WATERWAYS BREEDING
BIRD SURVEY
…in 2017
Welcome
to the 20th year of the
Waterways Breeding Bird Survey! Thank you for
choosing to be a part of it. This is a fantastic
milestone to have reached, one only possible
with the help of hundreds of volunteers who,
over the years, have counted 2,642,270
individual birds of 226 species and walked and
amazing 36,715,000 kilometers!
The WBBS monitors the populations of 25
species strongly associated with waterways,
giving an indication of the health of this habitattype.
Over 300 random stretches are currently seeking
a volunteer, with some in almost every UK
region. For around half of these, a survey route
has already been set up. For more details of
vacant sites, please ask your Regional Organiser,
or BTO HQ. We would like to increase coverage,
especially in remoter areas in order to continue
to improve the representativeness of population
changes along our diverse waterways.
Numbers of WBBS surveys, 1998-2016
350
300
Combined with its predecessor survey, the
Waterways Bird Survey (WBS), the 121% increase
in Goosander since 1981 and the 94% decline in
Yellow Wagtail since 1975, along waterways,
have been recorded. Thank you to all who have
and are involved.
WBBS is a simple transect method for censusing
breeding birds along linear waterways – rivers
and canals – devised by BTO as a straightforward
and relatively easy way to evaluate and monitor
bird populations in this habitat. It was developed
with financial support from the Environment
Agency. More information on the survey and
survey methods can be found in the WBBS
Instructions booklet. Information on entering
data online is on the reverse of this sheet.
In spring 2017, we are asking again for:
 repeat surveys – of all random or WBS-linked
stretches covered previously (in any year)
 new coverage – of stretches already selected
as part of the random sample, but not yet
surveyed
250
200
150
100
50
0
1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
Please contribute to WBBS if you can. You will
be helping to maintain it as a long-term monitor
of bird population change, alongside BBS. The
fieldwork is simple, rewarding, and fun!
The more WBBS sites we can survey each year,
the greater will be the scope and precision of
BTO monitoring. Can you please help us to
cover more of our pre-selected random sites?
Enquiries and offers of help, please, to:
Sarah Harris (WBBS National Organiser)
BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU
Tel: 01842 750050, email: [email protected]
For Health & Safety information, please visit: www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/taking-part/health-safety
WBBS-Online data entry
WBBS is now part of the growing family of BTO online surveys: this means that observers can bypass some
of the paperwork and postage costs by logging in and sending in their results online instead. Entering your
data online reduces BTO costs and gives you far better access to your own records. There is no need to
take up this option: submissions are just as welcome on paper, exactly as before.
For WBBS-Online, you would make your field visits as normal, using the Field Recording Sheets and
Habitat Recording Form but, instead of compiling Count Summary Sheets and a Mammal Summary Sheet,
then enter the data directly to the web site. Once you are satisfied all the data have been entered and
accepted by the database, you can recycle all the paperwork.
Since the WBBS online system is part of BBS-Online, WBBS-Online should be quite straightforward for
anyone already using that system. New observers will need to register for WBBS-Online. Once you are
registered, the Regional Organiser can assign a WBBS stretch to you – using its nominal 1-km square – so
that it appears, alongside any BBS squares you survey, on your BBS/WBBS home page. Entering and
editing for bird and mammal data are similar to BBS, differing only in features such as the length of
sections, the additional ‘waterway habitat’ and the lack of a mid-survey break. There is mapping of routes,
just as for BBS. You cannot yet see your pre-online WBBS data yet, but we hope to make this facility
available in the near future.
WBBS-Online can be reached via the WBBS or BBS web pages at www.bto.org. The data entry table for
birds looks like this (recording detection type is optional and can be turned off):
The first line of data here can be entered using keys R, 2, S and 1 and the tab key.
Bird and mammal sightings can be entered individually and in any order: indeed, entering sightings one by
one will usually be needed if you are recording detection type. If you are not recording detection type it
may be quicker to summarise your sightings to some degree, by species, section and distance band,
before entering them online. You can use the Count Summary Sheet, or a table of similar format, to help
you do this. However you enter your data, whether online or on paper, please strike through your
registrations on the Field Sheet as you input them, then double-check for any that have been missed:
this will help ensure that every one of your valuable sightings has been input, and input only once!
Using the online facility might seem daunting at first, especially if you have not tried any online survey
before. Remember, though, that we are keen to help and advise anyone who meets difficulty with BTO
online surveys. Overcoming initial hurdles could enable you to contribute, more efficiently, to a wider
range of BTO surveys in future seasons. Please address questions specific to this survey to [email protected].
Final notes
For trends detected by WBS and WBBS jointly, and a broader interpretation and summary of all the BTO’s
monitoring results, please see our flagship web report – www.bto.org/birdtrends.