 | EBCC NewsletterSpring 2023 |  | Photo by Jan Pavlíček
Dear reader
It’s not quite spring in Northern England – a late snowfall has extended the grip of winter – but after what has seemed like a long dark winter, the few signs of oncoming spring are very welcome. While our Afro-Palearctic migrants are yet to return, they can’t be far away... Indeed, EuroBirdPortal maps show that hirundine numbers are building up around the Mediterranean. It won’t be too long before I can head to my Breeding Bird Survey transects to make my annual contribution to our UK scheme and to PECBMS.
I hope that wherever you are reading this, you are able to get out to contribute to one of the EBCC’s projects in the coming breeding season. And please join us on the 27th of April at our online AGM to hear the latest news on all our activities. Until then, best wishes
Best wishes Mark |  | Invitation to the EBCC Annual General Meeting, April 27, 2023 | We are pleased to invite you to the EBCC AGM, held online on Thursday, April 27, 2023, at 19.00 CEST. You will hear from the EBCC chair about activities in the last year and plans for forthcoming months, reports from the treasurer and delegate officer will also be included, as well as updates from the main EBCC initiatives (PECBMS, EBBA2, EBP). More detailed presentations and updates from these three programmes will be part of the evening programme.
Details of the agenda and the link to the meeting will be circulated later. Don't miss the opportunity, and stay tuned for updates. |
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| | | PECBMS February 2023 report
The report summarises the activities of the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) between September 2022 and February 2023. We published the 2022 update of supra-national European species trends and indicators during that period. Almost all 34 schemes from 30 countries delivered their data up to 2021, which was an important step forward for the PECBMS to produce the most up-to-date outputs possible. In addition, we published a leaflet and spread a questionnaire among the national coordinators to update the information on their schemes and national bird indicators produced so far. Furthermore, we met regularly with EU stakeholders, researchers and coordinators, providing answers and advice upon request. Finally, we attended four conferences and workshops, either online or in-person, and presented the progress of the PECBMS. |
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| | Bird Census News 35/1–2
In December 2022, a new issue of the EBCC's journal Bird Census News was published. You can read about the Covid-pandemic and how the lockdown affected bird behaviour and the behaviour of monitoring people, which can have consequences for the efficiency of the schemes. Two other articles deal with the importance of a touristic island in Iceland to bird conservation and information on the distribution of birds in a poorly known area in Western Siberia. Finally, the BCN introduces an EBCC board member – Jean-Yves Paquet, the Communications Officer. | |
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|  | EFSA's Bird Flu Radar, a new tool to support Avian Influenza surveillance in Europe
EFSA's Bird Flu Radar is a prototype Early Warning System for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in wild birds developed for the European Food and Safety Authority through a collaboration between EURING, EuroBirdPortal and Ausvet Europe. The system, launched in early March, combines models of distribution and movement based on the EBP and EURING data shown in the new Migration Mapping Tool and the information on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks available from EMPRES-i to estimate the spatiotemporal risk pattern of HPAI introduction in Europe. Currently, the EFSA's Bird Flu Radar tool is provided through an R Shiny App developed by Ausvet, but this functionality will be fully incorporated within the Migration Mapping Tool later in the year. | | PECBMS webinar | The traditional PECBMS Webinar was held on 10 February. The themes were related to the Data request and Site-level data (SL data). News for this year were improvements in the R scripts and a brand new R script for RTRIM-shell output modification. The online tool has been updated, too. Anna Gamero explained the developments in SL data, and Sergi Herrando introduced the use of SL data in the EBBA Live Farmland project. 31 attendants attended the webinar. The recordings of the talks can be found in the PECBMS Slack forum. |
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|  | UK's Rare Breeding Birds Panel 50th birthday
The UK's Rare Breeding Birds Panel – an independent organisation with the remit for collating and archiving data on rare breeding birds in the UK and reporting upon their status – is celebrating its 50th birthday in 2023. To mark the occasion, there will be new papers giving overviews of the Panel's work and what its monitoring has shown over 50 years, website developments, and an online conference to be held on the evenings of 15th & 16th March – this week! The conference programme includes a wide range of presentations on the Panel's work and the species it studies. Attendance is free, but registration is required – details at www.rbbp.org.uk. | | State of the Netherlands' Birds 2022 and SOVON's 50th anniversary | | Sovon is celebrating its 50-year anniversary. For that reason, we have published The State of the Netherland's Birds, about long-time series. Bird populations have been monitored for decades, sometimes in great detail. We list the most important developments in the Netherlands and outline which species are increasing and which ones are decreasing. Thanks to research and counting efforts by numerous volunteers and professionals, we can determine the trends of 193 species of breeding birds and 172 wintering bird species, and explain the reasons behind these changes.
Read more on the EBCC website.
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| | State of Birds in Portugal 2022
The State of Birds in Portugal 2022 was published at the end of last year. This report brings together the latest bird monitoring data collected in the country. Results from twenty-three bird monitoring schemes, census and citizen-science projects were included and are now accessible to volunteers, conservationists, scientists and political decision-makers, but also to the general public. Some highlights include the decline of many farmland species, the dramatic decline of a coastal species, the Kentish plover, and the astonishing increase of Audouin's gull breeding population in the country. The birdlife partner in Portugal, SPEA, led this publication with the contribution of governmental institutes, national and local environmental associations, research units and universities and, of course, many volunteers and collaborators who participated in the monitoring schemes. | |
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| | | Visit BirdFacts
The new BirdFacts webpages provide key information about the UK's birds and their changing fortunes based on data collected by BTO and partner organisations. For example, try the Trends Explorer, an interactive tool for exploring how a particular species is fairing. View trends for the UK’s different countries, and download data and graphs. |
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| | | Atlas of breeding birds in Italy
After years of fieldwork by more than 3,000 surveyors, data analysis and text editing, an atlas giving an account of the distribution of breeding birds between 2010 and 2016 is available. The new atlas comes almost four decades after the first one, which covered the period 1983–1986, and documents the significant changes in breeding bird numbers and distribution in Italy in recent decades as a consequence of environmental modifications and climatic and cultural changes. The volume is available for online purchase from the publisher Belvedere Editions.
Lardelli R., Bogliani G., Brichetti P., Caprio E., Celada C., Conca G., Fraticelli F., Gustin M., Janni O., Pedrini P., Puglisi L., Rubolini D., Ruggieri L., Spina F., Tinarelli R., Calvi G., Brambilla M. (a cura di), 2022. Atlante degli uccelli nidificanti in Italia. Edizioni Belvedere (Latina), Historia naturae (11), 704 pp. | |
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