Birds move a lot during their lifetime! One of the most important forms of movement is dispersal: when birds move out of the immediate area in which they were born (natal dispersal) or when they change location between successive breeding attempts (breeding dispersal). Understanding dispersal movements can provide insight into species’ distribution, gene flow and protection needs. Unfortunately, data which demonstrate how far and often birds move during dispersal is difficult to collect and analyse, and so many questions about these behaviours remain unanswered. Ringing data collected by volunteers are a potential source of information on bird dispersal, but specialist methods must be employed if they are to be analysed correctly.

New research has revealed the wintering grounds and migration stopovers of British-breeding Wood Warbler, a declining species on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List.

Monitoring biodiversity at large spatial scales and over long periods of time is central to understanding how populations change, and supports conservation planning and the prioritisation of resources by decision-makers. While we have a good understanding of the monitoring frameworks that exist for some taxa, e.g. birds, such understanding is lacking for many others, including reptiles and amphibians. This paper sets out to fill this knowledge gap for UK reptiles and amphibians, identifying existing sources of biodiversity data for these taxa and then characterising the nature of the data management network within which they sit. By using an approach known as network analysis, the team was able to visualise how the reptile and amphibian data were mobilised across the network, i.e. which were the key data sources within the network and how did data flow across the network? It also revealed valuable information on the species recorded and the degree of geographic and spatial coverage over time. Forty-five sources of amphibian and reptile data were identified, which clustered into three main groupings: ‘recording projects’, ‘recording communities’ and ‘digital data platforms’. ‘Recording projects’ involve structured or semi-structured monitoring, the typical projects operated by BTO such as the reptile and amphibian component of BTO Garden BirdWatch. The network analysis revealed that the UK amphibian and reptile monitoring portfolio is dynamic and fragmented, with two data sources sitting outside of the network and many others receiving data but not then sharing this with other sources. While the network as a whole may provide comprehensive information across species and regions, the complexity of the network and the degree of fragmentation means that opportunities to leverage information where and when it is needed are not as good as they could be. If such shortcomings can be addressed then this would benefit reptile and amphibian conservation within the UK.

Data from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Birds Survey reveal that breeding Swift populations in the UK are in decline. Both reductions in the availability of invertebrate prey and the loss of nesting sites have been suggested as possible reasons, but the ultimate drivers of this decline are poorly understood. Can we improve our understanding of Swift decline by bringing together the information collected by bird ringers and nest recorders alongside data on insect availability and weather?

Land use policy seeks to manage benefits for different groups within society by balancing competing interests. These benefits could be the delivery of food through agriculture or the provision of recreational opportunities; they may also be less tangible things, such as carbon storage or flood mitigation. An important component of balancing these competing interests is to understand their relative importance to different parts of society, something that is addressed through this collaborative paper including BTO, which uses peatland restoration as an example.

The future of Britain’s breeding wader populations depends on land use policy and local management decisions, both of which require robust evidence and appropriate tools if they are to support the conservation of these priority species. One of the biggest challenges has been the geographical scale at which national data on wader abundance and distribution are available. These data are coarse in their resolution, making them poorly suited to directing conservation initiatives or informing land management decisions at a local scale. But can a statistical approach produce high-resolution maps of predicted wader abundance that are sufficiently accurate to be used for decision-making?