The newsletter of the Wetland Bird Survey
WeBS UNIV AT ERSIT Se Y e pag e 16
BARNACLE GOOSE RINGING 6
RIVER THAME PROJECT 8
INTERNATIONAL SWAN CENSUS 12
ISSUE 37 AUTUMN 2021 ALSO INSIDE 01 WeBS DURING THE PANDEMIC 02 FROM THE EDITOR 04 WeBS SITE IN THE SPOTLIGHT 06 BARNACLE GOOSE RINGING 08 RIVER THAME CONSERVATION TRUST PROJECT 10 WeBS SITE PRIORITISATION 12 INTERNATIONAL SWAN CENSUS 14 ESSEX PLAYING FIELDS AND FLOOD ALLEVIATION SITES 16 UNIVERSITY SOCIETY WeBS 17 LOW TIDE COUNT UPDATE 18 WeBS ONLINE IMPROVEMENTS 19 LOCAL ORGANISER NEWS 19 WeBS OBITUARIES 20 BACKCHAT PLUS WeBS WHO'S WHO, CORE COUNT DATES & NEWS
WeBS during the pandemic The news in 2020 was dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Although at the time of writing the majority of the restrictions have now been lifted, this was certainly not the case over the 2020/21 winter, which as expected, affected counters' ability to get out and do their WeBS counts.
O
n 23 March last year, the UK Government announced the first national lockdown. Although going out for daily exercise was allowed under the rules, carrying out surveys at this time was not and so surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, Nest Record Scheme, Waterways Breeding Bird Survey and Constant Effort Site ringing in
particular were hit by volunteers not being able to take part. Thankfully, these initial restrictions did not impact on WeBS as much, as the core recording period is September to March, and so the indices for the majority of species were unaffected. As a result we were able to produce the annual Waterbirds in the UK 2019/20 report as usual.
