons:
seabirds are an important component of marine biodiversity in the UK, with approximately seven million individuals breeding;
seabirds are top predators and act as useful indicators of the state of marine ecosystems; seabirds are protected by European law and the UK has obligations to monitor and protect
populations; monitoring provides data which underpin targeted conservation policy development and action; the UK is internationally important for seabirds.
Year Nests sampled Chicks hatched Chicks fledged per pair per pair
2007 71 – 0.38 2008 67 0.70 0.67 2009 76 0.83 0.82 2010 65 0.88 0.88 2011 60 0.86 0.86 2012 50 0.78 0.76 2013 54 0.82 0.80
TABLE 1. The breeding success of Manx Shearwaters on Lighthouse Island has been monitored by Copeland Bird Observatory since 2007, by using study burrows. These consist of natural burrows which have been excavated outside of the breeding season and a concrete slab placed over the nesting chamber to allow easy access.
Why monitor SeabIrdS?
MaNx ShearWaterS on Lighthouse Island
1.
2.
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methodologies, to ensure that the data
collected are compatible with JNCC-led
datasets. Considerable effort has also gone
into ensuring that all seabird sites surveyed
are consistent with SMP (Seabird Monitoring
Programme) sites, and are registered with
JNCC – a useful exercise leading up to the next
national seabird census, planned for 2016.
By bringing so many regional data
together it has been possible to see some
interesting (even alarming) changes. The
Fulmar is a case in point. This is a ubiquitous
bird around the Antrim and Down coast,
giving the impression that all is well and yet,
across the sites surveyed in both 2000 and
2013, the Fulmar has shown a 59% decline.
The volatile nature of our Sandwich Tern
population is also dramatically revealed by
the report. Population swings from 2,500
pairs to 100 pairs from one year to the next
paint an erratic picture; the highest ever
number of breeding Sandwich Terns was
in 2005, at just over 3,000 pairs. This has
since reduced to the approximately 1,000
pairs recorded in 2013.
The decline and near-extinction of
Roseate Terns in Northern Ireland is also
evident; from the highs of 60–70 pairs in
the late 1980s to just two pairs in 2013, this
is a species that could be lost altogether.
however, a number of organisations are
working hard to try to increase the numbers
breeding in Northern Ireland by trying to
attract some of the Rockabill population
(near Dublin) northwards.
The 2013 report is also important for
highlighting the things we do not know.
Whilst some species are rather well-
monitored each year, others are not,
with real gaps in our knowledge of the
numbers breeding. The big gap that the
report highlights though is information
on productivity. Far too few of our seabird
species are monitored for productivity, and
we have learnt from this and other surveys
that we cannot assume that national data
accurately reflect regional fact. The collection
of more regional productivity data will
therefore be a priority over the next year or
two. Something for our volunteers to get
their teeth into!
2014 | BTO Annual Review 13
1. fULMAr Although still a commonly seen breeding species around most of Northern Ireland’s coastline, as well as on the inland cliffs of Binevanagh, monitoring work reveals a decline.
2. MANx ShEArwATErS The sole Northern Ireland colony has been studied since 1954. recently, however, work by the Oxford Navigation Group has extended our knowledge through tracking technology.
3. SANdwICh TErN Birds from the inland, freshwater, colony breeding on Lower Lough Erne make long-distance foraging trips to secure food for growing chicks.
behind the IMageS…
3.
BTO Annual Review | 201414
It’s all about the weather
In recent years meteorological records
have tumbled. Last winter, for example,
was the stormiest for 20 years; the spring
and early summer period of 2012 were the
wettest on record for England and Wales,
and the 2011 spring was the warmest seen
across the UK for 100 years. Such weather
events can have significant, one-off impacts
upon bird populations. For example, bird
ringers operating Constant Effort Scheme
sites demonstrated that 2012 was the
worst breeding season on record for many
migrants, including declining species such
as Willow Warbler and Garden Warbler. BBS
trends show that the exceptionally cold
winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 resulted
in significant declines in a number of small,
insectivorous passerines, notably Wren and
Stonechat, sensitive to cold winter weather.
Historically, many of the fluctuations in our
bird populations result from the impacts of
weather events of this type; think about the
declines that occurred in the mid-1960s
following the 1962/63 winter.
Longer-term changes in weather
patterns, such as those associated with
human activities, may have more profound
consequences for bird populations. The
examination of some of the BTO’s long-term
datasets (e.g. www.bto.org/birdtrends) shows
how, during the 1990s and 2000s, many
cold-sensitive species increased significantly
in abundance; Wren and Grey Heron are two
examples.
While the direct effects of changing
weather patterns (e.g. change in the severity
or frequency of unusual weather events)
can have significant long-term impacts on
population trends, recent research led by
BTO suggests that the impacts of climate
change on birds and other biodiversity will
be about much more than this. The results
of a review of the mechanisms underpinning
the impacts of climate change upon animal
and plant populations from around the
world, funded through the Cambridge
Conservation Initiative and involving a
range of collaborative partners (see www.
conservation.cam.ac.uk/collaboration/
Weather events and longer-term changes in weather patterns can have profound consequences for bird populations, so it is essential that we understand their impacts. As JAmes PeArce-Higgins and DAve LeecH explain, there is much we can learn from BTO datasets.
mechanisms-underpinning-impact-climate-
change-natural-populations), indicate that the
main way in which climate change will affect
populations is not through the direct impact
of weather, but through indirect effects
resulting from altered species interactions.
What do we mean by this? These species
interactions can include changes in predator
or prey populations, the impacts of disease,
or changes in the habitat which may make
species more or less vulnerable to predation.
A great example of this last mechanism
has been described by Thomas Martin in
the montane forests of the Sierra Nevada,
USA, where reductions in winter snow cover
have reduced the protection of understorey
woodland vegetation from winter browsing
by Elk. Increased levels of browsing have
removed understorey vegetation and
reduced the cover available to breeding birds.
With nests now more exposed, or restricted
to smaller areas of suitable cover, there have
been increases in the rates of nest predation,
resulting in significant long-term reductions
in many long-distance migrants, including
Orange-crowned Warbler and Virginia’s
Warbler, which favour these habitats.
Closer to home research has emphasised
how the impacts of climate change on
prey populations can indirectly affect the
birds that feed on them. This has been
demonstrated for certain upland birds, like
Golden Plover, where the soil invertebrates
(e.g. cranefly larvae) that they feed on
are vulnerable to drought. Hot summer
weather impacts on the invertebrates,
reducing the food available to the plovers
and lowering the survival prospects of
their chicks. Our globally important seabird
Looking at some weather impacts…1. VIrgInIa’s Warbler: Virginia’s
Warblers have declined in montane arizona, as less snowfall has increased elk browsing of vegetation, leading to greater nest predation rates and reduced breeding densities.
2. grey Heron: grey Herons are particularly sensitive to cold weather, as their food becomes difficult to find when water and mud freeze over. note the recent dip following the 2009/10 and 2010/11 winters.
1.
populations are also affected, for example,
where warming seas negatively affect sand-
eel abundance, quality and availability,
reducing Kittiwake survival and breeding
success. We are actively working to uncover
other examples such as these, additionally
collaborating with others in order to
understand in more detail how climate
change might affect the abundance and
availability of the different resources that
are so important to birds.
Although we’ve focused on the impacts
of climate change on individual species,
through time these impacts lead to
changes in species distributions and the
restructuring of ecological communities.
One of the strongest signals of climate
change is that of poleward range shifts.
This has been particularly exemplified by
birds like Little Egret, Dartford Warbler and
Nuthatch, whose range shifts are evident
in Bird Atlas 2007--11 data. New analyses,
funded through BTO’s ‘Beyond the Maps’
Appeal, are set to investigate these patterns
in more detail. The work may also enable
us to predict future changes, as our
understanding of climate change impacts
continues to develop. Linked to this, we
are also analysing BBS data to understand
more about the long-term impacts of
climate change on the assemblages of
species at particular locations.
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2014 | BTO Annual Review 15
FInd out more
ockendon, n. et al. (2014). Mechanisms underpinning climatic impacts on natural populations: altered species interactions are more important than direct effects. Global Change Biology 20: 2221–2229
Pearce-Higgins, J.W. & green, r.e. (2014). Birds and Climate Change. Impacts and Conservation Responses. CUP.
2.
Dips in breeding population caused by severe winters have been followed by recovery within a few seasons.
Table 1. Grey Heron Population trend (with confidence intervals)
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
year
num
bers
of i
ndiv
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ls
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
BTO Annual Review | 201416
Training: what’s it all about?
We have been offering training courses
of one sort or another for more than 15
years, and the number and variety is
ever-increasing, but who comes on the
courses, and why? A wide range of people
come, is the answer. Everyone is looking for
something different and each leaves with
new skills, increased confidence and an
understanding of the various BTO surveys.
Spoilt for choiceThe ever-popular residential courses are
available in either Bird Survey Techniques:
an introduction to all the current BTO
surveys and Bird Identification: which covers
identifying birds by sight and by sound. Our
one-day workshops are almost bewildering
in their variety! Some offer a day of survey-
specific help or a more general introduction
to bird surveying whilst others take on an
element of bird Identification.
