I - WeBs Workshop at Ballybay Wetland Centre on Sunday 2 December

Some information on this event by Helen Boland

On Sunday 2^nd December, we are holding an I-WeBS workshop at the lovely Ballybay Wetlands Centre, Derryvalley Farm, Ballybay, Co. Monaghan.

www.ballybaywetlands.ie 

It will run from 10am - 1pm after which there will be a field visit to look at some of the wintering waterbirds on the wetlands near the centre.  

This is a completely free event and we will provide tea and coffee and some light lunch.

The workshop is aimed at anyone who either already takes part or who is interested in participating in the survey.  Everybody is welcome. We will provide information about wintering waterbirds, and about the survey itself, how to count, and a bit of waterbird ID, and hopefully we will be able to sign up a few new recruits. No wetland is too small! And there is bound to be one in your area.

We will be holding at least one other workshop this season which we will forward details of as soon as possible.

In the meantime let me know if you would like to come along to this one In Ballybay, Monaghan, so I can gather some idea about numbers and how much refreshments to provide.

Helen Boland

I-WeBS National Organiser

BirdWatch Ireland

Unit 20, Block D, Bullford Business Campus | Kilcoole | Co. Wicklow 

Direct: 00 353 (0)1 2812410

Office: 00 353 (0)1 2819878
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Irish Wetland Bird Survey

I-WeBS has been the mechanism for monitoring wintering waterbirds in Ireland for the last 18 years, with the results being used for site-protection and designation.  Hundreds of thousands of waterbirds migrate to Ireland each winter from breeding grounds in Arctic Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, Russia, and countless places in between. In order to try to conserve the many species that spend the winter here we need to monitor them to find out how many individuals there are of each species, if the size of each population is increasing, decreasing or stable, and we need to identify the network of sites that they use. With the help of thousands of hours of input from skilled volunteers and staff of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, this information is compiled and built-on every year.

The Irish Wetland Bird Survey  (I-WeBS) is a joint survey of BirdWatch Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.