Reporting

To be able to successfully renew your Schedule 1 permit you need to complete your reporting for the current year and then make an online renewal.  It is a condition of your Schedule 1 permit/licence that a return is made before a new permit/licence can be issued.

If at all possible you should report through the Nest Record Scheme (see below), ideally electronically via DemOn or IPMR, but if you are unable to do this, cards for completing by hand can be requested – use the nrs [at] bto.org email or telephone us and ask for Nest Records. Nest records maximise the usefulness of your data. Please complete a report form if you do NOT submit nest records, and submit this by email as a word document or PDF to ringing.schedule1 [at] bto.orgDo not use the report form for sites you have already reported on via nest records.

A nil return means you have not made use of the permit and have not visited any of the sites for the species. No report form is required, but please indicate a nil return on the renewal form.

You should only record and submit empty sites for those species of specific interest to the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, the full list can be found at www.rbbp.org.uk. This includes all Schedule 1 species except: Gadwall, Leach's Petrel, Red Kite, Ring-necked Parakeet, Barn Owl, Kingfisher, Crested Tit, Woodlark, Crossbill and Scottish Crossbill. All data received through the Nest Record Scheme or on the standard Schedule 1 report forms for species of interest to the Rare Breeding Birds Panel are passed to them and all data are made available to the relevant Country Agency on request.

Country-specific information

Scottish Schedule 1 permit holders you can use one of the above methods of return, or for raptors only, report to the relevant Raptor Study Group or directly to the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (SRMS) (via the Raptor Monitoring Officer and on the standard spreadsheet).

Welsh Schedule 1 licence holders - when you submit your renewal, you must also email a copy of your NRW licence for the previous year to ringing.schedule1 [at] bto.org

Reporting deadlines

Reports must be made for all species and counties covered by your permit before 14 November of the current year with exception of Barn Owl which should be submitted as soon as possible after this deadline; this is a condition of the Schedule 1 permit. The reporting methods available are dependent on a) the type of Schedule 1 permit you hold and b) the type of data collected.

Choose the section below depending on the type of permit you have.

Ringing and Nest Recording

If you have been issued with a permit/licence for ringing and nest recording, the recommended way to report on the nest sites you monitor is to submit nest records to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. This way, the data you collect can be incorporated into the breeding trends published in the BirdTrends report, and be readily used by RBBP, maximising the conservation value of your data.

You can now report on all of your sites via the Nest Record Scheme. This includes sites where you have only seen adults present, where a known site is unoccupied as well as recording active nest sites. If you report on all your sites using nest records, you DO NOT need to fill out a separate Schedule 1 Report Form.

The Schedule 1 Report Form (available on request) should not be used if you have submitted nest records. Forms are not routinely computerised and so the data they contain can't easily be used by the BTO or RBBP. For this reason, we recommend reporting on all your sites via nest records - please click above for how to do this.

If you have not used your permit/licence for a species in a county you can simply report this on the renewal form.

Nest recording only

If you have been issued with a permit/license for nest recording only, you are required to record any active nesting attempts you encounter via the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. We would appreciate you doing this for all your sites (see below). This way, the data you collect can be incorporated into the breeding trends published in the BirdTrends report, and be readily used by RBBP, maximising the conservation value of your data.

You can now report on all your sites using nest records, whether there are breeding or non-breeding adults present or if the site is unoccupied. 

If you have not used your permit/licence for a species in a county you can simply report this on the renewal form.

Guide to Schedule 1 reporting using nest records



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