Work in Progress
Species Accounts
Regrettably, a series of significant delays have arisen, due to a lack of time available to devote to the project. This means that population of the species accounts pages is unlikely to be completed until 2026.
While some accounts are underway, OrniStats wants to maintain a high degree of quality, and ensure that the analyses on the species pages are meaningful and purposeful, rather than simply being the output of a generic ‘one size fits all’. Given that close to 400 taxa are being considered by this project, and a significant amount of progress in the field of data science has taken place since the project commenced two years ago, this is going to take a significant amount of time. Therefore, full completion of the accounts is unlikely before next year.
By August 2025, OrniStats hopes to have developed a refined analysis strategy which has been implemented in as many taxa as possible. Development will then need to take an extended hiatus while the principal developer is away, to resume in early 2026.
Remit Review
Initially, the remit of this project was of species that had maintained both BBRC review status and listed under IRBC Appendix 1 or 2 continuously since 1950. However, OrniStats is currently exploring the feasibility of expanding the remit to include species removed from the BBRC review list after 2002 which were maintained in the Scarce Migrants Report. As of 24/05/2025, significant progress had been made with this goal, and a summary of the results of the preliminary review and initial data collection process are summarised below.
Species to be added to OrniStats remit
- Lesser Scaup
- Penduline Tit
- Western Subalpine Warbler
Species undergoing data collection and review
- Alpine Swift
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- White-winged Black Tern
- Red-footed Falcon
- Radde’s Warbler
- Dusky Warbler
- Greenish Warbler
- Arctic Warbler
- Blyth’s Reed Warbler
- Red-flanked Bluetail
- Citrine Wagtail
- Olive-backed Pipit
- Red-throated Pipit
- Rustic Bunting
Species rejected from addition to the remit
- Black Brant
- American Wigeon
- Black-winged Stilt
- American Golden Plover
- White-rumped Sandpiper
- Wilson’s Storm-petrel
- Black-crowned Night Heron
- Rose-coloured Starling
Species awaiting decisions
- Black Kite
- Red-rumped Swallow
- Coues’s Arctic Redpoll
Upcoming Projects
The other aspect of the work of OrniStats, the in-depth projects, are similarly on the backseat for a while. However, a good start was made on a project investigating the application of quantitative assessment techniques for wildfowl records. Initial analysis was very promising indeed, but further work is necessary before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn.
Other investigations scheduled for completion, but which are now also delayed, include:
- Seabird occurrences in the North Sea
- Movement patterns of irruptive vagrants
- Impacts of weather system properties on vagrant patterns