Northern Ireland Seabird Report 2015

At the core of the Seabird Network in Northern Ireland are our surveyors, some of whom work for government bodies such as NIEA, while others survey 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 up their time freely to help, simply because of a love and admiration of these bird species. The amount and quality of work that can be undertaken by volunteers is amazing, and in 2015 we have been fortunate that many enthusiastic and talented people are part of the NI Seabird Network. This Network now numbers more than 60 people, a great achievement when there were only 20 people in Northern Ireland surveying seabirds just three years ago.

The report on breeding seabirds in Northern Ireland during 2015 presented here is similar to 2013 and 2014. 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 we are taking a similar stance to JNCC and their online SMP report and this is doubtless the best way to present such a report.

As in previous years a number of articles have been submitted for inclusion in the Northern Ireland Seabird 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 to encourage more people to join the Seabird Network and contribute to future reports. Naturally a summary such as this does not reference all data collected but it is all of real value in understanding our local seabirds. A report such as this is only as robust as the data, as we are aware, 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.