WELCOME DECLINE IN BIRD-TRAPPING IN FRANCE, CYPRUS AND MALTA - BUT ITALY REMAINS A WORRY

Greenshank - fewer trappings reported in Malta

AN upbeat note has been sounded on the campaign to combat  killing of songbirds in southern Europe and beyond.

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter has provided the following, mostly positive, update on the outcome of its activities this month.

France: Ortolan bunting trapping ceases
A CABS bird protection camp in the Southern French department of Les Landes at the beginning of September has produced a great result: we could not find a single active Ortolan buting trapping site. From hundreds of trapping sites in 2011, it went back to five active sites in 2017. Now there is apparently no active Ortolan trapping. For seven years, we have fought against the illegal capture of the endangered bunting species and have finally struck a victory despite extensive opposition from politicians and the criminal poachers!

Malta: Wader trapping dwindles
As in the south of France, a similar pattern is emerging on Malta: Thanks to our work, the illegal trapping of waders such as dotterel, ringed plover, sandpipers and greenshanks (using clapnets and decoys around artificial ponds) is almost at a complete standstill. Again, we rely on conducting aerial surveys to easily discover and film the nets. While we typically had more than 20 active traps five years ago, there are just four during this late part of summer. The sites have been reported to the police and we await the results of their follow-up investigations.

                                    

Maltese reprieve for ringed plovers

Brescia: Action against pied flycatcher poachers
In Northern Italy, Brescia, we usually run our bird protection camp in October. However, we deployed a small team to the region during late August/ early September to conduct field investigations and monitor the scale of illegal poaching of pied flycatchers with snap traps. The results were worrying. We found eight active trapping installations. Nine individuals were convicted, and 180 traps, 16 mistnets, 6 small clapnets and 26 bowtraps were seized as well as four shotguns and ammunition. The problem seems to be more widespread than we initially thought. A late summer action in Brescia will be included in our annual program again next year.
 

Pied flycatcher being released from trap (photo:CABS)

 Lebanon, Cyprus, Malta: Actions have started
Although our first small actions are now complete, our large protection camps have now begun. In Cyprus, the CABS teams were able to collect more than 160 limesticks and two nets. Two poachers were convicted . In Lebanon and Malta, our focus is on the protection of migratory birds of prey and storks. We will post regular updates on social media and on this website: 
http://www.komitee.de/en/actions-and-projects/bird-protection-camps/camp-diary-autumn-2018

It will definitely be a busy autumn!

HURRICANE FLORENCE - ITS IMPACT ON BIRDS

Due for monitoring - godwits, such as this bartail

 WHAT impact has this month’s Hurricane Florence had on birds?

The Audubon Society (the American equivalent of the RSPB) has been monitoring developments - not least because it has staff and bird reserves in South and North Carolina, the states worst affected.

In a statement this week, it says: “Shorebird and seabird migration is in full swing, and we will be monitoring local birds for any negative effects of the storm.

“Species include whimbrel a variety of godwits and sandpipers, piping and semipalmated plovers plus least, royal, gull-billed, common, and Forster’s terns

“Almost all 2018 nestlings have fledged, and we know that birds are very good at riding out - or flying away from - bad weather.

“As of last week, only one brown pelican colony in North Carolina still had unfledged chicks, but chances are good that these chicks will survive so long as they do not get separated from their parents.”

Staff and society premises escaped the worst of Florence, but there has been damage which will be assessed in due course.

The statement continues

• After the storm passes, as soon as it is safe to do so, Audubon staff will be surveying the damage.
• Storm surge, winds, waves, and floodwaters can deposit debris and trash onto delicate ecosystems.
• Floodwaters might wash pollutants from a variety of industries into local waterways and the surrounding habitats.
• Storm surges can erode natural barriers between freshwater and saltwater habitats. We expect to see some saltwater incursion into the freshwater marshes behind some barrier islands, disrupting those habitats. We do not know to what extent that will occur and will assess the situation once the storm has passed.
• Conversely, those same storm surges can drop needed sand onto barrier islands, helping build them up. We will be monitoring places like Pine Island Sanctuary in North Carolina, and Crab Bank Island in South Carolina, for storm-related changes.

On a plus note, the statement notes that storm surge overwash brings nutrients into the brackish back-bay habitats where shorebirds and wading birds forage.

"As a result, they might have more food to fuel their migrations southward."

BOOK REVIEW: WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR?

Mission to see 200 species in a year - Lev Parikian's new book

IT is not often that a bird book can be likened to a thriller, but Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? qualifies as  a really fast-paced page-turner.

Author Lev Parikian is a returnee to birdwatching after an absence of almost 40 years, and, for him, the sighting of each new bird (starting with blue tit) does indeed come as a ‘thrill’ as he seeks to notch up 200 species within the UK in a single calendar year, 2016.