Who are the courSeS aimed at?Often people are put off getting involved with
surveys because they fear they are not ‘up to’
the challenge. This is far from the truth and
one of the main purposes of the courses is to
showcase each of the surveys, show what’s
involved and help everyone to choose the
survey best suited to them. Existing surveyors
can also benefit greatly from learning about
the background to their survey, answering
questions they may have about any aspect of
the fieldwork and discovering other schemes
that appeal to them.
help, there’S no courSe near me…We run courses around the country but
there is a limit to how many we can deliver
each year. We have run courses and
workshops at a large number of different
venues and the best are the ones that
offer good accommodation and facilities
for the participants and direct access to
great habitats and birds for the all-important
practical sessions. We stick with venues that
offer this. Consider travelling to a venue
which appeals for its range of species.
What’S in it for Bto?BTO only charges enough to cover venue hire
(not the trainer’s time or course admin). Why?
Simply, we need volunteers to take part in our
surveys. If we encourage, inspire and motivate
new participants, then we have done our job!
If, in the process, we have improved collection
of information, or increased the confidence
and accuracy with which species are
identified, that helps to ensure the continued
high quality of the data that we rely on from
our volunteers to power the vital research BTO
scientists do.
to find out more about any aspect of Bto training see the training pages on our website: www.bto/org/training
contact Su Gough, training officer, on 01842 750050 [email protected] for more information or to discuss the bespoke training which we are also able to offer.
Find out more about BTO
training opportunitiesMaking a profession out of it! BTO offers training to environmental professionals
The bird recording methods used by environmental professionals are based on protocols originally developed or regularly used by Bto. in some cases, those methods are now being used differently to their original purpose. Bto is uniquely placed to offer an overview of all these methods and their
strengths and weaknesses. understanding this is vital when, inevitably, the methods are adapted. add in a grounding in general survey principles, survey design, learning which method works in what situation and plenty of practical opportunities and you have the basis for a great two-day course.
You have probably heard about BTO training but, unless you have already had the pleasure of joining us on a course, you are possibly not sure what it entails, who it is aimed at and what you can get out of it. Su GOuGh explains further.
outdoor practical sessions are a vital and fun part of every training event – be it one-day workshops or residential courses. putting into practice what you have learnt is the easiest way to gain confidence.
DAv
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The real strength of the BTO is the
partnerships that exist between our members
and volunteers, and the scientists at our
offices who organise the surveys and analyse
the results. The sheer number of people who
support BTO through fieldwork is staggering,
as the infographic below illustrates. Of course,
the financial support that we receive is just
as important. The income that we receive
through memberships, legacies, donations
and other gifts allows us to carry out the
research most critical to conservation. By
working together in this way, we have proved
just how powerful a partnership we can
provide, delivering the impartial evidence that
supports conservation action and informs
policy decisions.
BTO Garden BirdWatch
Bird Ringing
BirdTrack
Woodcock Survey
Breeding Bird Survey
Winter Thrushes
Garden Bird Feeding SurveyGarden Wildlife Health
Nest Record Scheme
Nest Box Challenge
Wetland Bird Survey
Waterways Breeding Bird SurveyHeronries Survey
CAT
HY
RYD
EN
The 1,317,000 hours given by volunteers to BTO surveys during 2013 is staggering, especially as this equates to £27.8 million of effort.
Adding up to something SPECIAL...
2014 | BTO Annual Review 17
The BTO in numbersThroughout this Annual Review you will find facts and figures behind the stories. In this special centre section of the review we have pulled out some of the other amazing numbers that underline the contribution that volunteers make to the BTO.
THE BTO’S WORK SPECIAL PULL-OUT
Garden BirdWatch www.bto.org/gbwGarden BirdWatch monitors the changing fortunes of birds and other garden wildlife through its network of ‘citizen scientists’. Many birdwatchers and householders already keep simple records of the birds that they see using their gardens throughout the year. The collection of such information is incredibly useful and, if carried out in a systematic manner, these weekly observations of birds (or indeed other garden wildlife) can prove very valuable for researchers.
The long-term contributions of BTO Garden BirdWatchers have been significant, with 673 individuals sending in weekly records in each of the 19 years (1995–2013) over which the scheme has been operating. Each of the male and female icons above represents 50 Garden BirdWatchers, arranged by the number of years over which they have made contributions to the scheme. The darker the colour the more years for which records have been submitted. We are extremely grateful to all of our Garden BirdWatchers, who not only send in records but also support the project financially. The figure shows that participants who were active in 2013.
Garden BirdWatch long-term contributions — the stronger the colour the more years of records contributed
Other taxa records from Garden BirdWatch in 2013
All types of gardens
The most commonly recorded garden birds according to BTO Garden BirdWatch, based on the proportion of gardens from which the species was reported during January–March 2013. Colour indicates conservation status.
Common species
BTO Annual Review | 201418
Proportion of sites providing each food type in 2013
Peanuts Seed Mix Sunflower Seed
Fat/Suets Nyger Seed Mealworms
BlackbirdBlue Tit
Robin
Woodpigeon
Dunnock
Great TitChaffinch
Collared Dove
House Sparrow
Goldfinch
Magpie Coal TitStarling
Greenfinch
Long-tailed Tit
Jackdaw
Wren
Carrion CrowGreat Spotted Woodpecker
Song Thrush
Siskin
Nuthatch
Blackcap
Feral Pigeon
Jay
It is not just birds that BTO Garden BirdWatchers record each week. This figure shows the number of gardens from which we received other wildlife records in 2013.
3,765
3,034
2,009
1,033
230 210 176
Mam
mal
s
Butte
rflie
s
Bum
bleb
ees
Dra
gonfl
ies
Coc
kcha
fer
Hor
net
Hum
min
gbird
Haw
k-m
oth
Num
ber o
f gar
dens
from
whi
ch re
cord
ed
Every garden is different, so all gardens are welcome in Garden BirdWatch. We have more records from suburban gardens than rural and urban put together.
Urban Suburban Rural
34%61%5%
THE BTO’S WORK SPECIAL PULL-OUT
Some 21,602 BirdTrack volunteers have contributed 6.9 million submissions since the project was launched a decade ago. Of these, 66% are male and 34% are female. Then there are the records received from BirdGuides, bird clubs, bird observatories and county recorders, which are not shown here. 523 individuals have contributed more than 1,000 submissions and, of these, 26 have made more than 10,000 submissions.
BirdTrack submissions — the stronger the colour the more submissions
At 2 hours 12 minutes, the average time spent doing a BirdTrack list in September is 26 minutes more than in January.
Time spent in the field
Brünnich’s Guillemot: Portland Harbour, Dorset
34
Two-barred Crossbills: Lynford Arboretum, Norfolk
Little Bitterns: Ham Wall, Somerset
2013 rarities logged by BirdTrack observers
31
30 25
Ivory Gull, Patrington Haven (23 observers); Two-barred Crossbills, Broomhead Reservoir (22) and Pacific Swift, Trimley Marshes (19) also featured well.
BirdTrack is a free tool for birdwatchers to store and manage their records, while allowing us to use these to look at migration, movements and distributions of birds. It’s an exciting project – run in partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and the Welsh Ornithological Society – that unlocks the value of day-to-day birdwatching records for conservation at local, regional, national and international scales.
From highlands to islands
The most widely recorded 150 species, according to the number of 10-km squares from which they were reported; coloured by BOCC Conservation Status.
Widespread species
Parrot Crossbills: Holt Country Park, NorfolkTop five counties — 2013
Nor
folk
High
land
Lanc
ashi
re
Suffo
lk
Kent
Common Scoter
Hen Harrier
Grey Partridge
Lapwing
Dunlin
Black-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Herring GullTurtle Dove
Cuckoo
Skylark
Tree Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Ring Ouzel
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Redwing
Grasshopper Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Marsh Tit
Starling
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Linnet
Lesser RedpollYellowhammer
Red-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Little Grebe
Gannet
Little Egret
Whooper SwanGreylag Goose Wigeon
Teal
Mallard
Shoveler
Tufted DuckPink-footed Goose
Eider
Red Kite
Kestrel
Merlin
OystercatcherFulmar
Ringed Plover
Golden PloverJack Snipe
Snipe
Woodcock
Bar-tailed Godwit
Curlew
Redshank
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Turnstone
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed GullGreat Black-backed Gull
Kittiwake
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Stock Dove
Barn Owl
Swift
Kingfisher
Swallow
Green Woodpecker
Sand Martin
PochardHouse Martin
Meadow Pipit
Grey WagtailDunnockGadwall
Redstart
Whinchat
Wheatear
Mistle Thrush
Whitethroat
Willow Warbler
Bullfinch
Reed Bunting
SparrowhawkCollared Dove
RobinBlackcap
Dipper
Hooded Crow
Little Owl
Greenshank
Goldeneye
Goosander
Garden WarblerGreat Crested Grebe
StonechatSiskin
PeregrineMoorhenCanada Goose
Mute SwanBlue TitSanderling
BlackbirdChiffchaff
GreenfinchChaffinch Jackdaw
Pied WagtailCommon CrossbillLittle Gull
Water Rail
RookHobby
Osprey
Magpie Great Spotted Woodpecker
Long-tailed Tit
Grey HeronRed-breasted Merganser
BuzzardWoodpigeonMediterranean GullRock Pipit
JayWaxwing
Shelduck
Short-eared OwlGreat TitGoldfinch
Shag
Wren Carrion Crow GoldcrestCootBrambling
CormorantPheasant Tawny OwlTreecreeperSedge Warbler
NuthatchRed-legged Partridge Lesser Whitethroat
Reed Warbler
Coal Tit
Raven
Rock Dove
Jan
Mar
Feb
Apr
SepOct
JulAugJun
Dec
Nov
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2014 | BTO Annual Review 19
In 2013, BirdTrackers logged 132,000 complete lists of
birds seen. These came from every 100-km square across
Britain and Ireland, the records submitted either online or through the BirdTrack App.
