Dawn Balmer

Head of Surveys

Dawn Balmer

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.

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

Gillings, S., Balmer, D.E., Caffrey, B.J., Downie, I.S., Gibbons, D.W., Lack, P.C., Reid, J.B., Sharrock, J.T.R., Swann, R.L. & Fuller, R.J. 2019. Breeding and wintering bird distributions in Britain and Ireland from citizen science bird atlases. Global Ecology and Biogeography View at journal website (DOI: 10.1111/geb.12906)
M. W. Wilson, D. E. Balmer, K. Jones, V. A. King, D. Raw, C. J. Rollie, E. Rooney, M. Ruddock, G. D. Smith, A. Stevenson, P. K. Stirling-Aird, C. V. Wernham, J. M. Weston & D. G. Noble. 2018. The breeding population of Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands in 2014. Bird Study Link to publication View at journal website (DOI: 10.1080/00063657.2017.1421610)
Graham Austin, Teresa Frost, Heidi Mellan, Dawn Balmer 2017. Results of the third Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey, including Population Estimates for Key Waterbird Species. Research Report no. 697. British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk ISBN: 9781908581860 69pp
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
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
View all BTO publications for this author

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