4. NEST RECORDING

The NRS provides information on breeding performance of British and Irish birds, now used as part of the IPM programme. It has been running since 1939 and currently receives c.35,000 cards per year. Each card records details for an individual nest:- location, dates of visits and observations made, outcome of nest, habitat, nest-site, etc. For standardisation and easy computerisation, most of the information is in coded form, much machine-readable. Cross-references to ringing of adults or chicks are recorded. There are now more than one million records on file, about one third of which are computerised. The scheme has benefited from a number of recent reviews of its operation and function.

The monitoring of breeding success is important both as a formal component of IPM and because changes in reproductive success are sometimes detectable before consequent changes in population size. In such cases, the NRS thus provides an early warning system for populations in trouble. Annual monitoring is currently reported for 85 species, covering a range of ecological types (waterbirds, raptors, migrant and resident passerines) and a range of habitats. Recent reports have alerted JNCC to significant declines in breeding performance of a number of species.

In addition to their use within IPM analyses, nest record cards are also analysed to investigate the breeding performance of species of conservation interest and aspects of basic breeding biology. More than 250 papers have been published. Of particular importance has been the discovery of long-term trends towards earlier laying by a significant number of species, which have been found to be linked to climate change in the UK. It provides one of the best examples of the impact of climate change on wildlife at a national scale.

Key References

Chamberlain, D.E. & Crick, H.Q.P. (1999). Population declines and reproductive performance of Skylarks Alauda arvensis in different regions and habitats of the United Kingdom. Ibis 141: 38-51.

Crick, H.Q.P. & Baillie, S.R. (1996). A Review of the BTO's Nest Record Scheme: Its Value to the JNCC and Country Agencies, and its Methodology. BTO Research Report No. 159. BTO, Thetford.

Crick, H.Q.P., Dudley, C., Glue, D.E. & Thomson, D.L. (1997). UK birds are laying earlier. Nature, 388: 526.

Crick, H.Q.P. & Sparks, T.H. (1999). Climate change related to egg-laying trends. Nature, 399: 423-242.

Crick, H.Q.P., Gibbons, D.W. & McGrath, R.D. (1993). Seasonal changes in clutch size in British birds. Journal of Animal Ecology, 62: 263-273.

Glue, D.E. & Boswell, T. (1994). Comparative nesting ecology of the three British breeding woodpeckers. British Birds, 87: 253-269.

Mayer-Gross, H., Crick, H.Q.P. & Greenwood, J.J.D. (1997). The effect of observers visiting the nests of passerines: an experimental study. Bird Study, 44: 53-65.

Perrins, C.M. & Crick, H.Q.P. (1996). Influence of lunar cycle on laying dates of European Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus). Auk, 113: 705-708.

Rodrigues, M. & Crick, H.Q.P. (1997). The breeding biology of the Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita in Britain: a comparison of an intensive study with records of the BTO Nest Record Scheme. Bird Study, 44: 374-383.

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