TheBreeding Bird Survey1994-1995 The BreedingBird SurveyReport 1994-1995 The Breeding Bird Suntey 1994-7995 ReportlVumber 1 by R.D.Gregory & R.I.Bashford Withthe assistance of D.E.Balmeq, I.H. Marchant, A.M. Wilson & S.R.Baillie Publishedby BritishTrust for Ornithology,Joint Nature Conservation Committee and RoyalSociety for theProtection of Birds, August1996 @ BritishTrust for Ornithology,Joint Nature Conservation Committee and RoyalSociety for theProtection of Birds,1996 *Rttfi& CONSERVATION BritishTrust for 0rnithology COMMITTEE F E H rsBN0 e037e363 6 (BTO) * r€s g ffi 116 Hii: The Breed Bird SurveyReporc 1994-1995 BREEDINGBIRDSURYEY Organisedand tunded by: British Trust for Orntthology TheNational Centre for Ornithology,The Nunnery Thetford,Norfolk IP24 2PU Joint Natue ConsewationCommittee MonktoneHouse, City Road, PeterboroughPEI UY RoyalSociety for the Pmtectionof Birds TheLodge, Saldy, BedfordshireSGl9 zDL BBSNauonal Organiser: Richard Bashford - Briush Trust for Ornithology Thisreport is providedfree to all BBScounters, none of whom receivefinancial rewards for their invaluablework. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Tiis is the first BreedingBird suruey[BBs) Annual Report covering the yearslgg4 and 1995. The datacontained within havebeen collected almostentirely by the effo s of nearly2000 volunteerornithologisis without whom, the BBSwould not be possible.This repoft, and thoseto follow, are testamentto the generousefforts of highly skiled volunteers. We would alsolike to thank member; of RSPBstaff ilscotland for their assistancein carrying out professionalfieldwork in remote areas. ^ The BBSis organisedby the Bdtish Trust for Ornithologyand jointly funded by the British Trust for Ornithology,the Joint Nature ConseNation Committee(on behalf of EnglishNature, Scottish Naturt Heritage,Countryside Council for walesand the Deiartmentof the Environmentfor Northemlreland)and the Royalsociety for the Protectionof Biids. The I'BSsteering croup compisesDr SiephenBaiuie (BTo), Dr Rtchird Gregory[BTO), David Stoud (]NCC)and Dr Davidcibbons [RSPB]. .^Ig.t9 u.ry _9.t".ry1b-thefollowing peolle who havein someway providedassistance in the first two yearsof the scheme:Dr Mark Ayery {lllB]r Lln 4ylwalq {BTO),Dr lan Bainb dge(RSPB), Dawn Balmer (BiO], ceorgeBoobyer (JNCC), Tracey Brookes (BTO), Dr CotinCatbraith (JNcc), Dr,David Gibbons(RSPB), Dr Jeremy_Greenwood (BTo), \,iv}Ii6m {BTb),Jod rrairctrani1oroj, chris M;rley'iBTo), Carotpovey (BTOI'Dr KenSmith (RSPB), David Stroud (JNCC), Susan waghorn (BTO), and Anarew Wilson (BTCj). Sp;ciat thanks gb io tire.tateDr Stev6 Carterwho actedas the BBSNational Orsaniser in 1994. The PilotCensus Ploject, which wasa forerunneroI the BBS,was supponed under a contmctfrom the JointNature Conseruation Committee ion behalfof EnglishNature, Scottish Natural Heritage, Countyside C'ouncil for Walesand the Departmintof the Environmentfor Northern Ireland)'The- proiect to_evahrate sampling_str_ategies wasfunded bythe RoyalSociety for the ProtectionofBitds. Membersofthe BTO'Slntegrated iYlolLrtglng_w9fkilg "Moss, lopllltun Group,Dr Riys creen, Prof.steve BucKand, Di NichotasAebisher, Dr Johncoss,custard, Dr Dorian DavidStroud,-Dr Ken Smith, Dr JeremyGreenwood, Dr Will Peach,and Dr HumphreyC ck, provid;din;aluable advice on the survey'OlSdesign. The mapsof cov€Iageand distfibution were producedusing DMAP which was ;itte; by Di Aan Morton. The coverillustration anO to'go areby AndrewWilson. Otherillushations in this reportare by the late CrispinFisher, Simon cillings, Dayid Thelwell and RobHume. Repo-rt productionis by Nicki Read. Dedication Thefirst issue of the BBSreport is dedicatedto Dr SteveCarter, the firutnauonai organiser of the scheme,who diedon 2l September1995. Citatloft Grcgory,R.D., Bashford, R.t., Balmer, D.E., Marchant, J.H., Wilson, A.M. & Baillie,S.R. p96. TheBrceding Bird SurueytqQ4 19q5 B tish Trustfor Omithology,Thetford. 2 The BreedingBird SurveyReport 1994-1995 The Breeding Bird Sunsey 1994-1995 Suvey Speciescoverage ................8 Between-yeilchanges ........ .........12 Countrybasedtrends........... .........13 Habitatcoverage .............14 15 Humansites -uldiscovered tenit0ry............... ..............................15 Uplaldsquares - hud work producing valuable data.... .................15 The BreedingBird SurveyReport 1994-l.995 BreedingBird Survey INTRODUCTION in farmingpractice seem most likely to be responsible.Our findings havestimulated related research and specific action plans designed to Th. needto monitorwildlife populations has arguably never been so I geat, with large-scalechanges in farmingpractices and new human help thesebirds recover. CBC data have also contributed to the developmentincreasingly evident all acrossthe UK. Effectivebird Government'sBiodiversity