BirdTrack www.birdtrack.net
SPECIAL PULL-OUT:
THE BTO’S WORK SPECIAL PULL-OUT
BTO is working to understand why
populations of Cuckoos and many other
summer migrants are in decline. By bringing
together studies here in the UK with fieldwork
in Africa and new tracking technologies that
follow the birds on their migratory journeys,
we hope to provide the answers needed to
support conservation efforts to halt these
declines. Our use of satellite-tracking has
already revealed new information on the
routes that our Cuckoos use during migration
and identified the sites where they winter and
stopover to fuel up before crossing the Sahara.
Migration provides a powerful story for
wider engagement with the research needed
to identify why summer migrants are being
lost. While we tend to think of these summer
visitors as ‘our’ birds, most of them are only
here for a short part of the year. Our satellite
tags have revealed that a male Cuckoo
may spend just 15% of his year in the UK,
highlighting that we need to look across
political boundaries if we are to understand
the causes of decline.
Much of BTO’s work on migrants has been
funded through the generosity of individuals
– we have 1,842 Cuckoo sponsors, for
example – underlining the value of engaging
with a broad audience through television,
magazines and social media platforms like
Twitter and Facebook. If we can grow this
support and attract more ‘unrestricted’
funds, then we can do more of the research
that is important for understanding what is
happening to our birds.
Not only has the Cuckoo project delivered cutting edge science, it has also really engaged with a wider audience. ‘Chris’ the Cuckoo, named after BTO President, Chris Packham, has attracted lots of media interest. The infographic celebrating four years of tracking Chris (below), was hugely popular on Twitter.
Cuckoos making the HEADLINES...
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BTO Annual Review | 201420
Tracking Cuckoos www.bto.org/cuckoosWe’ve lost over half the number of Cuckoos in the UK over the last 20 years. Since 2011, researchers at BTO have been satellite-tracking Cuckoos to find out why. We’ve already learnt lots from our tagged birds, which will to help save our Cuckoos, but there is still more to discover.
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2014 | BTO Annual Review 21
Separating the ‘hoo-weet’ from the ChiffWhen Carl Barimore began working in the Demography Team he had never seen a Chiffchaff nest, let alone knew how to find one. Now he is one of a number of mentors helping others develop skills in finding and monitoring nests.
“Back in 2006 I wouldn’t even have
known where to look for a Chiffchaff nest.
I acknowledged the data submissions of
experienced nest recorders in awe, amazed at
the number of finch, lark and warbler broods
they located each season. How did they do it?
Could I do it? And, crucially, how long would it
take me to learn?”
It was veteran recorder and Tucker Medal
recipient John Brook who would provide the
answers. Taking me round his local patch the
following summer, he patiently explained
when, where and how I should search to
find the nests of different species. One of the
most memorable lessons involved following
a female Chiffchaff back to her clutch, located
in a pouch of coarse grass a few inches from
the ground. Her incessant ‘hoo-weet’ contact
call ceased the minute she sat back on the
eggs, pinpointing the location almost exactly.
I couldn’t wait to get back to my own
patch at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire to
see if I could locate a nest on my own; sure
enough, by putting John’s advice into practice
I was successful on the very first attempt.
Fast forward to 2014 and I’m now running
my own training courses, introducing new
Nest Record Scheme (NRS) participants
to the fascinating world of avian breeding
biology.
This abridged story of my own nesting
career hopefully illustrates two things: first,
it is possible to learn how to find nests in a
relatively short period of time and, second,
it’s all a heck of a lot easier if you’re shown
the ropes by an experienced nester. With
this in mind, the 75th Anniversary of the
NRS seemed like the ideal opportunity to
launch a formal mentoring scheme, whereby
existing recorders offer to accompany new
recruits in the field as they develop the skills
necessary for locating and safely monitoring
nests. Thus far, over 50 volunteers across
the country have signed up as mentors,
their locations visible to all on an online
map hosted on the BTO website which also
allows interested parties to get in touch with
them via email.
Of course, provision of training is only
useful if people want to get involved, and
signs are positive. A Focus On Nature, an
organisation providing networking and other
opportunities for young conservationists, held
a conference at BTO this spring which included
a short workshop on nest finding. Within a
few days Twitter was alive with tweets from
delegates, most in their early teens, proudly
displaying photographs of breeding attempts
that they were monitoring, including, you’ve
guessed it, several Chiffchaffs. I wonder how
many decades it’s been since a teenager
located and monitored a warbler nest?
Ensuring this vital skill, which makes a huge
contribution to our understanding of the factors
driving population trends, not only persists but
proliferates is a priority for the NRS over the
next decade and, as ever, our volunteers are
key to helping us achieve it. Mark Lawrence, nrS mentor from Devon
JoSh MarShaLL, new nest recorder from Devon
Find out more about the Nest Record Scheme: Visit www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nrs/taking-part/nrs-mentoring for information about the possibility of mentoring in your area. Go to www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nrs/taking-part for a free nrS starter pack.
having someone experienced sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm through mentoring is one of the best ways to get to the heart of nest recording. here, Mike Toms shows how to inspect a Treecreeper nest with an endoscope.
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“Me and my good friends Mark Penney and Dave Scott have amassed many thousands of nest finding and monitoring hours together on Dartmoor. It would be a great shame to take this nest finding skill to the grave and so we, as a group, like nothing more than to meet, teach and encourage new nest recorders.”
“In 2012 I met Mark Lawrence and the Dartmoor team for some expert tuition on finding nests of Stonechat and other bird species that breed on the ground. The skills I learned gave me the grounding to begin my own Tree Pipit study on Dartmoor the next year, which resulted in nine nest records for BTO, almost 20% of the national total.”
People power
Research into wildlife disease has
largely been driven by recognition of
the threats to public health, livestock
production and species conservation from
emerging infectious diseases. The work
carried out around species conservation
has tended to focus on rare species,
typically restricted in terms of geographic
range or population size, rather than on
species perceived to be common and
widespread. We know, however, that
emerging infectious diseases can have
a pronounced impact on apparently
common species. Finch trichomonosis, for
example, first seen in British Greenfinches
and Chaffinches in 2005, is known to
have reduced our breeding Greenfinch
population from c. 4.3 million birds to c.
2.8 million over just a few years.
Information on the diseases and other
mortality causes seen in familiar birds is
often collected opportunistically, when
members of the public report animals that
appear unwell or which have been found
dead under suspicious circumstances.
While useful in their own right, such
reports do not provide information on
the incidence of disease among wider
populations, something that can only
come from systematic monitoring and a
network of observers drawn from across
the country. Establishing such networks
can be problematic but Garden Wildlife
Health, launched in 2013, shows what
Another area where our understanding
has really benefited from the partnership
between volunteers and researchers is
that of bat conservation. Being nocturnal
in habits, bats are usually monitored by
experienced recorders using handheld
detectors to identify the bats present at
a site. The lack of experienced surveyors,
coupled with the high cost of the
specialist detectors needed to identify
the bats, has limited our ability to collect
information on the distribution and
habitat use of bats at wider spatial scales.
The launch of a new project – the
Norfolk Bat Project, brainchild of BTO
Research Ecologist, Dr Stuart Newson –
has recently overcome these difficulties
by establishing a network of Bat
Monitoring Centres. Local volunteers
borrow passive bat detectors from these
centres, which they then deploy in a
standardised manner at sites across the
Collecting information on the wildlife that lives alongside us isn’t always straightforward but many of the gaps in our knowledge can be filled through the partnerships established between scientists and volunteers.
can be achieved by bringing together
experts from different fields and by
drawing on the support of wider
stakeholders and volunteers.
Central to Garden Wildlife Health is
a web application, built by BTO staff,
that allows observers to submit reports,
which are then reviewed by veterinary
researchers based at the Institute of
Zoology. Where a report indicates that
a carcass is available the researcher can
make a decision on whether or not to
request the carcass for post-mortem
examination, a process that makes
use of the interactive features of the
web application to alert the participant
to the request. Details from the post-
mortem (including photographs and
diagnostics) are then stored in the same
database that sits behind the online
system, allowing results to be passed
back to the participant. Participants in
BTO Garden BirdWatch also contribute
information on the presence and
absence of diseased wildlife from their
gardens on a weekly basis, information
that provides a systematic framework
around the opportunistic reports that
come in from a wider audience. The
scheme will highlight the emergence of
new diseases, chart the incidence and
distribution of others and, additionally,
provide information on other mortality
agents affecting our wildlife.
