BTO Northern Ireland Birdwatchers' Conference - British Trust ...

BTO Northern Ireland
Birdwatchers’ Conference
5–6 November 2021
This conference will be held online via Zoom.
The conference is open to everyone – you do not have to be a BTO member.
The programme has been designed to give attendees a flavour of the bird research, moni-
toring and conservation work being undertaken by BTO and others throughout the UK and
Ireland, particularly addressing topics important to Northern Ireland.
The conference costs £5 for both sessions. To register please visit the following link:
www.bto.org/NI-conference-2021

PROGRAMME
Friday 5 November 18:30–21:15
18:30      Joe Furphy
           Welcome and introduction

18:35      Juliet Vickery (BTO)
           Introduction from BTO CEO

18:45      Katherine Booth Jones (BTO Northern Ireland)
           Using tracking data to identify potential areas of human-wildlife conflict in urban
           areas: assessing space-use of Belfast’s urban gulls during the breeding season

19:15      Katie Gibb (RSPB NI)
           Wader conservation on the Antrim Plateau

19:45      Interlude – break or chat
20:00      Anita Donaghy (BirdWatch Ireland)
           Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland 4 (focusing on breeding waders in the
           Republic of Ireland)
20:30      Kendrew Colhoun
           Censusing what you can’t see: the challenges of censusing burrow-nesting seabirds
           in the UK and Ireland
21:00      Joe Furphy
           Conference round-up
Saturday 6 November 15:00–18:00
15:00      Joe Furphy
           Welcome and introduction
15:05      Katherine Booth Jones & Stephen Hewitt (BTO Northern Ireland)
           BTO NI Science and Engagement in 2021
15:30      Marc Vinas Alcon
           Vagrant BTO Volunteers
16:00      Niamh Esmonde (Queen’s University Belfast)
           Storm in a model: Oceanic storms and their impact on Manx Shearwaters on the
           Copeland Islands
16:30      Interlude – break or chat
16:45      Peter Harper & Ciara Laverty (Lough Neagh Partnership)
           Island surveys and projects
17:15      Anthony McGeehan
           What brings a new kid on to the block? Birds play the lottery too
17:45      Joe Furphy
           Conference round-up

SPEAKERS

           Katherine Booth Jones is BTO NI’s Senior Research Ecologist. Katherine
           will be speaking on gulls. Although Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-
           backed Gulls are listed as Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland,
           populations are thought to be increasing in urban areas, leading to
           concerns over the perceived nuisance behaviours of gulls. Despite
           their high conservation status, nothing is known about how these
           species use the urban environment in Northern Ireland and how
           this may differ from their declining coastal counterparts. In this talk,
           Katherine discusses the use of GPS data to take a glimpse at the lives
           of urban gulls in Belfast, and compare their breeding season foraging
           distributions to those from a nearby natural-nesting population on the
           Copeland Islands.

           Katie Gibb is the RSPB Conservation Advisor for the Antrim Plateau.
           Originally from New Zealand, the majority of her experience has been
           working with conservation efforts for threatened avian species. Within
           the priority landscape of the Antrim Plateau, the RSPB has been working
           with landowners for almost 20 years for the conservation of upland
           habitats and breeding waders, specifically Curlew. Within this talk, Katie
           will cover the projects currently being run, the conservation strategies
           RSPB are implementing, and the future of this priority landscape and
           the amazing biodiversity that it holds.

           Anita Donaghy heads up the Species and Land Management section
           of the Conservation Division at BirdWatch Ireland. She has been with
           BirdWatch Ireland for over 10 years, previously completing her PhD on
           the management of habitats for Corncrakes in the Shannon Callows.
           She oversees a range of projects and work areas related to practical
           conservation management for some of Ireland’s most threatened
           species, including Corncrakes, breeding waders and seabirds. Anita’s
           talk is on the new Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland lists,
           focusing on breeding waders in the Republic of Ireland.

