The Club’s Annual General Meeting will be followed by a presentation of the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). The British Trust for Ornithology’s Neil Calbrade will tell us about some of the changes that we are seeing in the UK’s internationally important wintering populations of wetland birds.
Three thousand WeBS surveyors monitor the UK’s internationally important non-breeding waterbirds at 2,800 sites. Following a tradition begun in 1947, wetland sites are counted once per month, providing data for population and trends in abundance and distribution. Climate change, habitat loss and habitat creation are driving important changes to our wintering ducks, geese and swans and to wintering waders. WeBS provides key scientific underpinning for wetland conservation and a growing network of protected sites.