EURING Newsletter - Volume 2, December 1998

THE WATERBIRD MIGRATION ATLAS

By Fernando Spina

Following the preliminar draft document on a waterbird migration atlas project proposed by EURING to a series of partner organisations, a meeting has been held on June 2nd 1998, to further discuss details of this challenging idea. The meeting was kindly hosted by the Dutch Institute for Terrestrial Ecology in Heteren, and was attended by: Alexandre Czajkowski (Oiseaux Migrateurs du Paleartique Occidental, OMPO), Nick Davidson (Wetlands International, WI), Arie van Noordwijk, Fernando Spina and Rinse Wassenaar (EURING). Aim of the meeting was setting up a sound co-operation, through the widest possible involvement of scientists and experts in the different stages of the project, as well as an effective fund raising strategy.

Among the main reasons for the atlas project is the recent decision taken by EURING to improve the use of the data stored at the EURING Data Bank (EDB), which represent, for some respects, a fairly unique data set at the international level; from this respect, EURING thought an analysis of the massive information on waterbirds - and especially widlfowl - stored in the EDB might have positively contributed also to the better enforcement of the existing international legislation, like the Wild Birds and Habitat directives, as well as the Bonn Convention, through its African Eurasian Waterfowl Agreement, AEWA). Following the fairly recent WI atlas of Anatidae (Rose & Scott 1996), EURING thought information derived from marked individuals would offer very interesting complementary results to this overview of breeding and migration ranges.

Apart from clarifying gaps in knowledge on waterbird fyways across the Palearctic, the atlas project might offer the possibility of advancing our methodology in analysis of spatio-temporal distribution of recoveries. This would also offer the possibility of understanding where it would be best to concentrate future ringing efforts. During two meetings held in Bologna and in Paris in 1997, the possibility of having a direct involvement also of international hunting organisations like OMPO in this project has been discussed. In the meantime, more contacts were activated with WI, WWT and the AEWA Bonn Secretariat, and positive reactions were received from all these different organisations.

All participants also agreed on the crucial importance of having scientific authorities treating the data, in order to leave the scene free from any risk of misinterpretation of results. The meeting allowed brainstorming on the potentials of the project, among which also the possibility of mingling count data (like those collected by WI thorugh the long-term project of mid-winter counts) with recovery data has been discussed. The idea of publishing the contents of the EDB on the basis of a 5°x5° grid has also been introduced by Arie van Noordwijk and discussed; this index could also be meant as a preparatory stage for this project. At present, WI is developing the ideas for a similar atlas for waders, together with the WSG. One of the first steps of the atlas would be to re-evaluate and update wader populations estimates, and this first stage of the project would not see the analysis of data based on marked individuals.

The different steps to get started with the atlas were discussed. It was agreed a geographical index of recovery data availability to be a first important step. On the basis of this index, for any species further analysis on sex/age differential strategies/migrations could be done. The recovery data available could then be compared with those derived from counts. After ample discussion, it was finally decided to select two first target species, in order to test the analytical procedures and problems: the two species are Teal Anas crecca and Ruff Philomachus pugnax. In terms of funding, it will be possible to get the project started on the basis of a support offered by OMPO (in the order of 150,000 FF) which will be available once a formal agreement be signed by the different organisations. EURING is at present preparing a text for a multi-lateral agreement to propose to the different organisations involved in the project, and it was very important to have this first meeting before drafting the agreement.

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