The national WeBS is organised by the BTO, and in Scotland coordinated by the SOC. In the Clyde area we have had excellent coverage for many years, but recently there has been a marked decline due to a shortage of volunteer counters. The most important site urgently in need of new counters is the Clyde Estuary, which requires a team of at least 12 regular volunteers and several reserve counters. The Clyde Branch has been coordinating monthly bird counts of the estuary for the past 45 years, with a break only in 1978 due to shortage of volunteers in that year. Two of our current team of volunteers have been counting throughout that entire period!
This month the count takes place this coming Sunday, 7th December. Three regular counters have indicated being unavailable, which has left us short of stand-in counters on two sectors of the estuary – West Ferry to Newark Castle, and Port Glasgow to Gourock Bay. If you are interested in helping out at short notice for Sunday’s count, or willing to join the team either as a regular or stand-in volunteer, please contact the Clyde area organiser, John Clark on johnclark@jcmc.demon.co.uk.
John can provide helpful guidance on how best to survey individual sectors, and the count methodology. He can also arrange for you to shadow an existing counter to gain experience. We are also looking for additional volunteers to take on a number of freshwater sites. Adopting a regular patch can be an enjoyable and very rewarding experience, as well as making an important ‘citizen science’ contribution to the conservation of our local wild bird populations.
For more information on the Wetland Bird Survey see http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/webs.
