Citizen Science Case Studies

The case studies below demonstrate the data journey for specific marine citizen science projects, covering their planning, collection, processing, preservation, sharing and reuse.

CollectCollect section of Guidance

The Seabird Monitoring Programme

The data collection during SMP surveys is done by conducting visual counts of birds to assess abundance and breeding success.

Click the icons below to find out more about the data collection method, locations and training required.

Find out more...

Method

There are slightly different methods for each species, but in general they consist of participants visually counting the birds from a distance. They surveys can last from 20 minutes to whole-day visits. The first count is to get overall abundances and a second follow-up survey count can be done to count juveniles to calculate breeding success. The survey methodologies are standardised and documented in the handbook used by volunteers.

Participants need their own equipment, which generally consists of binoculars, a tally counter, a telescope and tripod, and in some cases boat hire. There are two recording forms provided to volunteers depending on whether they are conducting a colony count, or assessing breeding success. These can be found on the website here: Taking Part | BTO.

Feedback is collected through an online form and through ongoing communication during events to help inform future work.

Location

Surveys are conducted across the UK and Ireland, both inland and at coastal sites. Not every survey site is counted at each year, but a sample of sites are covered each year for monitoring purposes.

The SMP show the survey sites both with and without active counters on the SMP Online Portal to help inform volunteers about where there are survey opportunities for them to join. They can then register for specific sites online.

Training

The main method for delivering training is through the volunteer handbook, but the BTO also run training events covering seabird ID and ecology which participants can join.

Once a participant registers for an event, the organiser communicates with the participant to check that they understand the survey methods and they have the correct skills to conduct a survey.

[The Seabird Monitoring Programme collect image] — British Trust for Ornithology

Next (Process) Collect section of Guidance Back Home