BTO Annual Review | 201422
Managed by ZSL’s Institute of Zoology (IoZ), Garden Wildlife Health is a collaborative project between ZSL, BTO, Froglife and the RSPB. An evolution of the Garden Bird Health initiative (GBHi) and the Frog Mortality Project (FMP), it consists of a continuous survey
of the health of British amphibians, birds, hedgehogs and reptiles in garden habitats, contributing to better management of their conservation and the health of proximate people and domestic animals. The project is funded by the AHVLA Great Britain Wildlife
Disease Surveillance Partnership, which receives funding from Defra through the Scanning Surveillance Programme, and by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Defra’s Strategic Evidence Fund and in-kind contributions from the project partners.
GARden WiLdLife HeALtH
KEEPING CHECK ON WILDLIFE DISEASE
GOING BATTY
county. Bats passing within range of the
detector are recorded on a memory card,
which is returned to Stuart’s research
team to be analysed. A report detailing
the bats recorded is then sent back to
the participants, while the raw data are
added to a database that now holds over
half a million recordings (the project only
launched in April 2013). The Norfolk
Bat Project is already delivering a huge
amount of new information, revolutionising
our understanding of bat distributions
within Norfolk. The project has been
recognised for its achievements within the
county and it looks set to provide a model
for what could be achieved countrywide.
What we want now is to make this project
Facts Figures
&
1,019
3,637
PEOPLE POWER
The Norfolk Bat Survey has logged 1,019 recordings of Barbastelle, a bat species formerly thought to be highly localised within Norfolk. These recordings come from 162 1-km squares, representing 36% of the county’s land area.
1,757 volunteers have contributed 2,459 reports to Garden Wildlife Health since its launch in 2013. In addition, 3,637 existing BTO Garden BirdWatchers have submitted information on disease incidence through their weekly counts.
At least 1.5 million Greenfinches have been lost since finch trichomonosis was first recognised in 2005, returning the British Greenfinch population to levels last seen in the mid-1980s and halting a 20-year period of population growth.
1.5million
2014 | BTO Annual Review 23
AcknoWLedGeMentS Norfolk Bat Survey is led by BTO in partnership with those organisations hosting Bat Monitoring Centres. We are extremely grateful to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and Natural England (Defra Fund for Biodiversity Recording in the Voluntary Sector) for providing start-up funding for this project and for the additional support given by the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership, the Geoffrey Watling Charity and the many individual donors and supporters.
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sustainable over the next few years, which
needs investment. As a start, funding has
been secured (thanks to Essex and Suffolk
Water) to develop an online system for
coordinating detector bookings. Increasing
coverage and carrying out core analyses will
also be important areas for development as
the project moves forward.
BARBASteLLe: This red-listed species now appears to be localised, but widespread, in norfolk, occuring at low density. The 1,033 recordings of this species captured through this project represent just 0.2% of the total recordings received in 2013.
fincH tRicHoMonoSiS:
chaffinch and Greenfinch were the two species
whose populations were most affected by the 2006 outbreak of
trichomonosis, as Bto GBW and BBS data
revealed
Collaboration is the key to studying the effects of climate change across Europe Climate change impacts across years
Data collected by WeBS volunteers make an
important contribution to research looking at
effects of climate change on waterbirds. Counts
from across Europe, spanning 1980 to 2010,
were used to examine the responses of diving
ducks to changing winter temperatures. The
results of this collaborative work, which focused
on Goldeneye, Tufted Duck and Goosander,
were published in Global Change Biology.
The work was led by researchers in Finland,
where effects of climate change have been felt
particularly strongly. Early winter temperatures in
parts of Fennoscandia have risen by nearly 4°C
during the study period. Prior to recent decades,
wetlands in northern latitudes of Europe remained
frozen throughout the winter. However, during the
period examined in this study they have become
increasingly available to diving waterfowl in winter.
Tufted Duck, Goldeneye and Goosander have
all increased exponentially in Finland, while in
northern Sweden the total for all three species
combined has risen by over 80,000 birds.
Goldeneye numbers have increased by 4,320%
in Finland and 269% in southern Sweden.
However, a striking contrast is apparent at the
opposite end of the migratory flyway. Although in
Britain numbers of Tufted Ducks appear relatively
stable, neighbouring regions towards the south-
west end of the flyway have seen declines, with
decreases of 46% in France, 43% in Ireland and
39% in Switzerland, amounting to a net shift of
Migratory birds are likely to be particularly
vulnerable to climate change because they
can be affected by changing conditions on the
breeding grounds, wintering grounds or the
passage areas in between. Many long-distance
migrant birds that breed in the UK and winter
in Africa are in severe decline; previous BTO
work has shown this can be related to changing
conditions in Africa, which affect overwinter
survival, and to conditions on British breeding
grounds. Research by the BTO’s Population
Ecology and Modelling Team took this further
and considered the potential for changing
conditions in Africa to ‘carry over’ and affect
birds during the following breeding season.
Rainfall during the African growing season
is incredibly important for migrants that
winter south of the Sahara, as precipitation
controls vegetation growth and, therefore, the
abundance of herbivorous insects. Species
such as warblers, flycatchers and chats
rely heavily on berries and invertebrates to
survive through the winter and to fuel their
journeys back to the breeding grounds the
following spring. Using a unique dataset,
collected by volunteers contributing to the
Nest Record Scheme over a 46-year period,
BTO ecologists demonstrated that the impact
of African rainfall can indeed carry over and
influence the subsequent timing of nesting
in 19 migrant species, including Sand Martin,
104,000 wintering birds. Similarly, Goldeneye
numbers decreased significantly in Ireland and
Switzerland over the 30 years, amounting to a
loss of 12,000 birds from those two countries
alone. Recent shorter-term declines have also
occurred in Britain, France, and the Netherlands.
At the south-west end of the flyway used by
Goosanders, the wintering population has
declined markedly in the Netherlands, Denmark
and southern Sweden.
These findings are directly relevant to
conservation. Waterbird abundance is used as
designation criteria for wetland protection, for
example as Ramsar sites. New areas becoming
important for non-breeding birds risk not falling
into existing protected area networks. Conversely,
wintering waterbirds may increasingly retract
from sites further south and west in their ranges,
some of which were designated to protect them.
Protection throughout the entire flyway is vital
however; recent colder winters, particularly that of
2010/11, have demonstrated the importance of
ensuring protection of these sites as cold weather
refuges.
FinD out MoreLehikoinen A., Jaatinen K., Vahatalo A.V., Clausen P., Crowe o., Deceuninck B., Hearn r., Holt C.A., Hornman M., Keller V., nilsson L., Langendoen t., Wahl J. & Fox A.D. 2013. Rapid climate driven shifts in wintering distribution of three waterbird species. Global Change Biology 19, 2071–2081.
1. Climate Change and diving duCks 2. migRation in a Changing Climate
BTO Annual Review | 201424
scientific Research in 2013 & 2014In the triptych below we review some more of the fascinating and diverse papers that have emerged from BTO work in the past year. These three papers cover different aspects of the Trust’s work on climate change.
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Protected areas for bird conservationClimate change impacts across years
Protected area networks, where several
sites are legally protected because of their
importance for particular species or habitats,
are one of the main conservation tools for
reducing biodiversity loss. However, it is unclear
how effective these networks might be as
the species and habitats for which they are
designated respond to climate change. This
question was tackled by BTO scientists and
published in the prestigious journal Nature
Climate Change, the result of an ambitious
project involving collaborators from universities,
government bodies and NGOs. The study
provided the most compelling evidence to date
that, while British bird populations are being,
and will continue to be, affected by climate
change, the network of sites established to
protect them under European law is resilient to
these changes and will remain so.
The UK is home to internationally important
populations of breeding seabirds and wintering
waterbirds. Sites holding particular numbers
of these species are designated as Special
Protection Areas (SPAs) under the EU Birds
Directive. Analysis of high quality data on
the abundance of 62 species of seabird and
waterbird, collected over 30 years, showed
that more than half of the population trends
during this time can be explained by climate
change. This information was used to predict
trends through to 2080, assuming an
average rise of 4°C in global temperatures,
and predicted population declines of at least
25% for more than half of species considered.
In some cases falls of more than 50%
were predicted. Species such as Arctic Tern,
Guillemot, Eider and Bar-tailed Godwit were
particularly badly affected. However, other
species, like Avocet and Common Tern, were
projected to increase in numbers.
These gains and losses have implications for
the designation of SPAs. However, although
many sites were predicted to lose qualifying
species as numbers dropped below the
necessary threshold, they were also expected
to gain other species, resulting in an overall
change in the composition of species protected
by a particular area. Such alterations highlight
the need for efficient administration and regular
assessment of the SPA network, so that it keeps
pace with bird population trends.
Swallow and Redstart. In general, species laid
their eggs earlier after wetter Sahel growing
seasons, suggesting that individuals were in
better condition and therefore able to leave
earlier, travel faster or produce clutches more
rapidly on arrival.
However, the importance of this effect
is relatively small when compared to the
impact of spring temperature on the breeding
grounds. This suggests that increasing
temperatures in the UK are largely responsible
for the observed trend towards earlier
breeding, even in long-distance migrants.
Warm springs are likely to stimulate early
laying as they advance leaf growth and,
therefore, the emergence of insects that birds
depend on to provision offspring; studies
have shown that a failure to track these
advances can have serious implications
for breeding success. Overall, this research
highlights the many factors determining how
migrant species are responding to climate
change, an understanding of which is vital
if we are to protect these birds and address
population declines.
