The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) Further research and surveys

Whilst the WeBS Core Counts are an excellent monitoring scheme for assessing the UK’s non-breeding waterbirds, there is also a need for additional “special” WeBS surveys to improve monitoring of certain habitats or species for which the standard scheme does not provide the most useful data. The more recent WeBS Special Surveys are described below.

Population estimates

Estimates of the numbers of wintering coastal waders in the UK were published in 2003 - click here for a summary.

Little Egrets in Britain

Numbers of Little Egrets in the UK have increased massively in recent years. For an update on our knowledge of the status of the Little Egret in Britain, click here.

Non-estuarine Coastal Waterbird Survey (NEWS)

The UK’s non-estuarine coasts support important numbers of many species, notably Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper and Turnstone. Whilst most non-estuarine species are monitored by WeBS Core Counts, it is often the case that only a small proportion of the total population is recorded on an annual basis. For this reason, periodic surveys of non-estuarine coast are carried out. In 1984-85, the Winter Shorebird Count was undertaken and this was followed up by NEWS, piloted in 1994-95 and with a full survey taking place in 1997-98.

The results of NEWS are reported in the following Bird Study paper:

Rehfisch, M.M., Holloway, S.J. & Austin, G.E. (2003) Population estimates of waders on the United Kingdom’s and the Isle of Man’s non-estuarine coasts during the winter of 1997-98. Bird Study, 50, 22-32.

Further queries should be directed to at BTO.

Dispersed Waterbirds Survey (DWS)

Whilst WeBS monitors a large proportion of most of the UK’s waterbird species, there has been little understanding to date of how many waterbirds are present on small waterbirds, streams, flooded fields and ditches, i.e. in the wider countryside. To address this question, a pilot survey was carried out in the 2000-01 winter, followed by a full survey during January 2003. Both of these surveys were carried out by asking volunteers to count birds within random squares of the UK national grid.

Results of the January 2003 survey will be published in a forthcoming edition of Bird Study.

For further details of both pilot and full surveys, please contact at BTO.

Riverine Survey

At present, coverage of rivers by WeBS is very poor compared to that of estuaries and still waters. Consequently, WeBS undoubtedly misses a significant proportion of the UK populations of several species which use river habitats, e.g. Goosander, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Goldeneye to name a few. Furthermore, there may be stretches of rivers that are nationally or even internationally important for waterbirds, which have not yet been identified. To address these problems, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust is organising a national WeBS Riverine Survey for the winter of 2003-04, following pilot fieldwork carried out January 2000 and January 2001.

For further details of both pilot and full surveys, click here or contact at WWT.

STOP PRESS: This survey has been postponed - click here for details