{"id":38112,"date":"2019-11-19T14:27:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T14:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=38112"},"modified":"2019-11-19T14:27:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T14:27:31","slug":"cardiff-students-keep-track-of-roath-park-bird-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/11\/19\/cardiff-students-keep-track-of-roath-park-bird-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff students keep track of Roath Park bird numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Swans have declined in recent years but there is good news in the long run, according to statistics collected by volunteers<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>CARDIFF students who count birds on Roath Park Lake are contributing to an important survey on the UK\u2019s wetlands, monitoring birds like swans, ducks, geese and grebes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The volunteers have been praised for their contribution by the British Trust for Ornithology, who said the UK&#8217;s climate and geography makes it &#8220;internationally important for wintering&nbsp;waterbirds&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The monthly count, which contributes to the national Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), keeps track of the health of Roath Park Lake \u2013 one of the biggest habitats for swans in Wales.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Dr Teresa Frost,\u00a0WeBS\u00a0National\u00a0Organiser, said.\u00a0\u201cThe counts we get from the university society are extremely useful in helping us monitor\u00a0waterbirds\u00a0at local, regional and national levels.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor example, Roath Park is the fourth most important site for the Mute Swan in Wales, with around 80 birds counted in late summer in recent years, although this is lower than a decade ago when numbers used to peak around 150.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p>After Sunday\u2019s count, which saw five volunteers count around 400 birds,\u00a0Sam\u00a0Oemering, treasurer of\u00a0Cardiff University&#8217;s Ornithology Society, said:\u00a0\u201cEverything looked pretty good today &#8211; what I was expecting for this time of year. We saw quite a few good ones, like little grebes and the grey wagtail which was pretty cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Little grebes are rare on Roath Park Lake \u2013 since 2012\/13, peak numbers have fluctuated between one and seven.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Mr&nbsp;Oemering&nbsp;said&nbsp;the society had&nbsp;counted 198 black-headed gulls and 157 coots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>One finding from the wetland bird survey is that the number of mute swans \u2013 the iconic white swan \u2013 has&nbsp;declined in recent years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cThanks to the society and thousands of other volunteers around the country, we can say that there has a decline of 11% in winter Mute Swan numbers in Wales, and a decline of 5% over the UK, &#8220;Dr Frost said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut there is much better news longer term, as Mute Swan has increased compared to the mid-1980s.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n<p>A 1987 ban on lead fishing weights, introduced to stop swans from getting lead poisoning, has helped increase the number of swans in the UK.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"708\" height=\"465\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swans-graph.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph.jpg 708w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-500x328.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-293x192.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"708\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swans-graph.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph.jpg 708w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-500x328.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/11\/swans-graph-293x192.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption>Swan populations have increased since lead fishing weights have been restricted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>The society walks around the lake once a month counting birds that are visible that morning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Dr Frost also said that counts helped research and national indicators.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor&nbsp;example&nbsp;the counts from Roath Park contribute to the UK wintering&nbsp;waterbird&nbsp;indicator where over the short-term period between the winters of 2011\/12 and 2016\/17 there was an overall decline of 3% &#8211; 30% of species increasing, 26% showing little change, and 43% declining.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The British Trust for Ornithology recently published the&nbsp;WeBS&nbsp;Alerts for with 118 site-species triggering long-term high alerts on special protection areas of international importance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Dr Frost said: &#8220;As a scheme we are dependent on volunteers collecting this data. We\u2019re delighted that the student bird club takes part in\u00a0WeBS. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Not just because of the data they collect for Roath Park, but because we hope that some of the students will get the\u00a0waterbird\u00a0counting bug and take on monthly counts at other sites around the country in future.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swans have declined in recent years but there is good news in the long run, according to statistics collected by volunteers CARDIFF students who count birds on Roath Park Lake are contributing to an important survey on the UK\u2019s wetlands, monitoring birds like swans, ducks, geese and grebes.&nbsp; The volunteers have been praised for their contribution by the British Trust for Ornithology, who said the UK&#8217;s climate and geography makes it &#8220;internationally important for wintering&nbsp;waterbirds&#8221;. The monthly count, which contributes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":38122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[327],"tags":[1432,35,1280],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-38112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-roath-park-cyncoed","tag-birds","tag-roath-park","tag-roath-park-lake"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardiff students keep track of Roath Park bird numbers - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/11\/19\/cardiff-students-keep-track-of-roath-park-bird-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff students keep track of Roath Park bird numbers - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Swans have declined in recent years but there is good news in the long run, according to statistics collected by volunteers CARDIFF students who count birds on Roath Park Lake are contributing to an important survey on the UK\u2019s wetlands, monitoring birds like swans, ducks, geese and grebes.&nbsp; The volunteers have been praised for their contribution by the British Trust for Ornithology, who said the UK&#8217;s climate and geography makes it &#8220;internationally important for wintering&nbsp;waterbirds&#8221;. 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