Identification

Title
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS)
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.

License
Access by request only (Access by request on)
+ The associated data is accessed by request to the data providers only

Publication Date
Jan. 14, 2023, 1:07 p.m.
Type
Vector Data
Keywords
Regions
United Kingdom
Approved
Yes
Published
Yes
Featured
No
DOI
None
Attribution
None
Responsible

Name
Teresa Frost (teresafrost)
email
teresa.frost@bto.org
Position
Wetland Bird Survey Manager
Organization
British Trust for Ornithology
Location
GBR
Voice
None
Fax
None
Information

Identification Image
Spatial Extent
---
Projection System
EPSG:4326
Extension x0
-13.691115021441021
Extension x1
1.764096856185006
Extension y0
49.8652445081276
Extension y1
60.85618805863203
Features

Maintenance Frequency
Monthly (12X Per Year)
Language
English
Supplemental Information
No information provided
Contact Points

Name
Teresa Frost (teresafrost)
email
teresa.frost@bto.org
Position
Wetland Bird Survey Manager
Organization
British Trust for Ornithology
Location
GBR
Voice
None
Fax
None

References

Link Online
/layers/geonode_data:geonode:wetland_bird_survey
Metadata Page
/layers/geonode_data:geonode:wetland_bird_survey/metadata_detail

Original Dataset
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).zip
JPEG
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).jpg
PDF
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).pdf
PNG
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).png
GML 2.0
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).gml
Zipped Shapefile
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).zip
GML 3.1.1
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).gml
CSV
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).csv
Excel
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).excel
GeoJSON
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).json
Legend
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).png
Thumbnail
Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).png

OGC WMS: geonode Service
Geoservice OGC:WMS
OGC WFS: geonode Service
Geoservice OGC:WFS
Metadata Author

Name
admin
email
it@iode.org
Position
None
Organization
None
Location
Voice
None
Fax
None