Head of Waterbird Monitoring

Teresa is responsible for managing the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) and Goose and Swan Monitoring Programme (GSMP). WeBS is a partnership between the British Trust for Ornithology, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. GSMP is a partnership between British Trust for Ornithology, Joint Nature Conservation Committee and NatureScot.
Teresa is responsible for leading and co-ordinating all aspects of WeBS, including project management, engagement with partners and external stakeholders, scheme development, data management, reporting to the steering committee, reporting of results and communication of outputs to both scientific and popular audiences. She is the BTO nominated officer for the GSMP Project Management Group and Steering Group and is responsible for GSMP project management and strategic oversight. She manages the Waterbird Surveys Officer and WeBS Counter Network Organiser who organise WeBS and GSMP surveys and coordinates BTO colleagues working on WeBS and GSMP related work.
Teresa takes a lead role in related research and development of WeBS and GSMP, as well as for other BTO-run non-breeding waterbird surveys. Her research interests include the statistics of population indices of seasonal monitoring data such as WeBS.
Other Information
Prior to joining the BTO in November 2015, Teresa worked in Local Environmental Records Centres for several years and sat on the Boards of the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres and the National Biodiversity Network. She is interested in engaging people in recording and monitoring their local wildlife and fostering cross-taxa collaboration between wildlife organisations and groups; and in making better and more extensive use of biodiversity recording and monitoring data for policy, research and conservation at all scales. She is a keen but novice naturalist and record moths and other invertebrates as well as enjoying birding.
Teresa sits on the Strategic Working Group of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Monitoring Partnership.
PhD - Stochastic Modelling and Analysis of Wildfowl Anatidae Monitoring Data from the Wetland Bird Survey, University of Kent, 2004 - 2009 MRes, Mathematics in the Living Environment, York University, 2003-2004 MMath (Hons) Mathematics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1999-2003
Recent BTO Publications
- Calbrade, N.A., Birtles, G.A., Woodward, I.D., Feather, A., Hiza, B.M., Caulfield, E.B., Balmer, D.E., Peck, K., Wotton, S.R., Shaw, J.M. & Frost, T.M. Waterbirds in the UK 2023/24 View at journal website( DOI: )
- Woodward, I.D., Calbrade, N.A., Birtles, G.A., Feather, A., Peck, K., Wotton, S.R., Shaw, J.M., Balmer, D.E. & Frost, T.M. Waterbirds in the UK 2022/23 View at journal website( DOI: )
- Goss-Custard, J.D., Austin, G.E., Frost, T.M., Sitters, H.P. & Stillman, R.A. Decline in the numbers of Eurasian Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus on the Exe estuary Special Protection Area 10.5253/arde.2023.a23 View at journal website( DOI:10.5253/arde.2023.a23 )
- Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Humphreys, E.M., Burton, N.H.K., Atkinson, P.W., Pollock, C., Clewley, G.D., Johnston, D.T., O’Hanlon, N.J., Balmer, D.E., Frost, T.M., Harris S.J. & Baker, H. Highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds in the United Kingdom in 2022: impacts, planning for future outbreaks, and conservation and research priorities. View at journal website( DOI: )
- Austin, G.E., Calbrade, N.A., Birtles, G.A., Peck, K., Wotton, S.R., Shaw, J.M., Balmer, D.E. & Frost, T.M. Waterbirds in the UK 2021/22 View at journal website( DOI: )