International Golden Plover survey

11 Sep 2014 Golden Plovers by Ronald Surgenor
On 11–12 October 2014 there will be a coordinated census of Eurasian Golden Plovers across Europe, repeating comparable surveys carried out in 2008 and 2003. The majority of Golden Plovers are concentrated in northwest Europe in October, making it the best time to assess the status of the population. In Britain and Ireland, counts of Golden Plover (and Lapwing) will be collated by BTO and BirdWatch Ireland, within the framework of an International Wader Study Group project.
 
Golden Plover numbers provided through Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS, UK) and Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS, Ireland) Core Counts will be the key sources of data, in combination with records provided through BirdTrack.
 
So if you are not a WeBS/I-WeBS counter – or are and find Golden Plovers away from your Core Count site(s) – please use BirdTrack to log your counts of Golden Plover on 11–12 October.
 
Please try to be as accurate as possible with your counts, ideally to within the nearest 5 for flocks of up to 100, the nearest 20 for flocks up 500 and the nearest 50 for flocks of up to 1,000.
 
To add even more value to your counts, please use the 'Pinpoint' feature (accessed via the '+' button when adding casual records or species lists online) to give a 6-digit grid reference for each flock.
 
It will also be useful if you can describe the habitat the flock was using, via the 'Habitat' option, using one of the following 6 terms:
 
Estuary

Non-estuarine
Grassland/pastoral
Arable
Freshwater marsh
Other



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