WeBS Local Organiser resources

These pages are for WeBS Local Organisers. Here you will find all the information you need to be able to carry out your position efficiently.

Mixed Flock by Dawn Balmer
Mixed flock. Dawn Balmer 

WeBS Local Organiser Handbook

Use these links to view or download the Local Organiser Handbook which outlines your responsibilities and is a comprehensive guide to using the Local Organiser options within WeBS Online. It is full of step-by-step instructions and includes a Troubleshooting and FAQ section.

Other useful resources

WeBS Local Organiser Advisory Committee (LOAC)

The WeBS LOAC has been set up to provide an opportunity for the counter network to communicate opinion as to whether WeBS staff are doing things right or wrong.

From time to time, LOs may want to give talks at local bird club meetings to try to recruit more counters. This presentation is a good outline to WeBS. The PDF here has been reduced in size for downloading, but a fully illustrated PowerPoint version for your region can be made available by contacting the WeBS Office.

This is a letter of introduction for you or your volunteers to give to a landowner to ask for their permission to complete WeBS counts on their property.

Every volunteer under the age of 18 must ask their parent or guardian to complete and sign a Parental Consent Form and return it to the BTO. Please do not allow them to start fieldwork until the form has been returned.

Priority sites in your region

You can see all the priority sites in your region by visiting the Vacant Sites Page and selecting ‘List View’. Use the filters to search for your WeBS Region, and order by Priority. Sites that are High/Medium High/Very High Priority should be assigned first if at all possible. If you think a site in your region has been given the wrong priority level please contact the WeBS Office to discuss.

Join the WeBS Local Organiser Forum Discussion Group

We have set up a discussion group in the BTO Forum for all WeBS Local Organisers and we hope that you will join. The purpose of the group is to allow sharing of ideas between Organisers. 

We’ve set a couple of house rules: please be respectful of fellow organisers, counters and staff in all your communications via the group, and we particularly request that if you are asking for advice about a local issue involving counter(s) please do not mention those involved by name.

Use the above link to access the WeBS Local Organiser discussion group.

BTO Regional Representative Contact Information

This list gives the contact information for BTO Regional Representatives who are responsible for other BTO volunteer surveys including Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and Waterways Breeding Bird Survey (WBBS), they also help to build the BTO Membership. Please contact them about possible volunteers, whether you are in need of a volunteer or you have a new volunteer but no WeBS sites to offer them.

This document outlines the responsibilities of LOs.

WeBS Office

Who's who in the WeBS team

Contact the WeBS team

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