Dawn Balmer | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology

Job Description

Head of Surveys

Role

The Surveys Team at the BTO runs most of its large-scale bird surveys, including the Wetland Bird Survey, Breeding Bird Survey, BirdTrack, Waterways Breeding Bird Survey and Heronries Census. In addition, Dawn also maintains and coordinates the Regional Network, BTO's network of volunteer Regional Representatives. She also has responsibility for Regional Conferences.

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Environmental Science, Polytechnic South West, Plymouth 1988–91.

Interests & Responsibilities

The Surveys Team organises volunteer-based surveys to collect the data that are core to the BTO’s work on bird populations, including population estimates, trends and distribution. I have a long-term interest in migration and movements of birds and population dynamics. Dawn was the Atlas Coordinator for Bird Altas 2007–11.

Other Information

Editorial Board Member of British Birds, Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust and writes regularly for British Wildlife and Sandgrouse. Keen birdwatcher, ringer, general naturalist and enjoy photography. The Bird Atlas 2007–11 team were recipients of the 2014 RSPB Medal. Member of the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee.

Recent BTO Publications

Chris B. Thaxter, Cat Horswill, Kathryn E. Ross, Graham E. Austin, Dawn E. Balmer and Niall H.K. Burton 2017. Urban Breeding Gull Surveys: A Survey Design Simulation. Research Report no. 699. British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford ISBN: 978-1-908581-78-5 60pp

Download Report (1.33 MB),

Download Report (8.12 MB)

Harris, S.J., Massimino, D., Newson, S.E., Eaton, M.A., Marchant, J.H., Balmer, D.E., Noble, D.G., Gillings, S., Procter, D. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W. 2016. The Breeding Bird Survey 2015. Research Report no. 687. Link to publication ISBN: 978-1-908581-69-3 23pp

Clewley, G.D., Norfolk, D.L., Leech, D.I. & Balmer, D.E. 2016. Playback survey trial for the Little Owl Athene noctua in the UK. Bird Study 63 (part 2) : 268-272 View at journal website (DOI: 10.1080/00063657.2016.1180344)

Kathryn E Ross, Niall H K Burton, Dawn E Balmer, Elizabeth M Humphreys, Graham E Austin, Beth Goddard, Helena Schindler-Dite and Mark M Rehfisch 2016. Urban Breeding Gull Surveys: A Review of Methods and Options for Survey Design. Research Report no. 680. ISBN: 978-1-908581-70-9 58pp

Download Report (999.98 KB)

Harris, S.J., Massimino, D., Newson, S.E., Eaton, M.A., Balmer, D.E., Noble, D.G., Musgrove, A.J., Gillings, S., Procter, D. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W. 2015. The Breeding Bird Survey 2014. Research Report no. 673. Link to publication ISBN: 978-1-908581-56-3 24pp

Gillings, S., Balmer, D.E. & Fuller, R.J. 2015. Directionality of recent bird distribution shifts and climate change in Great Britain. Global Change Biology Link to publication View at journal website (DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12823)

View all BTO publications for this author