October 2020 Golden Plover Survey - Can you help?

15 Oct 2020

Golden Plover

On 17–19 October 2020 there will be a coordinated census of Eurasian Golden Plovers across Europe, repeating comparable surveys carried out in 2014, 2008 and 2003. The majority of Golden Plovers are concentrated in northwest Europe in October, making it the best time to assess the status of the population. Counts of Lapwing and Curlew, which also often use grassland habitats, are also sought. In Britain and Ireland, counts of Golden Plover, Lapwing and Curlew will be collated by BTO and BirdWatch Ireland and submitted to the International Wader Study Group project.

Numbers provided through Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS, UK) and Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS, Ireland) Core Counts plus records submitted over the weekend via BirdTrack will be the key sources of data. WeBS counters should submit their counts during the weekend's Core Count as normal. However, many flocks may be found away from wetlands in the wider countryside. So if you are not a WeBS/I-WeBS counter – or are and find Golden Plovers, Lapwings or Curlew away from your Core Count site(s) – please use BirdTrack to log your counts of grassland waders on 17–19 October.

When entering data in BirdTrack, please try to be as accurate as possible with your counts, ideally to within the nearest 5 for flocks of up to 100, the nearest 20 for flocks up 500 and the nearest 50 for flocks of up to 1,000. To add even more value to your counts, please use the 'Pinpoint' feature (accessed via the '+' button when adding casual records or species lists online) to give a 6-digit grid reference for each flock.

It will also be useful if you can describe the habitat the flock was using, via the 'Habitat' option, using one of the following 6 terms:

Estuary
Non-estuarine
Grassland/pastoral
Arable
Freshwater marsh
Other

Related content