SPEAKERS

           Kendrew Colhoun is an independent environmental consultant who
           since 2020 has also worked with AFBI and BirdWatch Ireland. He works
           on a wide range of projects including, in the last year, on Curlew,
           breeding waders and Whinchat, Chough, seabirds and wintering
           waders. Kendrew has been fortunate enough to be involved in one way
           or other (participating or overseeing) large-scale surveys of shearwaters
           and petrels across the UK and Ireland. Ranging from the Flannan
           Islands and North Rona, St Kilda, Rum, to the Copelands, Inishtrahull
           and the Stags of Broadhaven, this talk describes findings in the broader
           context of shearwater and petrel populations at some of these amazing
           sites – surveyed via the MarPAMM project or NPWS. He will describe
           the challenges in surveying these species and some of the threats and
           pressures they face.

           Marc Vinas Alcon, Jessica and baby Finn – not yet hatched at the
           time – joined the Northern Ireland BTO volunteer group during the first
           COVID-19 lockdown. This helped them to discover the Mourne coast to
           which they have migrated, coming from Spain and from France, initially
           just as summer visitors but now present all year around, including
           when breeding. Over the last year the three of them got involved in
           different BTO bird monitoring schemes, including BBS transects in
           the mountains, a WeBS count along the shore between Kilkeel and
           Greencastle, and a Sea Bird count following the Black Guillemot colony
           at Annalong harbour.

           Niamh Esmonde is a PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast
           studying the impact of ocean storms on seabirds. Niamh’s talk is on
           understanding the role of ocean storms in the survival and population
           of Manx Shearwaters on Lighthouse Island in the Copelands since 1952,
            using capture-mark-recapture modelling techniques. Every year Manx
            Shearwaters make a huge migration across the Atlantic Ocean, from the
           British Isles down to the Argentinian coast and back again, a distance of
           over 10,000 km. Such a large distance over open ocean means migrants
           experience severe meteorological and sea state conditions, which are
           likely to affect migration patterns by impeding or facilitating a migrant’s
           survival and population recruitment.

SPEAKERS

               Peter Harper is a qualified Town and Country Planner. He began
               his career as a Conservation Officer with Knowsley Metropolitan
               Borough Council in Merseyside then worked with a wide variety of
               different organisations within the tourism, rural development and the
               environmental management sectors including the Northern Ireland
               Tourist Board and Lagan Valley Regional Park. Peter has also worked
               within the private sector with Colin Buchannon Associates and set up
               his own business Harper Tourism and Community Development. He
               was the first Director of Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust and
               was also employed as an Area Manager with RSPB. Peter is currently a
               Shoreline Environment Manager with the Lough Neagh Partnership and
               as part of this he undertakes BBS, WeBS and Heronries Census counts
               at several sites around the Lough Neagh area.

               Ciara Laverty graduated with MSc Ecological Management and
               Conservation Biology from Queen’s University Belfast in 2018. She
               has worked for a range of organisations within the conservation
               and environmental sector including National Trust, RSPB, Armagh
               Banbridge and Craigavon Council, Sealife Surveys and Keep Northern
               Ireland Beautiful. Her current role is Lough Neagh Ranger with Lough
               Neagh Partnership, working closely with Peter Harper to carry out
               island surveys, WeBS and Heronries Census counts. Ciara is also BTO
               WeBS Local Organiser for Co. Tyrone.

               Interested in birds since childhood, Anthony McGeehan has
               witnessed the changing flux of Ireland’s birds over several decades.
               Some species have declined, largely due to human impacts, whereas
               others have arrived and settled here. The conventional view reduces
               such dynamism to breeding range extensions with Ireland as the next
               geographical step as a species pushes west. But why did certain species
               decide to cross the Irish Sea at all and why did they not do so centuries
               ago? For several newcomers, the maxim ‘go west young man’ covers
               the effect – but not the underlying cause of novel range expansions.

      PHOTOS: KATHERINE BOOTH JONES (LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL), EDMUND FELLOWES (BLACK GUILLEMOT)