FinD out MoreFull citation: Johnston, A., Ausden, M., Dodd, A.M., Bradbury, r.B., Chamberlain, D.e., Jiguet, F., Thomas, C.D., Cook, A.S.C.P., newson, S.e., ockendon, n., rehfisch, M.M., roos, S., Thaxter, C.B., Brown, A., Crick, H.Q.P., Douse, A., McCall, r.A., Pontier, H., Stroud, D.A., Cadiou, B., Crowe, o., Deceuninck, B., Hornman, M. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W. 2013. observed and predicted effects of climate change on species abundance in protected areas. Nature Climate Change 3, 1055–1061. doi: 10.1038/nClimate2035
FinD out Moreockendon, n., Leech, D. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W. 2013. Climatic effects on breeding grounds are more important drivers of breeding phenology in migrant birds than carry-over effects from wintering grounds. Biology Letters 9, 0669. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0669
2. migRation in a Changing Climate 3. do pRoteCted aReas woRk?
2014 | BTO Annual Review 25
Behind the images…1. DiVing DuCKS
goldeneye and other diving ducks are utilising new sites at northerly latitudes as the climate changes and waterbodies become available.
2. MigrAntS
Winter rainfall in Africa can affect migrant birds many months and many miles later as Bto research demonstrates.
3. ProteCteD AreAS
An ambitious collaborative study showed that europe’s network of sites designated for species protection will be resilient to climate change.
Summarised AccountS 2013/14Exceptional legacy receipts and the profit on sales of Bird Atlas 2007–11 resulted in an operating surplus for the year of £643k. The principal funding sources continued to be research and surveys (£2,532k), membership and communications (£1,226k), and trading and consultancy (including Bto Services Ltd turnover) (£979k). Appeals raised £345k, and £853k was received from legacies. A total of £4,665k was spent during the year on carrying out, supporting and communicating ornithological research. There was a gain of £30k in the market value of investments, in line with the general rise in the stock
market, but an actuarial loss of £821k in the pension scheme, due to further weakening of bond yields.
The trustees have an unrestricted free reserves target range of 9 to 12 weeks’ operating expenditure. These reserves are held against any unexpected falls in income or other unforeseen circumstances. unrestricted funds excluding tangible fixed assets and the pension fund liability at 31 March 2014 totalled £1,667k, of which £53k is committed to existing Bto-funded projects, and £600k is earmarked for pension deficit repair payments, leaving free reserves equivalent to 8.9 weeks’ expenditure.
2013/14 2012/13 (£'000) (£'000)Incoming resourcesGeneral donations 149 157
Appeals 345 400
Legacies 853 230
Trading and consultancy 979 764
Royalties and copyright 99 120
Other income 141 51
Membership and communications 1,226 1,141
Research and surveys 2,532 2,183
Total incoming resources 6,324 5,046
Resources expendedCosts of generating voluntary income 224 174
Costs of activities for generating funds 754 575
Membership, volunteers and communications 1,182 1,173
Research and surveys 3,483 3,039
Governance costs 38 41
Total resources expended 5,681 5,002Defined benefit pension scheme closure - 1,111
Net incoming resources 643 1,155Other recognised losses -791 -412
Net movement in funds -148 743Total funds brought forward 1,056 313
Total funds carried forward 908 1,056
Represented by:Fixed assets 1,737 1,684
Net current assets 1,507 1,163
Other creditors -25 -22
Pension fund liability -2,311 -1,769
TOTAL 908 1,056
BTOAnnualReview | 201426
Bto Accounts 2013/14Council aims to build on our successes in diversifying our income and growing unrestricted income, in order to continue to deliver relevant, independent, quality science that is synonymous with BTO.
The way in which we are funded is changing, with income from individuals playing an ever increasing role in supporting the work we undertake. Through membership, donations, appeals and legacies, individuals have contributed an amazing £2.5m to our income this year. This represents 40% of our total income and exceeds the restricted income of £1.7m from Government/public sector contracts. The benefit of this contribution from individuals does not stop there, it also enables partnerships with other nGo’s to deliver collaborative projects like the Wider countryside Butterfly Survey and opens doors to other sources of income. As we continue to grow our fundraising capacity this added value will grow in importance; we frequently use contributions from our supporters to access grants from a range of sources. In some circumstances this match funding has been key to securing such grants; grants from natural Resources Wales, Environment Wales and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation enabled the setup and ongoing operation of our Welsh office, for instance.
Our raffles are a great way of securing funding for a project. For example, £10,000 from the raffle in 2010 was used to access a grant from BBC Wildlife to kick-start our Cuckoo-tracking project.
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Resources expended (£'000)
Costs of generatingvoluntary income
Costs of activities forgenerating funds
Membership, volunteersand communications
Research and surveys
Governance costs
Research & surveys
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2013/14 2012/13
Resources expended (£'000)
Costs of generatingvoluntary income
Costs of activities forgenerating funds
Membership, volunteersand communications
Research and surveys
Governance costs Governance costs
2013/14 2012/13 2013/14 2012/13
RESouRcES ExpEndEd (£’000)
These summarised accounts have been extracted from the trust’s annual accounts. They may not contain sufficient information to provide a full understanding of the financial affairs of the trust. For further information, the full accounts, the auditor’s report and the council (trustees’) Report (incorporating the Strategic Report) should be consulted. These are available on the Bto website (www.bto.org/about-bto/accounts) and hard copies are available on request from the director of Services, Bto, The nunnery, Thetford, norfolk Ip24 2pu.
We have examined the summarised financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2014 set out above. The council Members are responsible for preparing the summarised financial statements in accordance with applicable united Kingdom law and the recommendations of the charities SoRp. our responsibility is to report to you our opinion on the consistency of the summarised financial statements with the full annual financial statements and the council (trustees’) Report (incorporating the Strategic Report). We also read other information contained in the summarised annual report and consider the implications
The annual accounts were approved by council on 2 July 2014 and have been submitted to the Registrar of companies, the charity commission and the office of the Scottish charity Regulator. The accounts include the auditor’s report which is unqualified and does not contain a statement either under section 498(2) of the companies Act 2006 (accounting records or returns inadequate or accounts not agreeing with the records and returns) or section 498(3) (failure to obtain information and explanations).
for our report if we become aware of any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the summarised financial statements. In our opinion the summarised financial statements are consistent with the full annual financial statements and the council Annual Report of The British trust For ornithology for the year ended 31 March 2014.LoVEWELL BLAKE LLpchartered Accountants and Statutory AuditorBankside 300, peachman Way, Broadland Business park, norwich, nR7 0LB31 July 2014
2014 | BTOAnnualReview 27
Facts Figures
&
40%
300
AccountS
Individuals contributed £2.5m to Bto last year, which is 40% of our total income. This money is vital in enabling our core surveys and our own priority research.
our members are extremely loyal to our cause, we have over 300 members who have supported us for over 50 years and a further 4,000 with over 20 years’ membership.
A conservative estimate of the monetary value of the staggering 1.36 million hours gifted by volunteers each year is £27.7m.
By signing up to giftaid your support makes an even greater difference; we received £114,000 in the year on your subscription fees. So, if you are a uK tax payer add another 25p for every pound you give by adding giftaid.
£27.7m
£114,000
‘Birds are important to us and we’ve had so much pleasure from watching them it’s good to give something back. Besides, bird surveys really are fun!’
toM & MuRIEL cAdWALLEndER, MEMBERS And REGIonAL REpRESEntAtIVES FoR noRthuMBERLAnd
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0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2013/14 2012/13
Incoming resources (£'000)
General donations
Appeals
Legacies
Trading & consultancy
Royalties & copyright
Other income
Membership andcommunicationsResearch and surveys0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2013/14 2012/13
Incoming resources (£'000)
General donations
Appeals
Legacies
Trading & consultancy
Royalties & copyright
Other income
Membership andcommunicationsResearch and surveys0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2013/14 2012/13
Resources expended (£'000)
Costs of generatingvoluntary income
Costs of activities forgenerating funds
Membership, volunteersand communications
Research and surveys
Governance costs
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2013/14 2012/13
Resources expended (£'000)
Costs of generatingvoluntary income
Costs of activities forgenerating funds
Membership, volunteersand communications
Research and surveys
Governance costs
IndependentAuditor’sStatementToTheMembersOfTheBritishTrustForOrnithology
FurtherInformation
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
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0
We are greatly indebted to our members and volunteers for their generous support. here are some facts to demonstrate just how important you are to the financial working of Bto
Harnessing the power of TV to bring our message to the masses Quantifying the role of birds in providing ecosystem services
Over recent years we have gathered
feedback from our members,
supporters and partners through a
range of different surveys aimed at
improving our services. One of the
areas that our supporters feel we
should continue to develop is our public
profile. “You do great work but not
enough people know about you. You
need to shout louder” is a typical quote
from such surveys. One of the ways in
which we can deliver on this demand
is to grow our relationships with high
profile radio and television programmes,
broadcasting our messages into the
homes of millions of people at a time.
We’ve enjoyed a particularly strong
partnership over recent years with the
teams delivering BBC Springwatch and
Autumnwatch.