Action Plans for the UK. programmes conservationwould simplynot be possibleif therewere no monitoring Few monitoring can comparewith the qualityand programmesto tell us how populationlevels are changing and, ideally, durationof the CBCand WBS. Long-terminformation of this kind is to providepointers as to why thesechanges are taking place. Monitoring extremelyrare andvaluable for that reason.Despite the considerable birds,as opposedto other elementsof our wildlife,has the added achievementsof the schemes, however, there are a numberof limitations advantagethat birds can act as a valuablebarometer of the healthof the to the territorymapping method, as carried out by BTO: widercountryside. The BTO has been at theforefront of birdmonitoring . The geographicaldistribution of surveyplots is not representative work sinceit was formedand hasan internationalreputation in this of the UK asa wholewith mostsquares being concentrated in the area. southand east. Againstthis backcloth the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) was introduced o Onlyfarmland, woodland and riparian habitats are represented. in the breedingseason of 1994as an annualsurvey of widespreadand o Becauseobservers choose areas they wish to census,bird populations abundantlandbirds across the UK. The threeBBS partners are the in thesample may not be representative of UK birdpopulations as a BritishTrust for Ornithology,the NatureConservation Joint Committee whole. (on behalfof EnglishNature, Scottish Natural Heritage, Countryside Councilfor Walesand the Departmentof the Environmentfor Northern o Relativelyfew plots can be covered in.total (approximately 200 CBC Ireland)and the RoyalSociety for the Protectionof Birds.This exciting and 100WBS plots) because of the time-consumingnature of the newpartnership demonstrates our shared interests in wildlifemonitoring, fieldworkand analysis required by the mappingmethod. in which eachorganisailon makes a uniqueand valuable contribution. It is vitalthat we continuethe CBCin parallelwith BBSfor sometime The BBScomplements the annualmonitoring of rarebreeding birds, sothat the results from the two canbe properly calibrated. waterbirds,and seabirds that is carriedout by a numberof differentUK organisationsand partnerships. Survey development Thisis the first annualreport of the BBSand is designedto inform birdwatchers,especially survey volunteers and organisers,of progress We havebeen exploring alternative ways of monitoringcommon birds andof futureplans. It will alsoprovide a valuablesource of information for sometime. Beforeembarking on a new surveyscheme it was for conservationpractitioners and policy makers who areinterested in essentiaithat the alternativeswere properly assessed. This involved a the resultsof the suryey. Herewe describethe backgroundto the numberof field anddesk based studies dating back to the late 1980s. scheme'sintroduction and population change between 1994 and 1995. Thereare two obviousalternatives to territorymapping for wide-scale bird monitoringand these are line or pointcount transects. Al1 three methodsare used for thispurpose other Previous monitoring in Europeancountries and in NorthAmerica. TheCommon Birds Census (CBC) and Waterways Bird Survey (WBS) First,we testedwhether point counts carried out on CBCplots were havebeen the main monitoring tools for commonbirds in theUK over ableto measurepopulation changes among birds in the sameway as thelast 35 years. Both are based on a surveymethod known as "territory CBCmapping. The answer was that they could simplymaking two mapping"which involves intensive fieldwork designed to mapbreeding pointcounts per year on a CBCplot produced measures of population territoriesof birdswithin a chosenplot. Skilledvolunteers make typically changethat were similar to CBC,but with a greatsaving in timefor the nine or ten visitsto their plot eachyear to recordbirds. Theyreturn volunteer.While point counts provided a reliableoverall picture of bird theirsurvey maps to BTOHO wherethe positionand number of bird populations,they did not provide information at the individual plot level territoriesare assessed by trainedstaff. thatwas comparable with CBC.This showed us that alternative suryey Theseschemes have proved highly valuable in revealingpopulation methodswere feasibleand that asfew astwo sitevisits per year were fluctuationsamong British birds and helping to understandtheir causes. acceptablefor monitoringpurposes, provided that the numberof sites P L CBCdata have played a keyrole in drawingup thenew listingsof Birds coveredwas relatively large. In fact,we estlmatedthat at leastone l! h of ConservatlonConcern, in which a numberof relativelycommon thousandsites would need to becovered by point counts for monitoring E E birdsare now listedas of highconservation concern,