Robin Ward

Durham University | DU · School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Over the past decade, drones have become increasingly popular in environmental biology and have been used to study wildlife on all continents. Drones have become of global importance for surveying breeding seabirds by providing opportunities to transform monitoring techniques and allow new research on some of the most threatened birds. However, suc...

The non‐breeding season presents significant energetic challenges to birds that breed in temperate or polar regions, with clear implications for population dynamics. In seabirds, the environmental conditions at non‐breeding sites drive food availability and the energetic cost of regulatory processes, resulting in variation in diet, behaviour and en...

Since 1971, Treshnish Isles Auk Ringing Group (TIARG) has monitored the breeding seabird populations of the Treshnish Isles, Argyll, through ringing and census work. A summary of the early expeditions is given in Birds on the Treshnish Isles 1971-1995 (Walker & Cooper 1996). Annual reports have been produced since 1996 (http://tiarg.org). This repo...

Migratory species face geographically dispersed pressures over the course of their annual cycles. Designing effective conservation strategies for these species requires a detailed understanding of how these different pressures affect demographic rates throughout the annual cycle. As a long-lived species, population trends in the rapidly declining E...

Migration is a widespread strategy for escaping unfavourable conditions during winter, but the extent to which populations that segregate during the breeding season aggregate during the non-breeding season is poorly understood. Low non-breeding season aggregation may be associated with higher likelihood of overlap with threats, but with fewer popul...

Studies of bird distribution and behaviour at 2 reservoir sites in South Wales showed different degrees of disturbance by anglers. During October and March at Llandegfedd Reservoir, the distributions of Wigeon, Pochard and Mallard were strongly influenced by the presence of anglers. At the Llanishen/Lisvane complex, small numbers of anglers through...

A technique for the rapid surveying of submersed aquatic vegetation by post-processing of data collected using a high frequency (420 kHz) digital echo sounder (BioSonics DT4000) has recently been developed and successfully tested in an estuarine environment by Sabol et al. [Sabol, B. M., R. E. Melton, R. Chamberlain, P. Doering & K. Haunert, 2002....

Understanding and predicting the likely consequences of anthropogenic disturbance on species and ecosystems is a major prerequisite of achieving the sustainable use of natural resources. It is also a key element in the management of sites with statutory designation. During planning and decision-making processes involving potential disturbance issue...

In 2002, a census of Mute Swans Cygnus olor was carried out in Great Britain and the Isle of Man, to determine the size of the Mute Swan population during the breeding season and to distinguish between the numbers of breeding and non-breeding birds. Coverage of the whole country had been attempted previously, in 1955/56, 1978, 1983 and 1990, but wa...

Hawthorn (1971) described a criterion for ageing many Wrens Troglodytes troglodytes based on the number of light 'spots' (bars) on the outer web of the fourth primary (as counted from the outside). When this criterion based on British Wrens was later applied to 38 Swedish skins, Svensson (1992) had difficulties with the technique. This arose from a...

Report on trapping and sampling of water birds in Tunisia for surveillance of Avian Influenza (AI) in wild birds 5-12 May 2006 By Hichem AZAFZAF (AAO, Tunis), Habib DLENSI (AAO, Sfax) Mike SMART (WI expert, UK), Robin WARD (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, UK) Summary The operations were carried out in May 2006 by the Association "Les Amis des Oiseaux"...

Understanding numeric changes in wader populations requires knowledge of the demographic parameters underlying such changes, i.e. survival and recruitment. Data from long-term monitoring programmes are crucial for obtaining these parameters. Following discussions held at a workshop on demographic monitoring of wader populations at the 2004 Internat...

(54° 37’N 1° 10’E; Ward 2000), where we trapped 1,409birds using mist nets during late July to early September,1995 to 2001. The majority of birds were mist -netted atnight using tape lures and painted decoys. As withwaders (Insley & Etheridge 1997), this approach maybias the sample towards immature (R Ward unpublisheddata) or non -breeding birds,...

Capsule Although most birds do not need to refuel en route, many stop at Sandgerdi for a short period.

Capsule: Although most birds do not need to refuel en route, many stop at Sandgerdi for a short period.

The costs and benefits of dominance status have been investigated in the past and it has generally been reported that subdominant birds are at a nutritional disadvantage owing to their low dominance status. The nutritional condition of birds during winter can be important in determining their likelihood of survival. This is particularly so in small...

Capsule: Serious violations of the model assumptions were seen. Aims: To illustrate the manner in which violations of the mark-recapture model assumptions may occur. Methods: Attempts were made to model annual and seasonal survival of several shorebird species at Teesmouth, northeast England. The database contained 25 years of colour-ring resightin...

Count, recovery and biometric data were analysed to assess the conservation status and use of Teesmouth by Common Terns Sterna hirundo and Sandwich Terns Sterna sandvicensis in late summer. The recognition of the international importance of Teesmouth to migratory Sandwich Terns was endorsed. Peak late summer counts for 1990–1997 averaged 1,835, ove...

Colonization of a recreated area of intertidal land by marine invertebrates and their bird predators was studied from April 1993 to August 1997. The most important food of large shorebirds, the ragworm Nereis diversicolor, did not reappear until late summer 1995 and did not become abundant until the following autumn. Annual attempts at colonization...