In addition to providing ideas
and advice to the excellent crew of
researchers, producers and presenters,
we have also enjoyed considerable
success through the use of social media
during the shows. By tweeting during
broadcasts we can both support the
programmes by providing relevant
supplementary information and help
to answer any queries raised by
items in the programmes. By taking
this approach, we’ve enjoyed record
numbers of new people choosing to
follow us on Twitter and we additionally
benefit from the BBC Twitter teams
helping to broadcast our messages
to their huge communities. This year
BTO featured prominently on the
programmes, with lead features focusing
on our President, Chris Packham,
searching for Chris the Cuckoo, and
on Dave Leech’s community Blackbird
project, which makes use of colour-
ringing. While it is difficult to measure
the value of this exposure, we are in no
doubt that a close working relationship
with the BBC is helping to take our work
to new and wider audiences.
BTO has an active role in three of the
four Biodiversity & Ecosystem Service
Sustainability (BESS) projects. BESS is a
major six-year Research Council initiative
to assess the role of biodiversity in
delivering the key ecosystem services
on which we rely. Each of the projects
brings together ecologists, environmental
scientists, economists, social scientists
and local stakeholders to consider a
particular habitat or landscape, including
urban centres and estuaries.
One example is BTO’s contribution
to the Diversity in Upland Rivers for
Ecosystem Service Sustainability project.
Led by Cardiff University, DURESS
brings together a consortium of 30
researchers from a range of disciplines
and institutions and focuses on four river
ecosystem services that are biodiversity-
mediated: regulation of water quality;
regulation of decomposition; fisheries
and recreational fishing; and river birds
as culturally valued biodiversity. Each
is at risk from climate and land-use
change. During the summer of 2013 a
BTO field team carried out bird surveys
along the rivers, looking at characteristic
riverine birds such as Dipper and Grey
Wagtail, but also species inhabiting
the riparian woodlands which may rely
on emergent aquatic insects. Over last
winter, we’ve collected Dipper droppings
and feathers which will be analysed to
assess main sources of diet, exposure to
a pathogen and genetic diversity. These
results will be considered alongside
analyses of long-term biodiversity
datasets, experiments manipulating, for
example, rates of litter decomposition
in streams under different conditions,
and surveys of the values that different
stakeholders attribute to different
ecosystem services. Find out more at:
www.nerc-bess.net
2. BESS1. BBC Springwatch and Autumnwatch
BTO Annual Review | 201428
PartnershipsWorking in partnership delivers huge benefits to BTO and enables us to engage with different communities and to share our own expertise with others. As these three examples reveal, these partnerships are diverse and far-reaching.
Chris Packham and BTO Staff Chris Hewson and Paul Stancliffe on the trail of Chris the Cuckoo in Suffolk on his return to the UK for a feature on Springwatch.
Long-running partnership brings in new nest recorders
The optics company Opticron has been
a firm friend for many years now and
we continue to benefit from a strong
working relationship with them. Over the
past few years they have supported our
work primarily through contributing to
membership offers and supporting our
presence at Birdfair.
More recently their support has
enabled us to invest in more advanced
camera equipment so that we can
broaden the range of videos we provide
via our YouTube channel. Opticron are
particularly keen to see their contribution
making a difference to the number of
people actively contributing data to
our long-term schemes, so in 2014
we directed their support towards the
Nest Record Mentoring Scheme. Our
experience with nest recording has
taught us that rather than investing in
a large number of introductory nest
recording courses, the most cost-
effective approach for recruiting new
volunteers is to deliver a smaller number
of small group or 1:1 sessions with
targeted individuals. In order to deliver
this across as wide a geographical area
as possible, we have recruited a number
of experienced nest record mentors and
the support from Opticron has enabled
us to equip them with some essential
equipment. The funding has also
enabled us to to set up a ‘find a mentor’
facility on the BTO website, putting
potential new recruits in contact with a
local volunteer.
A celebratory 75th anniversary meeting
held this spring served to promote the
mentoring scheme to existing volunteers
and, with everything now in place, we
are looking forward to a bumper year
of nest records in 2015. We are very
grateful to Opticron for their continued
support of our work. To find out more
about Opticron and their range of optics
visit www.opticron.co.uk
3. Working with OPtiCrOn
2014 | BTO Annual Review 29
Facts Figures
&
857
PArtnErShiPS
The number of 1-km squares covered in the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey in 2013. 374 of these were covered by BBS volunteers on their BBS 1-km squares. The scheme is run as a partnership between Butterfly Conservation, BtO and the Centre for Ecology and hydrology.
The number of volunteer regional representatives, assistants and Development Officers based throughout the UK who make our surveys possible. in addition to recruiting and managing volunteers, these super volunteers are BtO ambassadors, promoting our work across the regions.
is the sum achieved in raffle ticket sales and donations for the BtO raffle for 2013-14. Generous prizes were donated by the Bird Watching and Wildlife Club (BWWC) at the Grant Arms hotel, by Opticron and by CJ Wildlife. two years ago CJ Wildlife expanded their operation in Europe with Vivara and renewed their support for BtO by providing five sets of third-place raffle prizes, each worth more than £100, to the lucky winners.
128
£37,638.25
Small groups and mentoring have been shown to be most effective in recruiting volunteers for nest recording. Our partnership with Opticron has enabled us to run more of these small events.
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‘In addition to providing ideas and advice to the excellent crew of researchers, producers and presenters, we have also enjoyed considerable success through the use of social media during the shows.’
is the donation Essex and Suffolk Water made to the Cuckoo-tracking project for 2013, via their Branch Out fund, naming their Cuckoo in a staff vote after Ken Saul, a volunteer of more than 30 years standing at Burgh Common in norfolk where the Cuckoo was caught . Essex and Suffolk Water have been with the BtO since the launch of the project in 2011 and have maintained their much-valued support.
£10,000
BTO Annual Review | 201430
BTO and business
PITCH PERFECTResearch should be exciting; after all, science
is about answering questions and increasing
understanding! So it shouldn’t come as a
surprise that BTO’s research staff have plenty
of ideas for pieces of work that might reveal
new insights into our bird populations and
their ecology. Funding sources for these
ideas are not always obvious, however, since
many fall outside of the funding streams that
support BTO’s core monitoring programmes,
this is where corporate support is vital. A
good example of how business support
can underpin innovation can be seen in the
relationship that we have been developing
with Mark Constantine, founder of The
Sound Approach (soundapproach.co.uk).
The work we have been doing with
The Sound Approach has also delivered
some additional benefits because of
the novel process developed to identify
projects for funding. The process begins
with an invitation to our research
By working with business BTO has been able to deliver innovative research projects, many of which originate as ideas put forward by BTO’s research staff. As EMMA DOUGLAS highlights, such collaborations provide new opportunities to support and develop emerging areas of our work.
scientists, asking them to put forward
project ideas that have the potential to
deliver new information, either through
the collection of new data or the
exploration of existing datasets; these
projects should align with the vision
of The Sound Approach. Each of the
project proposals is then peer reviewed
by colleagues to produce a shortlist of
ideas to be presented to The Sound
Approach, and it is from this shortlist
that a number of projects are selected
for funding. This approach opens up
opportunities for BTO researchers
from across the organisation,
secures engagement and generates
a competitive buzz, reinforcing the
message that exciting and worthwhile
science should receive support. As
the following examples reveal, support
from The Sound Approach has helped
to deliver some very different pieces of
work, from across the organisation.
TRACKING SWIFTS WITH GPS TAGS – CHRIS HEWSONThe Common Swift is declining as a
breeding bird in Britain but efforts to
understand the reasons for the decline
have been hampered by a lack of basic
knowledge about the bird and its ecology.
Swifts spend such a small part of their
year with us and we know very little
about their migration tracks, stopover
sites and wintering areas. We also know
surprisingly little about the foraging and
ranging behaviour of the birds breeding at
colonies here in Britain. Funding from The
Sound Approach has allowed us to use
newly-developed miniature GPS tags to
collect information with an unprecedented
degree of spatial accuracy. Each tag, five
of which were deployed in summer 2014,
is able to record some 300 locations
over the period of deployment. We have
been able to quantify the amount of
time spent over different habitats and to
establish the distances travelled from the
colony through short-term deployments
during the breeding season. Longer-
term deployments, with different tag
programming, will enable us to look in
much finer detail at migration tracks and
the use of stopover sites in West Africa
on spring migration. The accuracy of the
tags is so great (within 6 m for 50% of
locations) that we will be able to determine
the movements of the birds in relation to
frontal systems and other meteorological
features. This has significant implications
for their conservation, providing us with
knowledge that has, until now, been lacking. ON THE WING Using new technologies will reveal much about Swift ecology that has been hidden.
“Swifts spend such a small part of their year with us and we know very little about their migration tracks, stopover sites and wintering areas.”
2014 | BTO Annual Review 31
LITTLE OWL PLAYBACK TRIAL – DAVE LEECHOver the last 40 years there has been a
significant and substantial decline in the
UK Little Owl population. It is difficult to
construct reliable population estimates for
this species because of its largely nocturnal
nature and relatively low population density.
The primary means of surveying Little Owls
is via the use of call playbacks, noting the
response of territorial birds to recordings
broadcast from a handheld device at pre-
a network of box-nesting Little Owls that
are monitored on an annual basis and this
population provides the perfect opportunity to
test response rates under different scenarios.
Intensive trials of this survey methodology
provide the information needed to design a
robust national survey to accurately determine
the size of the UK Little Owl population.
