The CWC is a new region-wide waterbird and wetland monitoring program of the SCSCB. The goal of the program is to promote the conservation and management of resident and migratory waterbirds and their wetland habitats through monitoring.
This workspace is being built as a place to share information about the CWC, including the manual "Caribbean Waterbird Census: Promoting Conservation of Waterbirds and Wetlands Through Monitoring," workshop reports, training materials and other resources. As new material becomes available it will be added to the workspace, so check back often.
NOTE: all the content on this site will be moved to SCSCB's new website (under construction) by June 30th, 2013. Visit www.scscb.org
Check the Blog on this site for news and updates!
Participants at the SCSCB CWC Waterbird and Wetland Monitoring Training Workshop, February 23-27, 2011, Nassau,Bahamas
Participants at the SCSCB Waterbird Monitoring Training Workshop, February 21-25, 2010, Negril, Jamaica
DATES FOR THE THIRD REGIONAL CWC IN 2013:
CWC survey dates in 2013 are Monday, January 14th to Sunday, February 3rd inclusive. This includes 3 weekends and World Wetlands Day (WWD) on Feb. 2nd, in case you want to make your count part of your WWD celebration. Click here for more information about participating in the 2013 count; see also "available resources" below.
BACKGROUND
In February 2009, the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB) Monitoring Working Group held a workshop entitled "Bird Monitoring in the Caribbean - Why, What, Where, When and How" in Nassau, Bahamas. The workshop was funded by the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative/Organization of American States, USFWS, USFS, RSPB and many others. It involved twenty-six participants from eighteen West Indian islands and two Caribbean rim countries and eight international presenters, including a representative from Wetlands International. As a result of discussions held at this workshop SCSCB decided to establish the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) to complement the Neotropical Waterbird Census and others around the globe, thereby joining the International Waterbird Census coordinated by Wetlands International. In consultation with monitoring experts and our local partners, we have designed our methods to suit the needs and goals of local partners. We employ a hierarchical approach that enables partners to choose the method that is best suited to their questions, resources and capacity. The results of the CWC can be nested into the NWC but its approach goes beyond that of the NWC.
A second workshop, focused specifically on the CWC, also funded by the WHMSI/OAS was held in Negril, Jamaica in February 2010. This workshop provided an opportunity to further develop the CWC by training potential national and site coordinators and discussing with them how the program will develop throughout the region. At the Waterbird Council for the Americas meeting in Panama (January 2010) a decision was taken to support the CWC and to help SCSCB to develop it as a model for Central and South America. Later in 2010, SCSCB received grants from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Act Program (USFWS), USFS and SPAW-RAC to provide small grants for persons on Caribbean islands to implement the CWC in pilot programs.
NEW: In 2011, we launched the first regional CWC (see below) and we held a third training workshop, again focussed on the CWC, in Nassau, Bahamas, February 23-27, 2011. Reports and powerpoints from this workshop are available below.
THE OBJECTIVES OF THE CWC ARE TO:
Promote inventories, surveys and censuses of waterbirds and their habitats in all Caribbean countries
Encourage broad-based participation in waterbird counts including NGOs, governmental agencies, institutions, communities and volunteers
Ensure that as many internationally and nationally important sites as possible are conserved and monitored
Increase awareness of conservation issues related to wetlands and waterbirds and what can be done to address these issues.
The CWC offers a hierarchical and flexible approach to monitoring (employing levels of monitoring) that enables the user to choose the protocol and extent of participation in the program that is best suited to their objectives, available resources and capacity. The basic CWC protocols (Level 2 – area search and point count) include measures of detection probability, which are essential for accounting for bias in monitoring. Through this program, the Caribbean region will join Wetland International’s global program of wetland bird monitoring, with data from the Caribbean filling a major gap in the coverage of the International/Neotropical Waterbird Census. It can be used to promote site conservation, assess impacts of climate change and other threats on waterbirds and wetlands, and design programs to protect, manage and restore wetlands.
A CWC Manual is available to assist you in planning your monitoring program and provide you with standard protocols and data sheets.