And the briskness of his narrative takes on a gripping tone of urgency as he reaches the start of November still 22 birds short of his target.

As a schoolboy, Parikian had a brief, fairly intense enthusiasm for watching birds such that he persuaded his mother to take him to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere to watch avocets.

But his interest waned, not to be revived until middle age when he rediscovered on a bookshelf in the Oxfordshire home of his childhood, the copy of The Reader’s Digest Book of British Birds, the title which had first prompted his interest as an 11-year-old.

He found himself fascinated anew not just by the illustrations (“my gateway drug to an intoxicating world”) but also by the strangely evocative names of such species as wryneck, phalarope, scaup and skua.

There are other books about similar bird-ticking quests, but what makes this one so refreshing is the combination of the author’s relentless good humour, his witty writing style and his modesty.

There is never any showing off. He doesn’t pretend to be worthy, authoritative or (heaven forbid) pious.

Parikian is not particularly skilled either at detecting birds or identifying them. He makes mistakes - for instance, inadvertently recording linnets as twite - but he is honest about his shortcomings and all too ready not only to admit them but also to mock them.

In fact, some of the funniest parts of the book are his exasperation as some unidentified warbler or chat disappears deep into the undergrowth never to be seen again.

Although the author’s 200-tick quest starts on the patch in South-east London where he now lives, he quickly realises that, if his target - which started as a New Year Resolution - is unlikely to be fulfilled unless he spread his wings and ventures to well established birding hotspots such as reservoirs and wildlife reserves such as those managed by the RSPB at Dungeness, Cliffe Pools, Titchwell and Rainham Marshes.

Later in the year, the Isle of Wight and the Dorset Coast beckon as (in August) do Loch Garten, the Isle of Skye and the Bass Rock

On his travels, Parikian meets numerous other birders of varying abilities and temperaments. Some are knowledgeable, genial and helpful while others are, alas, morose to the point of joylessness even when encountering rarities.

He is disquieted that some experts have been birding so long as seemingly to have forsaken any capacity to marvel at the beauty of the commonplace - for instance, the colourful sheen on the plumage of a rook or the spectacular courtship flight of lapwing.

This intriguing book also contains moments of speculation, some of it almost hidden between the lines.

What would be the reaction of a 1950s birdwatcher if he returned today? Is there something “namby-pamby” about birding at dedidated reserves? Is it not a little sad to watch waders and wildfowl in an airless hide when the sun is shining outside? Has Mao Tse Tung’s purge of grain-eating birds in 1960s China been reflected in what intensive farming has been doing over the past 60 years, to their counterpart species in the West?

All questions which are seldom considered, let alone asked, in the birding world of today.

Does Parikian achieve his target of seeing 200 species in 2016? Does he exceed or does he fall short? And what happens at the start of 2017?

To give the answers would be to risk spoiling the end of his ‘thriller’.

Published by Unbound and with Alan Harris’ charmingly lifelike study of a goldcrest on the front cover, this is one of the best nature books of the year - a great read alike for birders, prospective birders and those who simply enjoy a lively tale, sprinkled with plenty of wry, mischievous and occasionally mildly salacious humour.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? is available via Amazon and wherever books are sold.

RSPB CHIEF EXECUTIVE MIKE CLARKE TO STEP DOWN

                                       

Mike Clarke - lifetime commitment to nature conservation

RSPB chief executive Mike Clarke is to step down at some point next year.

He has  announced his intention in good time to enable the society to appoint a successor by the time of its  AGM in October 2019 

In a statement this week, he said: “I first joined the RSPB in 1972 and very soon became a volunteer, sparking my lifetime commitment to nature conservation.

“Now, after a long, and very fulfilling career as an executive member of the team, it is time for me to step down and return to my roots, supporting the charity in other ways as both a member and volunteer once more.

“I was fortunate enough to be one of the society’s first conservation officers and have been privileged to be its chief executive  since 2010.

“During my time at the RSPB, I have been lucky enough to play a role in establishing strong laws to protect threatened species and habitats across the UK and Europe, developing partnerships that have grown our impact on the ground and building the evidence base for the state of nature in the UK and key sites for biodiversity worldwide.

“I am proud to be leaving the society with its highest level of support. It has grown to over 1.2 million members who share, with volunteers and staff, our commitment to save nature.”

Chairman of the RSPB council Kevin Cox, commented: “The RSPB owes a huge amount to Mike from his time as a volunteer to his current position as CEO.

“During his 20-year tenure as a board member, he has helped drive the society’s growth and impact, more recently steering us with great care and thought through a challenging period of change for both the charity sector generally and for nature conservation. 