This is a project that dovetails particularly
well with The Sound Approach’s interests in
bird vocalisations and the field techniques
associated with them.
determined survey locations. However,
in order to use this approach within the
context of a national survey we first need to
understand how known populations of Little
Owls respond to playback. For example, do
birds respond more often where they occur
at a higher density and are response rates
influenced by weather conditions or the
type of technology used to broadcast the
calls during playback?
BTO volunteer ringers and nest recorders in
the south Lincolnshire fens have established
ALL EARS Little Owls react more strongly to the calls of strangers than their near neighbours.
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THE SOUND APPROACH
We are very grateful to Mark Constantine who, through The Sound Approach, aims to popularise birdsong and raise standards in the use of sounds in bird identification. Subjects of particular interest include ageing and sexing birds by their sounds, recognising hidden biodiversity and identifying ‘new species’ through songs and calls. Their collection of bird songs and calls now exceeds 50,000 recordings of more than 1,000 species, with a particular focus on the Western
Palaearctic region, making this one of the largest archives of bird sound recordings in the world.
MARK CONSTANTINE
Driven by his passion for birds and their song, Mark Constantine, founder of Lush Cosmetics, formed The Sound Approach in 2000. Mark has been a keen birder since the 1970s. During holidays to Mallorca in the 1980s he became friends with the late Peter Grant, “the best teacher a birder could have asked for.”
CORY’S CONFUSION Sound Approach recordings have helped inform discussions of Calonectris taxonomy.
A year in BTO Cymru 2013–14
It’s been three years since BTO decided
a professional presence in Wales was
desirable and necessary with the Welsh
Government assuming responsibility
for the environment in the principality.
Our BTO Cymru office, with its two staff
hosted at Bangor University, is now well
established and in regular contact with
friends and partner organisations including
Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the
Welsh Ornithological Society, The Wildlife
Trusts, RSPB Cymru, Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology and Welsh bird groups.
The national media regularly contact us
for comment and clarity on all matters
ornithological, and this regular media
presence has raised the BTO’s profile in
Wales.
BuIldIng on a strong foundatIonOne of the main objectives for BTO
Cymru over the last three years has been
to increase the number of BBS squares
surveyed across Wales in order to support
conservation work, particularly of priority
species. With financial support from NRW, a
programme of mentoring and training was
developed and, building on the success
As our office in Wales reaches its third birthday, BTO Cymru Development Officer Kelvin JOnes updates us on what has been achieved to support our members, volunteers and partners in the principality.
of the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the 2013
season proved a record year with 331
individual 1-km squares surveyed.
As funding for this part of our work
comes to an end, an ongoing programme
of work will build on this initiative and,
more importantly, retain, enthuse and
motivate our existing volunteers to
continue contributing to this survey which
underpins so much of BTO’s work.
One of the big successes of
programmes like BBC’s Springwatch
and S4C’s Y Gwannwyn was the interest
they generated in bird ringing. However,
the geographical spread of ringers and
ringing trainers across Wales is patchy and
a factor in holding back the expansion
of ringing here. To begin to address
this issue, a ringing course was held at
the Welsh Wildlife Centre in Cilgerran,
Pembrokeshire in partnership with the
Teifi Ringing Group and the Wildlife Trust
of West and South Wales. During the
weekend a number of long-established
ringers attained their trainer’s permits,
which will hopefully help to build capacity
for training ringers in the principality.
BTO Garden BirdWatch is well
supported in Wales, a testimony to the
hard work and enthusiasm of our three
ambassadors, Mick Bailey, Amanda Skull
and David Lee. A very successful Garden
Wildlife Conference was held at Bangor
University in October, in partnership with
Plantlife Cymru and the North Wales
BTO Annual Review | 201432
Getting started yOunG...one of the unexpected successes of the Bto Cymru office has been the establishment of a Bto student ambassador programme at Welsh universities. With competition for jobs in the environmental sector continuing to be very tough, students can give themselves a head start by supplementing academic studies with hands-on experience. Bto is well placed to offer some good old-fashioned practical experience through our various surveys and schemes and peer-to-peer promotion of our work is proving to be a great way to engage students. With a very modest investment we have been able to find student ambassadors in the four bigger universities. Working together with Kelvin Jones, this team promotes our work to a very relevant target audience, helping them to understand more about what we do and how they can benefit from participating.
Chat survey The latest BBs report shows that Whinchat had a better year in 2013 but that there is still cause for concern with a 55% decline since 1995.
Wildlife Trust. The event was fully booked
and feedback from participants has
been excellent. We are grateful to the
university for hosting the event and we
are already planning the next one!
foundIng neW netWorKsPart of our work over the past year has
focused on building a more coherent
approach to raptor monitoring. As noted
in this Annual Review (see page 4),
BTO Scotland has had considerable
experience of coordinating raptor study
groups through their work with the
Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme,
and we were keen to learn from this
expertise and deploy it in Wales. A
number of very constructive meetings
were held to bring together the various
groups and we have established a good
working dialogue, which we hope will
lead to a more coordinated approach
to raptor monitoring in coming years.
Suspected persecution of Peregrines at
two north Wales eyries was revealed
during the BTO Peregrine Survey in 2014
and highlights the need for continued
careful monitoring of our protected
species.
The Welsh Chat Survey of 2012
was extended because of the
atrocious weather the previous year.
WeBS coverage was maintained
and extended and, with the Welsh
Ornithological Society now part of the
BirdTrack partnership, BirdTrack is being
increasingly used by both volunteers and
county recorders as the standard system
for collecting and disseminating bird data
in Wales.
BTO’s decision to open an office here
in Wales has proved a huge success,
both for BTO and for the members and
volunteers who tirelessly and freely give
their time and expertise to expand our
knowledge of Welsh birds, and thereby
contribute so much to their conservation.
We are grateful to Environment Wales
(on behalf of the Welsh Government),
the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and
NRW for their support.
Facts Figures
&
38%
96%
WAles
Green Woodpecker numbers are down by 38% in Wales compared with a 38% increase in the whole of the uK. numbers are particularly low in the south-west of the country, with gaps in distribution now appearing.
The latest BBs report shows a 96% increase in House sparrow in Wales compared with a 2% decline in the uK as a whole.
The number of birds ringed in Wales in 2013. These include a little Tern which was ringed in its nest in Gronant in 1994 and was found freshly dead in the same area 18 years, 11 months and 3 days later, setting a new longevity record for this species.
2014 | BTO Annual Review 33
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‘One of the main objectives for BTO Cymru over the last three years has been to increase the number of BBS squares surveyed across Wales in order to support conservation work, particularly of priority species.’
BTO Annual Review | 201434
Held at the University of East Anglia in August 2013, this four-day event involved an international field of scientists, who presented their work and exchanged ideas within a packed programme. As co-hosts, there was a strong BTO presence at the conference. BTO scientists convened four of the conference’s 18 symposia, and contributed to six oral and two poster presentations, all of which were well received. BTO also jointly ran a workshop for early career scientists with the British Ornithologists’ Union.
Oral Presentations
Ausden M., Ockendon N., Beale C., Carroll M., Dodd A., Johnston A., Oliver T., Pearce-Higgins J.W. The implications of climate change for species prioritisation and site management.
Hewson C., Atkinson P., Conway G., Henderson I. Spring migration strategies of Afro-Palaearctic migrants wintering in central and southern Africa and breeding in Britain.
Plummer K.E., Bearhop S., Leech D.I., Chamberlain D.E., Blount J.D. Winter supplementary feeding alters the phenotypic structure of blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus populations.
Baillie S., Robinson R., Johnston A., Green R. Integrated modelling of bird populations – the value of direct measures of recruitment.
Henderson I., Cresswell W. Combining large-scale patterns of breeding abundance with site based ecological studies in winter and summer to identify drivers of population change in Whinchats Saxicola rubetra.
Taylor J., Henderson I., Hartley I., Ash D. Comparing variation in habitat use and productivity with estimates of survival and recruitment in a declining migrant bird: the Whinchat Saxicola rubetra on Salisbury Plain, England.
The BTO in printThe outputs from BTO research continue to appear in a broad range of peer-reviewed publications. Summaries of all published papers now appear on our website.
Looking at some BTO PAPERS...
Understanding disease reservoirs in wild birds Particular strains of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium may be carried by wild birds. A comparison of these different strains (known as phage types) provides supporting evidence that garden birds can act as a reservoir for Salmonellosis in humans.
Bird surveys reveal population changes… for mammals! Volunteers taking part in the Breeding Bird Survey have been recording mammals since 1995. Analyses of these data reveal big population changes in nine common species, for example a 48% decline in Rabbits. The study highlights the value of the BTO’s volunteer network for monitoring groups other than birds.
Royan, A., Hannah, D.M., Reynolds, S.J., Noble, D.G. & Sadler, J.P. (2013). Avian community responses to variability in river hydrology. PLOS ONE. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083221
Holt, C. (2013). The changing status of the Great White Egret in Britain. British Birds 106, 246–257.
Gullet, P., Evans, K.L., Robinson, R.A. & Hatchwell, B.J. (2014). Oikos 123, 389–400.
