Abstract from BTO Research Report No 336:

Musgrove, A., Newson, S., Fairney, N., Sanderson. B. & Whitehead, S.

Marine Monitoring Project: Ground and Aerial Monitoring Protocols for In Shore Special Protection Areas. Common Scoter Surveys in Carmarthen Bay During the Winter of 2002-03
ISBN: 1-904870-61-9

Executive summary

During the winter of 2002-03, a series of ground and aerial counts of Common Scoters Melanitta nigra was undertaken in Carmarthen Bay, south Wales, to maintain an existing monitoring programme and to investigate methodological and interpretative issues arising from counts.

Ground-based monitoring counts from three vantage points were carried out on four days. Further ground-based counts to investigate methodological issues were carried out on another eight days. Eight aerial surveys of the bay were undertaken, four each using two separate methods, hereafter described as the ‘census-method’ (transects flown at an average altitude of 152 m and at a separation distance of 1 km, designed to record all of the birds in the bay) and the ‘distance-method’ (transects flown at an average altitude of 76 m and at a separation distance of 2 km, designed to account for missed birds using distance sampling protocols).

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