Title

Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS)

License

Access by request only (Access by request on)

+ The associated data is accessed by request to the data providers only

Abstract

WeBS surveyors monitor the UK's internationally important non-breeding waterbirds. Following a tradition begun in 1947, wetland sites are counted once per month, providing data for population and trends in abundance and distribution. The network of sites legally protected for their importance to wintering waterbirds depends fundamentally on the WeBS counts.   "Waterbirds" includes wildfowl (ducks, geese and swans), waders, rails, divers, grebes, cormorants and herons. Gulls and terns are optionally included. In a typical year over 220 waterbird species, races or populations are counted in WeBS, including non-native, feral and vagrant species. National trends are produced for the most numerous 110 of these.

Over 3,000 volunteer counters contribute to the Core Counts survey, making over 40,000 visits each year to 2,800 sites. Each counter adopts a place to count monthly. Non-breeding waterbird numbers peak in different numbers for different species, so counting is done year-round where possible and reported on WeBS years running from July to June, although the core counting season is September to March. As non-breeding waterbirds can be very mobile, the Counts are nationally synchronised, with counters requested to visit during the day on priority Core Count dates (Sundays) if at all possible. At coastal locations, counting is done at high tide. At large sites, several counters will be working as a team. Each counter surveys the whole of their defined count area, known as a WeBS sector, identifying all the waterbird species present and counting the number of individuals of each species. Counters can also add supplementary data, such as evening roost counts of gulls, or casual counts of notable numbers of passage species that are higher than those present on their Core Count visits. There is also a Low Tide Counts scheme where extra counts at low tide are occasionally made on estuaries.

Project website

https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey

Keywords

• citizen science
• Essential Ocean subvariables (EOV subvariables) & Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs)
  • Marine birds abundance
  • Marine birds distribution
• GOOS Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs)
  • Marine birds abundance and distribution

SOPs

• https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/webs_methods.pdf

Outputs

• https://app.bto.org/websonline/sites/data/sites-data.jsp#lon=-4.5263672&lat=54.8006849&zoom=5
• https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey/publications/webs-annual-report

Interested in publishing to OBIS

-

Data in OBIS

No; none of the biological data collected by the network is included in OBIS

Funding

WeBS is a partnership jointly funded by the BTO, RSPB and JNCC, with fieldwork conducted by volunteers.

Funding sector

• Governmental

Regions

United Kingdom

Responsible

teresafrost

Point of Contact

teresafrost

Maintenance Frequency

Monthly (12X Per Year)

Temporal Extent

January 1947 -

Supplemental Information

No information provided

Layer WMS GetCapabilities document