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EURING Newsletter - Volume 3 - July 2001 As mentioned already, Constant Effort Site schemes are becoming increasingly important methods to monitor bird populations; an inventory of CES schemes in Europe has been produced by Romain Julliard. EURING is now planning the launch of a Europe-wide CES project, as reported here by Chris Wernham and Dawn Balmer. CONSTANT
EFFORT RINGING IN EUROPE by Chris Wernham & Dawn Balmer BRITISH TRUST
FOR ORNITHOLOGY Background At the last EURING General Meeting on Helgoland (autumn 1999) there was considerable interest expressed by a number of Ringing Schemes in trying to standardise, as far as possible, CES techniques across Europe, with the ultimate aims of comparing species trends between countries and producing combined trends at the European scale. At the meeting, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) agreed to take the lead in developing CES at the European scale, in collaboration with Romain Julliard and the French Ringing Scheme. After discussions at the conference, we needed to acquire funding to run a full pilot project. The Council of the BTO has now agreed this funding, and we would like the project proposed below to be carried out, beginning in the autumn of 2000. For the project to be a success, we will need the support and assistance of our colleagues in as many of the other European ringing schemes and other organisations with existing constant effort ringing programmes as possible. Project aims 1. To assess the current state of CES-type schemes in Europe, their protocols and the species that are monitored satisfactorily. Romain Julliard has already assembled much of the information that is needed here, for a recent report on the French constant-effort netting programme. In order to run the current project, we will need to build on Romain's results by again contacting individual schemes to find out more about existing field methods and data collation, and to acquire some sample data sets. 2. To develop agreed protocols for CES fieldwork methodology, data exchange and analysis. We agreed at the EURING meeting in autumn 1999 that the BTO would produce a set of European CES fieldwork guidelines. With the newly acquired funding, we will be able to take this a step further and provide guidance on computerisation, in order to facilitate the combination of CES data from the different schemes (probably based on the new EURING exchange code with appropriate modifications). 3. To assess the potential for producing combined European trends/comparative national trends for a common suite of species. In order to fulfil this aim, we will need to acquire sample data sets from a number of schemes. We should be able to find a number of species common across countries, which we can use to assess national differences in trends and the validity of a combined European trend. Britain & Ireland, Finland and France have data spanning a concurrent period of at least 10 years, while the Netherlands and Spain could be added to run trends for five years. Outputs 1. A set of European CES field methodology and data exchange guidelines. 2. A short report on the results of attempting to run comparative and combined trends for a suite of species common to several countries. 3. A scientific paper in a refereed journal (perhaps methodologically-based) if the pilot results are of sufficient calibre. Joint authorship will, of course, be offered to those schemes/organisations who have provided sample data used in any such publication. 4. Access to the above guidelines and results on the BTO web page, with translations for at least the key countries/languages if at all possible (we will need our European colleagues' help with this aim!). 5. A proposal for further development of this European CES initiative, for discussion at a subsequent EURING meeting, to allow us to seek future funding for the benefit of CES ringing in Europe. Time-scale We hope to acquire the necessary information and sample data from the individual schemes during the winter of 2000/01. Assuming that our colleagues in the other Schemes can reply fairly rapidly to our requests, we would like to have a set of draft guidelines ready for comment by the spring of 2001 (1 above). The report on trends (2 above) and the web pages (4 above) would be put together during the remainder of 2001, ready for the guidelines to take effect for the 2002 breeding season. Once items 1, 2 and 4 have been addressed, a proposal for further development will be written (4 above) and a scientific paper prepared, if the results are deemed suitable (3 above).
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