Working with a network of volunteers, static acoustic bat detectors were deployed over a long survey season, to provide the third season of extensive bat data for the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area of the North York Moors National Park. This report provides an overview of the survey coverage and main results from 2022.

Despite the high conservation status of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, little is known about their urban populations Northern Ireland, and even less about how they use the urban environment. This project brings together a number of elements targeted at addressing knowledge gaps for the urban population of gulls in Northern Ireland, chiefly focusing on Belfast city centre. Firstly, breeding gulls in Belfast city centre were estimated using vantage point surveys, contributing to the latest national census and providing data for organisations wishing to reduce human-gull conflict. Secondly, the latest tracking technology was used to investigate how urban-nesting Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls use the urban environment of Belfast, complementing the population monitoring and existing tracking data from Herring Gulls breeding in a nearby coastal colony on Big Copeland Island. Thirdly, the wintering gull population using the shoreline of Belfast Lough was quantified using Wetland Birds Survey and Winter Gull Survey data, as congregations of gulls in the lough may interact with human activities in the lough. Combining these three elements, this study demonstrates that Belfast and the surrounding urban areas are providing not only nesting habitats for gulls, but also food resources which are used throughout the breeding season and during the winter. The presence of foraging gulls within the urban environment may be a symptom of poor waste management in certain regions of the city and may be a source of human-gull conflict.

As part of the consenting process for The National Grid Hinkley Connection Project, a tracking study was commissioned to track the movements of 15 Wigeon Anas penelope, with specific objectives to provide data on the flight paths that birds might take between the Severn Estuary SPA and the Somerset Levels and Moors SPA, and to explore how these relate to the route of the National Grid Hinkley Connection Project between Bridgwater and Seabank. Investigations also examined the frequency of movements through the winter period, and the flight heights and speeds of birds.

This report presents the results of GPS tracking of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) breeding at the Bowland Fells Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protection Area (SPA) in 2017 and 2018. The report builds on previous results from 2016. The aims of the study were to identify potential feeding areas and to quantify the amount of time spent by the gulls within the SPA boundary.