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| Introduction to WeBS (Flora Blackett) |
For those of you who might be
scratching your head thinking- WeBS?? It stands for Wetland Bird Survey and is
designed to monitor the UK's internationally important non-breeding
waterbirds. Run with partners BTO (British Trust of Ornithology), RSPB
(Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation
Committee) and WWT (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) it is a longstanding survey
that started in 1947. The idea is that wetland sites are counted once a month,
providing data for population and trends in both abundance and distribution.
"Waterbirds" includes wildfowl such as ducks, geese and swans,
additionally waders, rails, divers, grebes, cormorants and herons. Terns and
gulls can also be optionally included. This is data collected across the
country by volunteers and has created an enormous data set, spanning
generations of birds. The data is then used for conservation management
purposes such as to set boundaries for reserves, help assess how well, year by
year, the birds are travelling, which public footpaths to use at what time of
year to best leave wildlife undisturbed.
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| Learning to count large numbers of birds (Flora Blackett) |
Here at Lindisfarne, we have
been running WeBS counts for many years. Our Reserve is split into seven
different sections for the counts as it is such a big area- with some birds
species being counted well into the 1000s (sometimes 10,000s) of individuals.
Big numbers to keep track of- but a lot of fun!
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| Big numbers of Light-bellied Brent Geese lifting from Budle Bay (Flora Blackett) |
Coast Care Volunteers have
decided to join in with WeBS and are going to start tackling the area around Embleton. As these surveys require consistent repetition, we were happy to step
in and give as many volunteers as would like to learn, a proper introduction to
this great British tradition. We were joined by about 20 volunteers down at
Budle Bay, with bird identifying skills ranging from those that know very few wetland
birds all the way up to those that have been amateur bird watching for years.
To get involved you don’t need to be a brilliant bird spotter, as you can learn
from those that have more experience, all you need is a good sense of fun and a
passion to see wildlife in the wild. A good pair of binoculars and a bird ID
book is also a pretty good help too!