Lawson, B., de Pinna, E., Horton, R.A., Macgregor, S.K., John, S.K., Chantrey, J., Duff, J.P., Kirkwood, J.K., Simpson, V.R., Robinson, R.A., Wain, J. & Cunningham, A.A. (2014). Epidemiological evidence that garden birds are a source of human Salmonellosis in England and Wales. PLOS ONE. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088968
Does winter feeding reduce Blue Tit breeding? Blue Tits receiving supplementary winter food had lighter, smaller offspring, with reduced survival, the following spring. This study highlights the potential population-level effects of winter feeding.
Long-tailed Tits bolstered by warm springs BTO science contributed to work showing that rising spring temperatures can help explain the rapid recent population growth of British Long-tailed Tits. Annual survival was higher in years with milder breeding seasons, suggesting that this species could benefit from predicted warming through climate change.
Are Great White Egrets here to stay? As this review reveals, both the numbers of Great White Egrets in Britain and their range have increased over the last 20 years. Data collected by WeBS volunteers have helped to document their spread and can be used to generate population trends. The study also reviews their ecology and habitat requirements.
Going with the flow? Costs and benefits of river flow variability to riverine birds Data from the BTO’s Waterways Breeding Bird Survey demonstrate how the magnitude, timing and variation in river flows may influence bird communities. This work underlines how bird communities might respond to shifts in river flows caused by climate change and highlights those species potentially at risk.
EUROPEAN FOCUS: BTO at the 9th Conference of the European Ornithologists’ Union...
Whinchat researchers from all over Europe shared their knowledge and expertise at the Norwich meeting.
Plummer, K.E., Bearhop, S., Leech, D.I., Chamberlain, D.E. & Blount, J.D. (2013). Winter food provisioning reduces future breeding performance in a wild bird. Scientific Reports 3, article number 2002. doi: 10.1038/srep02002
Wright, L.J., Newson, S.E. & Noble, D.G. (2013). The value of a random sampling design for annual monitoring of national populations of larger British terrestrial mammals. European Journal of Wildlife Research 60, 213–221. doi: 10.1007/s10344-013-0768-x
2014 | BTO Annual Review 35
Corporate Membership 2013/14 Anglia Sports & Schoolwear Ltd, Anglian Water, Ark Wildlife, R & E Bamford Ltd, Biotrack Ltd, BirdGuides, Birdseye, The Bird Table Ltd, Carl Zeiss Ltd, Ernest Charles, CJ Wildlife, Essex & Suffolk Water, Frontier Holidays Ltd, Gardenature, Gardman Ltd, Grant Arms Hotel, John E Haith Ltd, Jacobi Jayne & Co, JustAddBirds, Natureguides, The Nest Box Co Ltd, Northumbrian Water, Opticron, Paddocks Farm Partnership, Park Hill Nurseries & Garden Centre Ltd, Porzana, Serenata Commerce Ltd, Soar Mill Seeds, Swallowtail Print, Swarovski UK Ltd, Sykes Cottages, Syngenta, Tendley Quarries Ltd, Thames Water Utilities Ltd, Thetford Garden Centre.
Trusts 2013/14 AEB Charitable Trust, The Balmain Charitable Trust, A S Butler Charitable Trust, Charles & Caroline Barratt Charitable Trust, The Benham Charitable Settlement, The Downton Banister Trust, The Dulverton Trust, The Keith Ewart Charitable Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Harris Charitable Trust, Marsh Christian Trust, Lord Medway’s Charitable Trust, The Mitchell Trust, Cecil Pilkington Charitable Trust, The Rowan Bentall Charitable Trust, The Saxham Trust, The Slater Foundation, The Emily Weircroft Charitable Trust, The Whaites Charitable Fund, The Geoffrey Watling Charity, The Valerie White Memorial Trust, The Maldwyn Williams Charitable Trust, The J & J R Wilson Trust.
Legacies 2013/14 Mary Theresa Barker, Emily J Collis, Howard Lloyd Davies, William John Farley-Hills, James Bruce Henry, Maxwell Durno Haggett, Penelope Anne Hollow, Nancy Ursula Johnson, Stephen Charles Knight, Eileen Ruth Munns, Jean Palmer, Neil Taylor, Edith Lorna Thomas, Charles John Dalglish Shackles, Anthea Isabella Webb.
In memoriam 2013/14 John Sidney Ash, Norman ‘Norrie’ Avenell, Jean Barker, Michael Rowland Barker, Kay Bennett, Pamela Blyth, Michael Carpenter, David Clarke, Simon Douglas, Jean Elizabeth (Betty) Finnimore, Pete Goodlad, Phyllis Houseman, Penelope Hollow, Roger Jsted, Jillian Mary MacGuire, Duncan Mackenzie, Christine Martin, Sally Morgan, Andrew Winston Olden, Daniel Pawsey, Betty Robinson, Arthur Henry Smith, Bruce Webster, Dr Edward Williams, Mary Grassick Woolley, Hazel Joan Wright.
Funders of BTO Work 2013/14 Anglian Water Group, Animal Health & Veterinary Laboratories Agency, APEM Ltd, Birdlife International, Breckland Society, Broads Authority, Buro Happold, Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Cefas, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Co-operative Society, Countryside Council for Wales, Dartmoor National Park Authority, Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Energy and Climate Change, Devon Birdwatching and Preservation Society, Environment Agency, Environment Wales, Essex & Suffolk Water, Footprint Ecology, Forewind Ltd, Forestry Commission, Forestry Commission England, Forestry Commission Scotland, Forest Research, Foster & Partners, Fugro EMU Ltd, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Gardline Environmental Ltd, Gardman Ltd, lnstinctif Partners, James Hutton Institute, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (on behalf of the statutory nature conservation agencies: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland), Land Securities, London Borough of Bexley, Make Architects, Manchester Ornithological Society, Manx Bird Life, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Neath & Dulais Angling Club, Natural Environment Research Council, NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Norfolk Biodiversity Information Services, Normandeau Associates, Northumbrian Water Ltd., Opticron, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RWE nPower Ltd, Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Raptor Study Group, Scottish Renewables, Serco Ltd, Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, The Sound Approach, Sussex Ornithological Society, Stanny House Farm, State of Delaware (DNREC), Swarovski UK Ltd (Swarovski Optik), Syngenta, Tasso Leventis Foundation, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, US Fisheries & Wildlife, Welsh Government, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd, Zoological Society of London.
In January 2014, a team of four artists (Robert Greenhalf, Bruce Pearson, Greg Poole and Esther Tyson) accompanied Dr Phil Atkinson, Head of BTO’s International Team, on a trip to Senegal. The trip was part of an innovative new partnership with the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), forged to stimulate interest in bird migration and the scientific work being directed towards our migrant birds, many of which are in long-term decline.
This trip, and the wider project of which it is a part, was made possible because of a generous gift from Penny Hollow in her Will and the kindness of her executors. Penny loved birds and loved art, being a long-standing BTO member and supporter of the SWLA. Her legacy has enabled us to bring together art and science, and to raise the profile of migrant birds in ways that should capture the imagination and interest of a broader audience. Work from the trip will feature at the 2014 Natural Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, and further trips will take place during 2015, where attention will shift to stopover sites in the Mediterranean and to places within the UK, where artists will be given new opportunities to engage with migrant birds.
Penny’s legacy has provided the opportunity for the BTO and SWLA to develop something rather special. It has enabled us to engage with the issues facing migrant birds from different viewpoints and to present our work within a wider context. It has also enabled us to realise a project idea that would have appealed to Penny, with her interest in both art and birds.
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BTO funding in 2013/14We are very grateful for the generous support that we have received, both in time and money, in the past year. In addition to members and other fieldworkers, there are many other individuals and companies who support the work of the BTO with financial contributions. The Trust is particularly pleased to acknowledge the following Corporate Members and other supporters.
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AnnuAl review 2014 PArtnershiP
“The BtO has a vision of a world in which nature conservation and sustainable development are founded on evidence-based decision making, and in which society understands, values and contributes to that process.”
Much of the work referred to in the Annual review relies on volunteers and is undertaken with other organisations, particularly through BtO’s partnership with the Joint nature Conservation Committee (JnCC). JnCC delivers the uK and international responsibilities of the four country nature conservation agencies – natural england, natural resources wales, scottish natural heritage and the Department of the environment northern ireland.
The Breeding Bird survey (BBs) is run by BtO, and jointly funded by BtO, JnCC and the royal society for the Protection of Birds (rsPB). The wetland Bird survey (weBs) is a partnership between BtO, rsPB and JnCC, in association with the wildfowl and wetlands trust. Birdtrack is organised by BtO for BtO, rsPB, Birdwatch ireland, scottish Ornithologists’ Club (sOC) and welsh Ornithological society (wOs).
Bird Atlas 2007–11 was a partnership between BtO, Birdwatch ireland and the sOC.
BtO wales is supported by natural resources wales, environment wales (on behalf of the welsh Government), wOs and the esmée Fairbairn Foundation. BtO northern ireland receives funding from the northern ireland environment Agency.
we are immensely grateful for all our partners’ support.
© British Trust for Ornithology 2014. BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU. Email: [email protected] Website: www.bto.org
Registered Charity no. 216652 (England & Wales) no. SC039193 (Scotland). Cover and back cover: davId kjaER davidkjaer.com
SEABIRD MONITORING PROGRAMMEWelsh ornithological
Cymrunatural Englan
scottish ornitholo gists’ club
RSPBJNCCCounCil for nature Conservation
thern Ireland envIronm
atural heritage
DEFRA