Revised best practice guidance for the use of remote techniques for ornithological monitoring at offshore windfarms

COWRIE is pleased to announce the release of the above report prepared by a consortium lead by RPS, the international environmental consultancy, the Food and Environment Research Agency’s Bird Management Unit and the University of Aberdeen.

COWRIE commissioned the priority research project COWRIE REMTECH 08-08 to review and provide practical guidance on using remote techniques for bird monitoring at offshore windfarms. This COWRIE report updates Desholm et al (2005).
‘Remote techniques’ encompass a variety of technical methods for ornithological studies. These have been predominantly developed for scientific purposes. However, many are inappropriate or impractical to implement as monitoring solutions for Scottish Territorial Waters Round (STWR) and Round 3 (R3) developments.

The report aims to promote the wider concept of ensuring that all bird monitoring techniques including ‘remote techniques’ (where necessary) are combined, drawing on their relative merits, as part of an Integrated Ornithological Monitoring Program (IOMP).

Finally, this report also provides a Guidance framework within the development process for offshore windfarms in the UK in order that “remote techniques” successfully provide added value to standard baseline bird monitoring techniques (aerial and boat-based) during the Environmental Impact Assessment process.