At the beginning the CWC will function as an informal partnership of Caribbean organizations that plan to monitor waterbirds at least once per year using methods based on an agreed standard methodology. It is envisaged that eventually there will be a regional coordinator and that each territory will implement its own national CWC program, with a national coordinator coordinating the national efforts and site coordinators implementing the surveys on the ground. SCSCB is seeking funding to support this proposal and has already obtained funding to support pilot projects in selected islands including Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
We hope that many people will participate in the CWC, from interested volunteers and birders to natural resource/ wildlife professionals working in government and non-government agencies and organizations. All of the data collected will be of immense value in helping to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands, better understand the distribution and abundance of waterbirds in the Caribbean in relation to habitat conditions and threats, and improve the effectiveness of management and conservation actions. We look forward to working with you on this exciting program.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
Caribbean Waterbird Census Manual: Promoting Conservation of Waterbirds and Wetlands Through Monitoring, Version 1.1, March 30, 2012. This is a NEW formatted version of the CWC Manual; it is still under final review and checking for errors; and is currently being translated to Spanish. We plan to print and distribute copies of the manual in 2013. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions about any of the protocols (Lisa Sorenson - LSoren@bu.edu, Ann Sutton - Asutton@cwjamaica.com). Note: Please send any errors you find to Lisa Sorenson (Lsoren@bu.edu)
CWC Regional Report 2010-2012 - NEW - Report on participation and results from the first three years of the CWC. Frequency and distribution maps for five "species of concern" are included.
CWC Flyer - NEW - Informational Flyer about the CWC, including the goal, objectives, approach, accomplishments to date, needs for the future and how to participate. The Flyer was distributed to delegates at the 5th North American Ornithological Conference in Vancouver, Canada, August 2012. Feel free to adapt this flyer for your needs and island (I can send you the file in In Design).
CWC Poster - NEW - Poster describing the CWC program, presented at the 5th North American Ornithological Conference in Vancouver, Canada, August 2012. Feel free to adapt this poster for your needs and island (I can send you the file in In Design).
CWC Monitoring Workshop reports - Summary Report & Photos, Full Report & Photos from CWC Workshops in Negril, Jamaica, February 2010, and Nassau, Bahamas, February 2011.Monitoring papers and manuals are available for download at our Caribbean Birdwatch workspace.
Powerpoint presentations for training in bird ID and monitoring methods - revised versions from our most recent workshop in Nassau, February, 2011, have been upoaded. Feel free to download, use, and adapt these as needed for your training workshops. Note that some of the presentations are animated so be sure to view them in presentation mode to be aware of the animations. Also, talking points are included in the notes page for many of the presentations. We recommend that you download the CWC Manual (link above) and read this to have a thorough understanding of the the CWC manual and options for monitoring methods.
Caribbean Bird ID Monitoring Flickr Group - This group has been set up as a resource for bird identification for people who are conducting bird monitoring, such as the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC). Our goal is to create a reference library of photos to help with learning bird ID of resident and migratory birds that occur in the Caribbean, and also a place for people to ask for assistance if they have a photo of a bird whose ID they are unsure of. We invite you to visit the site and post your photos!
Shorebird Gallery - Exquisite photos of Caribbean shorebirds and key tips for telling challenging species apart. Many thanks to Ted Eubanks for this wonderful resource!eBird Caribbean Rarities Flickr Group - The purpose of this group is to document observations of birds made outside of that species normal range or normal seasonal occurrence. By including images here, your photographs will be available to the wide audience of eBird Caribbean and Flickr users.
eBird Caribbean - enter your CWC Monitoring data here!
SIGHTINGS OF MARKED BIRDS
Be on the lookout for banded birds! The Caribbean provides important migration stopover and wintering habitat for a number of birds; we can contribute data on the locations and habitats used by these birds. In particular, look for bands on Ruddy Turnstones, Red Knots, Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpipers, and American Oystercatchers. Do your best to note the color and position of each band on the bird (e.g., right leg, left leg, upper and lower) and read any letters or numbers on the bands. For more information on species that have been banded and to report banded birds, visit the Shorebird Banding and Resighting Website.
Magnficent Frigatebirds with Wing Tags - Sarah Trefry, graduate student at the University of New Brunswick put wing tags frigatebirds in Barbuda. These birds are being spotted all over the Caribbean. If you see marked birds, please report them to Sarah.
Great Egrets with wing tags and colored legbands - More than 1,500 Great Egrets have been color-makred in Ontario and resighting data shows that about 20% are wintering in the Caribbean. Read more about this project here. Send your sighting of marked birds to Chip Weseloh.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is a Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative (WHMSI) project, with funding and support from OAS, USFWS (Div. of International Conservation), USFWS (Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Fund), Environment Canada, US Forest Service, RSPB, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, CAR-SPAW, Rare Species Conservatory Foundation, and Optics for the Tropics. We are very grateful for the support we have received from many additional partners and sponsors: Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust, Bahamas National Trust, Ramsar Convention, Wetlands International, Waterbirds Conservation Council for the Americas, National Environment and Planning Agency, Caribbean Coastal Area Management Trust, Jack Sprat Restaurant, Irie Safari Boat Tours and WildlifeCounts.com.
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