It can’t not have but coverage by local birdwatchers, such as it is, will be very sparse i would have thought. Birds are where the birders are whether it is breeding birds, migrants or displaced rarities - no observers no records. Western Europe has good coverage and the UK is saturated with them, well photographers anyway
, but there are many areas in the UK that get little coverage whilst the bias understandably is towards the coast, managed reserves and water.
I enquired with a birdwatching link in Mali a couple of years ago to find out what vis-mig had been like for Northbound migrants but never received a reply:-C
Just look at the coverage that the invasion of the displaced Hawfinches generated. The Saharan duststorm coming up from Morocco had quite an effect so it must work the other way.
It is well-known that European Swallows Winter in Southern Africa but it’s a huge region and a BTO paper by the late Chris Mead showed recoveries and controls came from areas reflecting White residential birders and after all how many dead Passerines does one find? They rot so quickly. The 2 main population crashes of Sand Martin have been well documented as has the affect on associated species that Winter or used to in the sub-Saharan Sahel region e.g. Whitethroat and Redstart. Anoher paper, more recent, said that in over 300k House Martins ringed in the UK there had only been one recovery South of the Sahara and that was in Nigeria..........probably on a plate surrounded by Rice:eek!: Which does beg the question where do they Winter? They also feed higher so are less noticeable to the non-birder but they have to roost somewhere.
Targeted Geo-locaters are the way to go imo rather than countless hours spent ringing and handling birds but try telling ringers that - they do not want to stop setting up nets or trapping rarities because they are licensed innit!
Geo-tagging would give real time info during movement and inclement weather in a way that old-fashioned ringing can never do and yields instant results. Over 100k Nightingales have been rung in this country but 25 with Geo-tags yielded more information over a 2-year period than all the ringed birds have ever done - same with the BTO Cuckoo scheme:t:
Good Birding and i hope to have another chat up at Fens Pools post-Doorzett -
Laurie:t: