This report presents a review of the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) Low Tide Counts scheme and its methods.

Almost everywhere nature is under pressure. Thus, the need to monitor the state of nature and identify the many pressures affecting biodiversity has never been greater. However, the current range of biodiversity monitoring activities is varied and complex, ranging from collecting environmental DNA (eDNA) samples to structured monitoring schemes and opportunistic recording. Model-based data integration is a statistical tool to combine these different sources of data to produce robust biodiversity assessments based on more of the available evidence.

There was a significant survey effort by volunteers, NGOs and NIEA around Northern Ireland’s coastline for the last year of the Seabirds Count census period, finding that fortunes were mixed for the 20 breeding species of seabird in Northern Ireland. Fulmars continue to decline across most sites, while large gulls buck the national trends and are increasing across Northern Ireland. A team from NIEA found that Fulmar had declined at Downhill (-86%) and Binevenagh (-95%) between the Seabird 2000 census (1998-2002) and the Seabirds Count census (2015-2021), while volunteer-led monitoring of the scattered numbers along the east Co. Antrim coast showed numbers had declined by 73%. However, a rare survey visit to The Skerries by volunteers showed that numbers of Fulmar here had risen by 54% to 43 Apparently Occupied Sites. Large gulls have been increasing at most sites around Northern Ireland, with particularly good annual data collected by the National Trust for Strangford Lough. In 2021, the numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls in the lough were at their highest since 1972, with 143 nests recorded. Black Guillemots are a favourite of seabird monitoring volunteers in Northern Ireland, and we closed the census period with an incredible 80% of sites in NI covered for this species, with those sites left un-surveyed very unlikely to contain Black Guillemots. In 2021, a total of 718 Black Guillemots were counted around the coasts, with concentrations particularly high at The Maidens (60 individuals), Bangor (75 individuals), Lighthouse Island (60 individuals) and at Annalong Harbour (58 individuals). A volunteer-led productivity study found that their breeding success at Annalong was 0.5 chicks fledged per nest.

Rotational burning of vegetation is a common form of land management in UK upland habitats, and is restricted to the colder half of the year, with the time period during which burning may be carried out in upland areas varying between countries. In England and Scotland, this period runs from the 1st October to 15th April, but in the latter jurisdiction, permission can be granted to extend the burning season to 30th April. In Wales, this period runs from 1st October to 31st March. This report sets out timing of breeding information for upland birds in England, Scotland and Wales, to assess whether rotational burning poses a threat to populations of these species, and the extent to which any such threat varies in space and time.

This report presents the main findings from survey work delivered using passive acoustic monitoring devices deployed across the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 2021, the first season of the Bailiwick Bat Survey, including the first extensive baseline data for bats for the islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark.