All Wales

1
The Wildfowl Wetlands Trust

• All Wales
• Common Scoter Survey
• Peter Cranswick
• Head of Waterbird Monitoring

2
AWCSS objectives

• Boundary identification and baseline monitoring
  of Carmarthen Bay SPA
• Location and movements of Common Scoter within
  Carmarthen Bay to inform casework
• Assess potential SPA status of Liverpool Bay
• Location and movements of Common Scoter within
  Liverpool Bay to inform casework
• Identify other important over-wintering areas
• Develop cost-effective monitoring methods
• Contribute to seaduck monitoring strategy
• Model the distribution of marine molluscs eaten
  by Common Scoter

3
Offshore wind farms Round One
4
Aerial survey

• Application
• Sampling approach (not total count)
• 2-km separation between transects (to avoid
  double-counting flushed scoter)
• Transects cross environmental gradients
• Total numbers estimated using Distance
• Species surveyed
• Seaducks
• Divers and grebes
• Gulls and terns
• Seabirds

5
Scoters eye-view
6
Locating birds
185 kmh-1
250 ft

• D C B
  A
• 1 km 426 m 282
  m 162 m 44 m

7
Locating the plane
8
Flight path
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
AWCSS aerial survey 2001/02
13
AWCSS 2001/02 report

• Land-based counts
• Carmarthen Bay 11,000-20,000
• Cardigan Bay 4,000
• North Wales coast 4,000
• Provisional distance analysis estimates
• Liverpool Bay 12,900-21,200
• Cardigan 4,900-6,300
• Carmarthen 12,100-18,600
• Benthic survey
• No relationship between small bivalve and scoter
  distribution
• (mollusc distribution extremely patchy, M Kaiser)

14
Aerial survey 2002/03
15
Winter 2002/03

• Land-based observations from Blackpool
• morning observations regular movements of
  2-3,000 birds consistently south (Nov to Apr)
• only one evening observation (in Dec) noted
  equivalent number north
• Summer aerial survey off Blackpool in 2003
• recorded very few birds
• Survey of Greater Wash Round 2 Strategic Area
• 2,000 scoter found in traditional area
• Surveys in Thames Round 2 Strategic Area
• several hundred scoter located close to Southend
  and Foulness

16
SPA designation
17
Future programme and development

• COWRIE projects
• Aerial/boat surveys workshop to be held in
  November
• Benthic survey in Liverpool Bay in 2003/04
• Standards
• WWT has developed in-house manuals and data
  validation routines
• Capacity
• WWT to train 3-4 more observers in October
• Regional partnerships/programmes
• Around each round 2 SEA
• Co-ordination and efficiency

18
Future programme and development

• Post-construction monitoring
• Turbines 400 m and 800 m apart
• Danes have flown between turbines 800 m apart
• Insurance not thought to be a problem
• Remote shut-down of individual turbines
• National seaduck strategy
• Final draft October 2003