Annual meeting

On behalf of the EUFLYNET Management Committee and the Local organisers, the Bird Migration Research Station at the University of Gdańsk, Poland, we warmly invite you to join the meeting. It will provide the opportunity to meet each other, plan collaborative activities to achieve the aims of our Action, and exchange experiences and gain new skills. The first two days will allow the members of the three working groups to meet face to face and to start discussing and planning their strategy and objectives for the duration of the COST Action. For the third day, we scheduled a variety of training programs and a Management Committee meeting to put together the discussions and outcomes of the working group meetings.

The meeting will take place in the town of Jastarnia, on the Hel Peninsula on the Baltic Sea coast, ca. 70 km NE of the city of Gdańsk in Poland. The location is: https://maps.app.goo.gl/YupSPeDt8uVyn81o6, and the conference venue will be Hotel Dom Zdrojowyhttps://www.hoteldomzdrojowy.pl/en/. We recommend that all participants stay and have meals at this venue. We will ask you to book accommodation (in single or double rooms, breakfast included) and meals on your own as the date approaches. An optional stay at the conference venue after the meeting until Sunday 3 March 2024 is available (at your own expense).

The best way to get to Jastarnia is to travel by plane, train, or bus to the cities of Gdańsk or Gdynia, both within the Tri-City complex with good public transport. Local trains and buses to Jastarnia depart from the main railway station Gdynia Główna throughout the day, in the direction of Hel, and all stop in Jastarnia (ca. 1 hour trip). The first train departs from Gdynia around 5:00, and the last one around 22:00. If you arrive late in Gdańsk/Gdynia, we advise staying overnight in the city and travelling to Jastarnia the next morning. The hotel is close to the railway and bus stations in Jastarnia. You can also drive by car. You can arrive at any time; the hotel reception is open 24/7.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME:

Tue 27 Feb 2024

afternoon - arrival of participants

19:00-20:00 Dinner, networking & socializing

Wed 28 February2024

7:30-10:00 Breakfast/8:30-9:30 Optional birdwatching at the beach

9:00-10:00 Registration

10:00-12:30 General meeting

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-18:00 Meetings of the Working Groups

18:15-19:00 Presentation: Magda Remisiewicz “Six decades of research and monitoring of migrants at the Polish coast by the Operation Baltic”

19:00-20:00 Dinner, networking & socializing

Thu 29 February 2024

7:30-10:00 Breakfast/8:30-9:30 Optional birdwatching at the beach

10:00 -13:00 Meetings of the Working Groups

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Working Group 1 report

15:00-16:00 Working Group 2 report

16:00-17:00 Working Group 3 report

17:00-17:45 General discussion and consensus

18:15-19:00 Presentation: Ignacy Gołębiewski, Jarosław Nowakowski, Zuzanna Marynkiewicz “Bird diversity and nature conservation in the Norda region in Poland”

19:00-20:00 Dinner, networking & socializing

Fri 1st March 2024

7:30-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-16:00 Parallel training sessions

12:30-13:30 Lunch

16:00-19:00 EUFLYNET Management Committee meeting

19:00-20:00 Dinner, networking & socializing

Sat 2nd March, Sun 3rd March 2024 departures/optional trips

Training sessions planned for Friday 1st March 2024:

Automated radio telemetry by MOTUS system (planned time: 7-8 hours, with breaks)

Trainers: Dr Lucy Mitchell (Environmental Research Institute, UK) & Dr Dmitry Kishkinev (Keele University, UK)

The workshop will cover everything you need to know about the automated telemetry system ‘Motus’. As a collaborative network, Motus aligns well with the goals of EUFLYNET and can help us to track many of our smallest migratory birds. The workshop will begin with an introduction to the system and its philosophy, before moving on to more practical aspects including building a receiver station, finding funding and analysing data. Participants will also have time to ask questions, discuss ideas and hopefully start some fruitful collaborations.

Introduction to General Linear Modelling in R: all those very basic questions you were afraid to ask answered in a clear way (planned time: 7-8 hours, with breaks)

Trainer: Prof. William Cresswell (University of St. Andrews, UK)

This is a short introductory course designed for the unconfident in General Linear Modelling. I will take you through the relationships between hypotheses to models to statistical summary tables to graphs, and how to implement them in R. You need a laptop, loaded with R and R studio. But not much else. This course is very much intended for absolute beginners to get you to the point where you can try GLM modelling and so get better through practice. More experienced R users are welcome, but be prepared to buddy up with a beginner and to share your experience.

Introduction to capture-recapture analyses in RStudio (planned time: 5-6 hours, with breaks)

Trainer: Dr Jaume-Adrià Badia (Swiss Ornithological Institute)

Capture-recapture analysis is important for the analyses of ringing data, in order to estimate population sizes and dynamics. This session will cover the basic conceptual background of capture-recapture methods, and equip the attendees with the basic essential skills to conduct such analyses independently. This workshop is aimed at people ideally with basic RStudio skills.

Using multisensory geolocators to track migratory movements in birds (planned time: 5-6 hours, with breaks)

Trainer: Dr Raphaël Nussbaumer (Swiss Ornithological Institute)

Multisensor geolocators offer opportunities to track small migratory birds throughout their annual cycle. Atmospheric pressure measurements from geolocators can be used to estimate the position of a bird, by matching measurements to ground-level measurements. In this workshop, we will discuss the potential of such geolocators for tracking birds, and explore basic analyses techniques.