The scarecrow effect? Breeding Curlews are unnerved by the proximity of windfarms, says journal report

Curlews, seen here on a flooded Lincolnshire golf course, are relatively widespread and common in winter but their breeding numbers in Britain and other parts of Europe have seen many decades of decline 

TO what extent - if any - are Curlews at risk from windfarms, both onshore and offshore?

This is one of the questions explored by an authority on the species, Mary Colwell, in a report published in this month's edition of British Birds journal.

"For breeding Curlews, the principal impact of upland windfarms is displacement rather than collision,"she writes. "Birds avoid onshore turbines, access tracks and associated disturbance, reducing the area of otherwise suitable nesting and foraging habitat."

There seems to be a 500-metre rule, with data suggesting that, within this range, breeding density is between 15 and 53 per cent lower than on non-windfarm habitat.

The author continues: "For inland-breeding Curlews, collision risk with turbines is generally considered low compared with the effects of displacement from nesting or feeding areas."

But many of the Curlews that are seen on fields and estuary mudflats in autumn and winter are migrants from Scandinavia, particularly Finland, so how are they disadvantaged by the hundreds of turbines dotted about the North Sea?

                                                               

Mary Colwell is director of Curlew Action and chairperson of  Curlew Recovery Partnership England

"Offshore tracking and migration studies indicate that Curlews may alter flight paths and thus experience limited collision risk during migration," writes Ms Colwell.

What other threats undermine the future, as a breeding species, of Curlews which have been in decline since as far back as the 1950s?

The expansion of silage production, facilitated by fertilisers and technological improvements to cutting machinery,  is described as "particularly damaging" because multiple cuts during a season overlap with the nesting and chick-rearing period not just of Curlews but also other ground-nesting species such as Lapwings and Skylarks.

Forestry and woodland expansion are also an issue because trees are now often being grown on land which formerly accommodated ground-nesting birds such as Curlews.

Despite the challenges, the author is cautiously optimistic about the future because of ongoing initiatives such as 'headstarting' which aims to relocate eggs and chicks  from unsafe habitats to those where they might flourish.

Ends the author: "Ultimately, the future of the Curlew reflects wider choices about land use and biodiversity."  

The current edition of British Birds

* Mary Colwell's books include Curlew Moon and Beak, Tooth and Claw

How strange! Report from Spain of Great Crested Grebes catching and devouring Chiffchaffs

Great Crested Grebe on the prowl - though not, in this case, for Chiffchaffs

IT is difficult to think of any circumstances in which a waterbird, such as a Great Crested Grebe, might kill and eat a Chiffchaff or, indeed, any passerine. 

But Ornithomedia, the authoritative French language website for birders, has reported  a couple of such incidents - both last month on  the Las Cañas lagoon in Navarra, Spain.

It states: "While these passerines (known on the Continent as Swift Warblers) were hunting small insects on the surface of the water, the grebes approached discreetly, caught them with their beaks, drowned them and then swallowed them with difficulty. Two other capture attempts ended in failure."

The normal diet of Great Crested Grebes consists of small fish, larvae, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians and water vegetation, so these occurrences are remarkable though it should be noted that there is understood to be one British record of a grebe taking and devouring a Sand Martin.

We mustn't be beastly to vultures or wasps - they are among humankind's very best friends

                                          

Vultures are among the creatures that feature in the latest wildlife book from Bloomsbury.  In it, Author Jo Wimpenny (below) challenges common perceptions of 'good' species and sets the record straight about those we label 'pests', 'scavengers' and 'predators'. She insists some villainised species may benefit humanity and are more sentient than is generally believed. From wasps that provide free 'pest' control and snakes whose venom may cure cancer to the deep social bonds of crocodiles, this book calls on us  to rethink our most misunderstood beasts.                                        

King Charles watercolour of mountain scene in Cairngorms sells for well above pre-auction guide price

                                        

A 2002 painting by Prince Charles - now King Charles III - has sold for more than double the highest  pre-sale estimate. Auction house Tennants of Leyburn in North Yorkshire set a pre-sale guide price of between £500 and £700, but bidding had reached £1,400 before the hammer fell. The study, measuring 32.5cm by 38 cm of Ben Avon, near Braemar, is not an original but one of 20 limited edition prints. The identity of the buyer has not been revealed.

                                                                            

'Quirky sells' says auctioneer ahead of Lincolnshire auction of stuffed owls and more

                                                                

Eastern Screech Owl and Northern Saw-Whet Owl, neither native British species, are included in  the sale

TO take birds - dead or alive - is today mostly illegal, except with a few species and only in special circumstances.

But before the 1939-4 war,  trapping songbirds and shooting larger ones, such as birds of prey,  was common and accepted as a legitimate form of recreation.

Some stuffed and mounted victims of the 'hobby' are up for auction next week to be held by John Taylors of Louth in Lincolnshire.

In total there are six separate Lots, with species including Sparrowhawk, Barn Owl, Little Owl, Long-eared Owl, Kingfisher and Blue Tit.  

What sort of a person buys the products of taxidermy?

Says James Laverack, of John Taylors: "They are bought and collected for any number of reasons - for study, for education, for display or even acquired as a decorative art form - a quirky form of decoration for the sitting room, perhaps, but then quirky sells."

Bids of up to £50, maybe more, are expected when they go under the hammer on March 10. 

Snow Bunting takes centre stage in enchanting Oliver Heywood painting which comes up for auction next week

Handsome male Snow Bunting in breeding plumage

DURING his lifetime (1920-1992), Gloucestershire artist Oliver Heywood was perhaps somewhat under-appreciated.

As a result,  his landscape paintings command firm - but not spectacular - prices when they come up for sale.

Heywood, who had his home and studio near Stroud, was an ornithologist who often liked to incorporate birds into his work which he felt was the outlet for his "spiritual energy".

This is the case with two of a trio of his paintings which are due to be sold as a single Lot - number 200 - at an auction to be conducted by Dominic Winter at their sale room in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, on March 11.

One depicts perched Cormorants and Herrings Gulls in flight, while the other, more interesting study is of a male Snow Bunting in breeding plumage with Arctic Terns overhead.

The Lot is expected to fetch between £300 and £400.      

                                                                       

Herring Gulls in dancing flight over rock where Cormorants are perched 

Worrying time for many birders currently on holiday in Oman and neighbouring Gulf states

                                                                   

Oman is a favourite destination for British birders at this time of year

THE flare-up in the Middle East has created a worry for the many birders currently on holiday in Oman and other parts of the region during for the spring migration.

There are already deadly missiles in the sky, and the situation will only get more dangerous if Iran decides to expand the conflict.

Among tour companies currently running holidays in Oman is Naturetrek whose customers are believed to be midway through a 13-day break in pursuit of  desert specialities (including sandgrouse and Greater Hoopoe-Lark), seabirds (such as Persian Shearwater, Jouanin’s Petrel and Red-billed Tropicbird) and numerous waders, plus exciting residents including Arabian Eagle-Owl, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Arabian and Hume’s Wheatears. 

Oman is not in the front line of conflict apart from one incident at  the commercial port, Duqm, which  was targeted by two drones, one of which struck a mobile workers' housing unit, injuring an expatriate worker

Debris from the second drone landed in an area adjacent to fuel storage tanks, with no resultant loss of life or material damage. 

However, Foreign Office advice to nationals is not to travel to the southern city of Salalah (or within 100km) where the last four days of the birding holiday are due to be spent before the flight back to Heathrow.