“He has been instrumental in driving significant growth in membership, while modernising our mission to ensure we remain relevant in a changing world and fostering a new era of collaboration on behalf of nature conservation.

“When Mike hands over the reins, he will do so leaving the RSPB ready to take on the challenges of the future as an organisation that is shaping conservation here in the UK and around the world. It is a legacy he should be proud of.

“I am confident that we will find a new chief executive who will build on Mike’s contributions over these last four decades”.

EIGHT SPECIES NAMED AS 'EXTINCT IN THE WILD'

Spix's macaw - lost to the wild

EIGHT birds have been named  as extinct in the wild following a review by  Birdlife International.

They are:

Ø     Spix's macaw

Ø     Poo-uli

Ø     Cryptic treehunter

Ø     Alagoas foliage-gleaner

Ø     New Caledonian lorikeet

Ø     Javan lapwing

Ø     Pernambuco pygmy-owl

Ø     Glaucous macaw

Announcing the decision, BirdLife’s Chief Scientist, Dr Stuart Butchart, commented: “Some 90 per cent of bird extinctions in recent centuries have been of species on islands.

“However, our results confirm that there is a growing wave of extinctions sweeping across the continents, driven mainly by habitat loss and degradation from unsustainable agriculture and logging”.

The best-known of the above is the Spix’s macaw because it was featured in the 2011 animated children's film, Rio.

However, according to Dr Butchart, hope still lingers for this species.

An estimated population of between 60-80 persists in captivity, so theoretically a successful breeding programme could lead to its reintroduction to the wild.

A lone sighting in 2016 sparked hope the species may persist in the wild, but it is now suspected to have been an escapee from captivity. 

* Photo credit: Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation

BREEDING SUCCESS FOR LITTLE TERNS AT CUMBRIA NATURE RESERVE

Two of the tern chicks take their first steps in the world

FOUR little tern chicks have fledged at South Walney Nature Reserve near Barrow  in Cumbria  for the first time in 33 years. 

Little terns have been breeding intermittently on the nature reserve since the mid-1980s.

However they have had little success in actually rearing the chicks, and most years they have not bred at all. 

Says reserve warden Sarah  Dalrymples; “The last time that chicks fledged was in 1985, so it’s great to see four chicks have flown the nest this year.” 

Little terns are very vulnerable to disturbance which is why there are only 1,200 pairs left in the UK.

Continues Sarah: “Repeated disturbance causes the birds to abandon their eggs and young which is very sad.

“Due to their rarity, little terns have extra protection in law, and disturbing them when they are at their nest is a criminal offence, under the Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981).

“Motor vehicles, including quad bikes and dirt bikes, are not allowed on the foreshore of the nature reserve or above mean high water (the boundary of the nature reserve) without the landowner’s permission (an offence under the Road Traffic Act).”

Cumbria Wildlife Trust works hard to protect wildlife and habitats on nature reserves such as South Walney and nearby at Foulney Island, where there are 40 pairs of little terns.

Unfortunately, members of the public do not always follow the warning signs, and trespassers do occasionally drive on to the reserves.

Quad bike tyre tracks were recently seen on South Walney very close to one of the tern nests.

Earlier this year. the driver of a Land Rover got stuck when he drove illegally on to the sands off South Walney, damaging the vegetated shingle beaches.

Living up to its name, the little tern is the UK's smallest tern and can be seen nesting on gravelly beaches in small colonies.

It feeds just offshore, hovering above the water before diving in to catch its prey of small fish.

A summer visitor to Europe, the little tern leaves in August to spend the winter in Africa.
Silvery-grey above and white below, the little tern has a black cap, a black eye stripe, and a white forehead.

 It has a short tail, tiny, yellowy-orange legs, and yellow bill with a black tip.

CRANES BOUNCING BACK (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS) AS A UK BREEDING SPECIES

Happy times for cranes (photo courtesy WWT)

A TOTAL of three young cranes have been raised at a nature reserve in Gloucestershire.

The birds  have been practising flying at WWT Slimbridge where, as part of an ongoing re-introduction, project  93 cranes were initially  hand-reared in captivity, then released into the wild on the Somerset levels.


Since their release, the birds have spread out across the South-west, and five breeding pairs have made the Slimbridge reserve their home thanks to judicious habitat creation.


Says reserve manager Dave Paynter: “We are extremely pleased.


 “Now that the young birds can fly, they are less vulnerable to natural predators.


“This is a boost to the future of our growing UK population of the species.”


The UK’s tallest bird, cranes were widespread across the country up until the early 17^th Century but were driven to extinction by loss of wetlands and hunting.


Comments RSPB conservation officer Damon Bridge: “The number of second generation birds is slowly building.


“There are now 17 second generation birds in the founding flock - some of which will themselves be breeding next year.”