Repeat Playback Census of Breeding European Storm Petrels on the Skokholm and Skomer SPA in 2016
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Repeat playback census of breeding European Storm Petrels on the Skokholm and Skomer SPA in 2016 Matt J. Wood1, Vicky Taylor2, Alastair Wilson2, Oliver Padget3, Hannah Andrews2, Birgitta Büche2, Nicci Cox2, Ros Green1, Tracy-Anne Hooley2, Leighton Newman2, Elisa Miquel-Riera2, Sam Perfect2, Ed Stubbings2, Erin Taylor2, Jane Taylor2, Jason Moss2, Giselle Eagle2 & Richard Brown2 1 University of Gloucestershire 2 Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales 3 University of Oxford Rev No Date About Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales is the organisation responsible for the work carried out by the three former organisations, The Countryside Council for Wales, Environment Agency Wales and Forestry Commission Wales. It is also responsible for some functions previously undertaken by Welsh Government. Our purpose is to ensure that the natural resources of Wales are sustainably maintained, used and enhanced, now and in the future. We work for the communities of Wales to protect people and their homes as much as possible from environmental incidents like flooding and pollution. We provide opportunities for people to learn, use and benefit from Wales’ natural resources. We work to support Wales’ economy by enabling the sustainable use of natural resources to support jobs and enterprise. We help businesses and developers to understand and consider environmental limits when they make important decisions. We work to maintain and improve the quality of the environment for everyone and we work towards making the environment and our natural resources more resilient to climate change and other pressures. Lindley, Patrick, 01/05/2017 Page 2 of 48 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Evidence at Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales is an evidence base organisation. We seek to ensure that our strategy, decisions, operations and advice to Welsh Government and others are underpinned by sound and quality-assured evidence. We recognise that it is critically important to have a good understanding of our changing environment. We will realise this vision by: Maintaining and developing the technical specialist skills of our staff; Securing our data and information; Having a well resourced proactive programme of evidence work; Continuing to review and to add to our evidence to ensure it is fit for the challenges facing us; and Communicating our evidence in an open and transparent way. This Evidence Report series saves as a record of work carried out or commissioned by Natural Resources Wales. It also helps us to share and promote use of our evidence by others and develop future collaborations. However, the views and recommendations presented in this report are not necessarily those of NRW and should, therefore, not be attributed to NRW. Lindley, Patrick, 01/05/2017 Page 3 of 48 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Report series: NRW Science Report Report number: Need to confirm Publication date: Need to confirm Contract number: Need to confirm Contractor: Insert Contractor Manager: Patrick Lindley Title: Insert Author: Insert Technical Editor: Patrick Lindley Restrictions: None Distribution List (Core) NRW Library, Bangor 2 National Library of Wales 1 British Library 1 Welsh Government Library 1 Scottish Natural Heritage Library 1 Natural England Library (Electronic Only) 1 Distribution List (others) Recommended citation for this volume: Insert Lindley, Patrick, 01/05/2017 Page 4 of 48 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Contents 1. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 7 2. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 7 3. Methods ........................................................................................................................... 8 3.1. Study site and survey protocols................................................................................. 8 3.2. Estimation of response rate to playback for survey calibration .................................. 8 3.2.1. Calibrating response to playback. ....................................................................... 8 3.2.2. Surveying inaccessible areas ............................................................................. 9 4. Results ........................................................................................................................... 10 4.1. Estimating response rate to call playback ............................................................... 10 Figure 1. Accumulation curves of AOS detected by playback ........................................ 10 4.2. Estimation of the number of AOS on Skokholm Island ............................................ 12 Table 1. Habitat-specific response rates to call playback in calibration sites on Skokholm and Skomer Islands........................................................................................................ 14 Table 2. Estimating the total number of Apparently Occupied Sites of European Storm Petrels on Skokholm Island ............................................................................................ 15 Table 3. Summary of previous estimates of the number of breeding European Storm Petrels at The Quarry on Skokholm Island, 2001-2016. ................................................. 16 4.3. Estimation of the number of AOS on Skomer Island ............................................... 16 Table 4. Estimating the total number of Apparently Occupied Sites of European Storm Petrels on Skomer Island ............................................................................................... 17 Table 5. Summary of previous estimates of the number of breeding European Storm Petrels on Skomer Island, 1993-2016. ........................................................................... 18 Figure 2. Previous estimates of the number of breeding European Storm Petrels on Skomer Island, 1993-2016. ............................................................................................ 18 4.4. Estimating the breeding population of European Storm Petrels in the Skokholm and Skomer SPA ................................................................................................................... 18 5. Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 19 5.1. Previous population estimates on the islands ......................................................... 19 5.2. UK population trends and survey protocols ............................................................. 20 Figure 3. Estimates of the number of Apparently Occupied Sites (AOS) of European Storm Petrels at The Quarry on Skokholm Island, 1970-2016. ...................................... 21 5.3. Revision of previous population estimates .............................................................. 21 6. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 22 7. References .................................................................................................................... 22 8. Appendix 1: Survey Data ............................................................................................... 24 8.1. Skokholm Island data .............................................................................................. 24 8.1.1. Playback response rate calibration sites. .......................................................... 24 Lindley, Patrick, 01/05/2017 Page 5 of 48 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk 8.1.2. Playback survey sites ....................................................................................... 26 8.1.3. Infra-red survey sites ........................................................................................ 27 8.2. Skomer Island data ................................................................................................. 28 8.2.1. Playback response rate calibration sites ........................................................... 28 8.2.2. Playback survey sites ....................................................................................... 30 9. Appendix 2: Site descriptions ......................................................................................... 31 9.1. Skokholm Island ...................................................................................................... 31 9.1.1. Map of survey sites ........................................................................................... 31 9.1.2. Aerial photography of The Quarry ..................................................................... 32 9.1.3. Survey site details ............................................................................................. 33 9.2. Skomer Island ......................................................................................................... 35 9.2.1. Map of survey sites ........................................................................................... 35 9.2.2. Survey site details ............................................................................................. 36 Please DO NOT DELETE THIS SECTION BREAK Lindley, Patrick, 01/05/2017 Page 6 of 48 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk 1. Summary ● A team from the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW), the University of Oxford and the University of Gloucestershire (UoG) carried out this SPA-wide census of an internationally important population