Northern Ireland Seabird Report 2016

At the core of the Northern Ireland Seabird Network are our surveyors, some of whom work for government bodies such as NIEA, and others on behalf of NGOs such as RSPB, Ulster Wildlife and the National Trust. We are grateful for their co-operation and assistance. Many other surveyors are volunteers who give their time freely to help, simply because of a love and admiration for these bird species. The amount and quality of work undertaken by volunteers is amazing, and we are fortunate that so many enthusiastic and talented people are part of the NI Seabird Network. This network now numbers more than 70 people, a great achievement when there were only 20 people in Northern Ireland surveying seabird just four years ago.

This 2016 report on breeding seabirds in Northern Ireland is like the preceding reports. We have kept the detail from previous years, even where data have changed little since our last report. It is important that this report represents a summary of current species knowledge, and that reference to other, earlier, reports is not necessary. In this approach we are taking a similar stance to JNCC and their online Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP) report and this is doubtless the best way to present such a report.

As in previous years several articles have been submitted for inclusion in the report. These articles provide further detail on the monitoring in Northern Ireland, and highlight some of the exciting seabird research being undertaken. We are very grateful to the authors for giving their time to produce these articles.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this report and, additionally, encourage more people to join the Seabird Network. Naturally, a summary such as this does not report all data but all records collected are of real value in understanding our local seabirds. The report is only as robust as the data we are aware of, so if you have seabird population data, either recent or historic, then please share it with us, and JNCC, for the benefit of seabirds in Northern Ireland.

Notes

This report is the published outcome of the work of the Northern Ireland Seabird Network – a network of volunteers, researchers and organisations – coordinated by the BTO Seabird Coordinator, and funded by NIEA.