Bird Surveys

What We Do

At Northern Insight Ecology, we possess a wide range of experience in relation to bird surveys, ranging from Breeding Bird surveys to Schedule 1 (WCA) species surveys, including Red-throated divers and Barn owls.

Types of Bird Surveys

Bioacoustic Surveys
Bird Survey and Assessment
Vantage Point Surveys
Breeding Bird Surveys (Common Bird Census, BBS)
Nesting bird checks on development sites
Nest locating
Wintering Bird Surveys
Pre-construction surveys and post-construction monitoring

Legal Protection & Development

All wild birds in Scotland are given protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). Some rare, threatened, or vulnerable species are given extra protection, for instance against disturbance during the breeding season. It’s an offence to possess wild birds, bird parts, or eggs unless the item was killed or taken legally.

It’s not possible to license for the purpose of development actions that would otherwise be an offence in relation to wild birds. Most development works are unlikely to result in the intentional or reckless killing of wild birds. But if carried out during the breeding season, such works could disturb nesting Schedule 1 bird species or damage or destroy their nests or eggs.

As there’s no development licensing purpose for wild birds, any development that could result in these actions shouldn’t proceed until the breeding season is over for these species. The nests / nest sites of Schedules 1A and A1 bird species are protected all year round. Birds of Schedule 1A species are also protected from harassment. (Source: NatureScot).

Birds Calls & Song - Bioacoustic Survey .

Bird species recorded during a 2024 Bioacoustic Survey on the margins of a Conifer Plantation located in Caithness.

Note: You may be interested in reading my Blog (Blog Page) - Breeding Bird Surveys a Statistical Approach

Thermal Imaging Aids - Geese Surveys

Today technology has an increasingly important role in ecological investigations, technology that only a decade ago was not available (due largely to cost) to your average ecologist. Be they advances in real-time recording bat detectors, passive bat detectors, and bioacoustic recorders, which can be deployed for weeks at a time.

Lately, at NIEcology, I have been trialing a thermal imaging camera; I have used infrared video cameras for some time now, particularly to assist when undertaking bat surveys and they have been very useful.

Recently I had been commissioned to undertake a programme of dusk and dawn winter geese and swan surveys, the main objectives were to ID the species, count them, and track their flight lines to and from the roosting sites. Whilst the majority of the birds had the courtesy to wait for it to become at least half-light, before alighting from their roosts, others did not, coming and going during the hours of darkness, which is somewhat awkward when you want to count them!

Species ID is not normally a problem, as geese are somewhat noisy when alighting and taking off, so they can be identified via their calls. To overcome the visibility problem, I invested in a good thermal imaging video camera, having firstly reviewed various models and their capabilities. The results have been brilliant! To say the camera has opened up another world is not an overstatement, from over 500m distance in very poor light conditions, my targets are now visible, as are their movements. Problem solved!

I have uploaded a short video clip taken with the camera, showing several large skeins of Greylag geese, which can be clearly seen (white is body heat). I counted a total of 231 individuals passing my vantage point. Note not all of the geese are shown in the video clip, also please disregard the time shown, I forgot to change it.

I'm now looking forward to deploying the thermal imaging camera during this forthcoming bat season.

In addition to the first video clip, I have uploaded a second, which shows a mass eruption of Greylag geese leaving their overnight roost site. Too many to count, except to say there were more than 500 individuals, taking off within seconds of each other! Not all the geese are shown on the video.

A small skein of Greylag geese in flight

A mass eruption of Greylag geese

Several large skiens of Greylag geese

During a recent Geese and Swan survey, I captured the moments when a group of seventeen Whooper swans, which had been present on the north end of the Loch I had been surveying, started to trumpet their distinctive calls, as a prelude to their imminent departure. It was approximately an hour after sunset on a very calm evening, a blanket of mist cloaked the Loch and surrounding low-lying areas.

The thermal footage shows them emerging from the mist, as they flew in a southerly direction to land on a neighbouring Loch.

Whooper swans at Dusk