BTO Research Report 429 Coverage of designated sites in England by BTO bird monitoring schemes: a review to 2005 Authors G.J. Conway, H.Q.P. Crick, R.J. Fuller, M. Handschuh, I.M.D. Maclean, J.H. Marchant, A.J. Musgrove, S.E. Newson, D.G. Noble, M.M. Rehfisch & R.M. Thewlis A report to English Nature January 2006 © British Trust for Ornithology and English Nature British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU Registered Charity No. 216652 CONTENTS Page No. List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures...................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Appendices............................................................................................................................... 3 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 The concept of Common Standards Monitoring................................................................. 5 1.2 Common Standards Monitoring of English ornithological sites........................................ 5 1.3 The objectives of this report.................................................................................................. 7 2 HOW THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CONDUCTED ........................................................... 9 2.1 Wetland Bird Survey ............................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows (BWWM) .................................................................. 10 2.3 Heronries Census ................................................................................................................. 11 2.4 Woodlark, Nightjar, Dartford Warbler and Peregrine surveys...................................... 11 2.5 BTO Register of Ornithological Sites................................................................................. 12 3 APPROACHES TO MONITORING THE QUALITY OF BREEDING BIRD ASSEMBLAGES AT SSSIs ................................................................................................ 13 3.1 Background .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Requirements ....................................................................................................................... 14 3.3 Can existing schemes provide sufficient data?.................................................................. 14 3.3.1 BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey........................................................... 15 3.3.2 BTO/RSPB/BWI BirdTrack ................................................................................ 15 3.3.3 BTO/WWT/RSPB/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey................................................ 15 3.3.4 BTO/EN/RSPB Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows.......................................... 16 3.3.5 Single species surveys (SCARABBS) .................................................................. 16 3.3.6 Atlas projects......................................................................................................... 16 3.3.7 Rare Breeding Birds Panel .................................................................................. 16 3.3.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 16 3.4 A suggested approach to assembling lists of breeding species on SSSIs ......................... 17 3.5 Proposal for a pilot study in 2006....................................................................................... 18 3.5.1 Field study design for timed lists......................................................................... 19 3.5.2 Synthesising data from timed lists and supplementary sources ....................... 19 3.5.3 Assessing potential coverage................................................................................ 19 3.5.4 Some general issues............................................................................................... 20 3.6 Resource requirements........................................................................................................ 20 4 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS BY COUNTY AND BY SSSI............................................. 21 5 OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS............................................................................................ 107 5.1 Wetland Bird Survey findings .......................................................................................... 107 5.5.1 Issues surrounding WeBS Core Counts carried out at low tide..................... 109 5.2 Heronries Census findings ................................................................................................ 113 5.3 SCARABBS surveys .......................................................................................................... 113 5.4 Ringed Plover survey findings .......................................................................................... 114 5.5 Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows findings ................................................................... 114 BTO Research Report 429 1 January 2006 Page No. 6 PRIORITIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................. 115 6.1 Priorities and recommendations for waterbirds ............................................................. 115 6.1.1 Determining count area boundaries.................................................................. 116 6.1.2 Minor adjustments to count area boundaries .................................................. 116 6.1.3 Extension of geographic coverage ..................................................................... 116 6.1.4 Extension of temporal coverage......................................................................... 117 6.1.5 Sites not previously covered............................................................................... 117 6.1.6 Increasing volunteer or professional coverage................................................. 117 6.1.7 Specialist surveys and additional information for difficult species................ 120 6.1.8 Monitoring waterbirds during passage periods............................................... 122 6.2 Heronries Census ............................................................................................................... 122 6.3 Future National Peregrine Surveys.................................................................................. 123 6.4 Future SCARABBS surveys of heathland ....................................................................... 123 6.5 Future national Ringed Plover surveys............................................................................ 128 6.6 Future surveys of species and assemblages of wet habitats............................................ 128 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 134 References........................................................................................................................................ 135 BTO Research Report 429 2 January 2006 List of Tables Page No. Table 1 Summary of coverage of sites differing in biological importance.......................... 107 Table 2 Summary of mean WeBS coverage of SSSIs by English Nature county ............... 108 Table 3 SSSIs for designated for waterbird features for which action is most urgently required..................................................................................................... 115 Table 4 The 57 SSSIs where WeBS coverage may be attained relatively easily using volunteer counters................................................................................................... 118 Table 5 The 29 SSSIs where WeBS coverage could perhaps be attained through volunteer counters................................................................................................... 119 Table 6 Summary of coverage and recommendations for heathland SSSIs, categorised hierarchically by designation type .......................................................................... 125 Table 7 Summary of coverage and recommendations for wet grassland SSSIs, categorised hierarchically by designation type ....................................................... 129 List of Figures Figure 1 The location of SSSIs designated for waterbirds in England.................................. 109 Figure 2 Breakdown of counts of WeBS coastal sections by state of tide............................ 110 List of Appendices Appendix 1 How to use the English SSSIs CSM database ........................................................ 137 Appendix 2 The GIS project file and how to use it .................................................................... 139 Appendix 3 Coverage, importance and priority for each SSSI for which waterbirds are a designated feature........................................................................................... 141 Appendix 4 Nationally and regionally important heronries ....................................................... 149 Appendix 5 Reports and other outputs from the BTO Register of Ornithological Sites ............ 155 BTO Research Report 429 3 January 2006 BTO Research Report 429 4 January 2006