'SMALL BIRDS USED TO FLY AGAINST THE LANTERNS THAT WATCHMEN CARRIED'

From an 1860 edition of The Ibis, quarterly journal of the British Ornithologists' Union.


Mr. G. D. Rowley writes from Brighton, as follows: "The migration of birds is a little-understood wonderful thing - wonderful even to the closet naturalist but still more so to the field observer.

"Living on the South Coast in spring and autumn, I have good opportunities of marking the arrival and departure of some birds.

"I have seen the Swallows  actually arrive from over the sea and pass straight inland without a pause or the least show of weariness. 

"Not so the Chiffchaffs and Willow Wrens which stay about the shingle at first till they recover their strength - I have seen them at five o'clock of a spring morning within a few yards of the waves. 

"In autumn, on certain days (varying according to the wind), the
gardens about Brighton are full of Ring Ouzels, Chiffchaffs
Willow Wrens and Redstart.

"On the downs are Wheatears and, in the air, Goldfinches, Swallows, Green Linnets and so on. 

"I have stood and watched these birds early on a fine morning (for birds of the above kinds do not fly in cloudy, dull days), going in continuous streams down to the sea, following one another as surely in the same direction as if going by a mariner's compass. 

"Their motions appear to the common observer to be guided by chance, but the ornithologist knows that each bird he sees is employed on some particular business, and he can interpret its actions. 

"Birds always travel by night across the sea, working their way along the coast till a proper wind is blowing, and flying against any light which may appear on the shore. 

"In the days of the old watchmen at Brighton, small birds
used frequently to fly against the lanterns which they carried. "

WILD BIRDS ARE 'POPULAR HOLIDAY SEASON DELICACY' IN SOME PARTS OF SOUTHERN EUROPE

Golden plover - vulnerable species in autumn

THE organisation that campaigns to halt the slaughter of migratory wild birds in southern Europe and beyond has been busy in the run-up to  the festive break. The Campaign Against Bird Slaughter's chief executive, Alexander Heyd, has issued this seasonal message to friends and supporters.

For most people Christmas is theoretically a time for calm contemplation. 

The reality of the chaos during the festive period is certainly no different for our bird guard teams and activists, except that we are busy chasing poachers!

Malta, Cyprus and Italy

Wild birds are particularly popular delicacies and especially in high demand around the holiday season. 

The bird-trappers have a lot of free time and only a few policemen are on duty. Ideal conditions for undisturbed bird trapping and killing. 

Therefore, we have been on active duty again this December. 

Until 22nd December, we were in Malta monitoring the trapping of Golden Plover, which are caught to be used as live decoys for hunting. 

In Cyprus, the trappers pursue  overwintering thrushes and robins.

We have had teams active for the past two  weeks and will continue through the holidays well into January looking for nets. 

In Calabria in southern Italy, a team is in the field from Christmas onwards, conducting field investigations and monitoring incidents of illegal hunting - especially for finches.

New CABS website

Our new website has been launched. 

Besides a new design you will now find much more background information on the problems of bird-hunting and bird-trapping as well as on our operations and campaigns. 

Take a look: www.komitee.de

Please donate for direct action to protect migratory birds

Operational planning for the CABS bird protection camps in 2020 are already in full swing. 

For spring we have six major and a dozen smaller actions in the programme, while in autumn there will be over 25 outreaches. 

The main focus will be on Cyprus, Malta, northern Italy and Lebanon. 

We would be extremely grateful if you would support our work with a small donation. 

Every single penny and cent helps us deliver direct action on the ground and guard the flyways during our bird protection camps. 

It’s never been so easy to donate - either visit our new website for details or visit our Facebook page and simply hit the donate button!

Thank you and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The CABS Team.

FORMER MARKETING MAN JOINS TRUSTEES' TEAM AT BTO

 Simon Francis - knows Cornwall's bird well

CONGRATULATIONS to Simon Marquis on becoming a trustee 

of the BTO following his election at its  annual meeting earlier this month.

Simon was brought up in Hertfordshire and now lives in Cornwall and London.  

He spent most of his career - more than  40 years - working in advertising, marketing, PR and journalism.

He was also, until 2017, a director of the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company. 

Simon was educated at Lancing College in Sussex and has a history degree from Cambridge University.  

He has had an interest in and love of birds since childhood and became a trustee of the RSPB in the 1990s, chairing its education and membership committee.  

He was also on the panel responsible for the appointment of a new chief executive.  

Now that he spends much of his time in Cornwall where he is involved with the Cornwall Bird Watching & Preservation Society (CBWPS) whose quarterly newsletter he has edited for the past 13 years.

The CBWPS is at:

https://www.cbwps.org.uk/cbwpsword/

BYGONE BIRDING: IT WASN'T A WOODCOCK, IT WAS A WHITE'S THRUSH!

White's Thrush - undulating flight reminiscent of a Green Woodpecker

Warwickshire ornithologist Robert F.Tomes was not the birder who  discovered the White's Thrush that turned up near his home one winter's day in 1859. However, it was he who was able to confirm the identification having examined the corpse after the hapless bird had been shot. This is part of his account which first appeared in an edition , later that year, of The Ibis,  quarterly journal of the British Ornithologists' Union.

The village of Welford, five miles west of Stratford-on-Avon, where the specimen was obtained, is situated in a bend of the Avon, and that the soil is a rich alluvium.

Its position is highly favourable for the growth of timber and fruit trees, and it is well shrouded in orchards and small enclosures, fringed with their hedgerows and ivy-clad elms, affording a favourite haunt for many of the smaller birds, with a good supply of cherries and other fruits in the summer months and of berries through the autumn and winter seasons. 

From a cherry orchard, a few miles down stream, I obtained, a few years since, a specimen of the Rose-coloured Pastor, and Starlings and thrushes abound. 

Of insect-feeders, there is an equally good supply; and I have had more than one opportunity of inspecting the nesting of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

In a small grass enclosure immediately adjoining the village and thickly surrounded by elms, a friend of mine observed a bird rise from a dry leafy ditch.

At the first glance, it  was mistaken for a Woodcock but it was soon recognised as a variety of thrush.

This happened on the 6th of January, and, on hearing the account, I stimulated a further search, but without effect until the 23rd of that month when the bird was again flushed from the same enclosure, and, as before, from the bottom of a dry ditch amongst dead leaves.
Again on the 26th, it rose from the same ditch, and within a few yards of the same spot.

On each occasion it was busied in turning over the dead leaves from beneath which it appears to have taken its food. 

Although Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Mistle Thrushes were abundant and seen at the same time feeding on the ivy and hawthorn berries, the present bird was always observed to resort only to the trees or hedges when disturbed, and then merely as a place of rest, remaining for some time perched in an upright position in one spot, without noticing the berries or the species feeding on them.

Its flight, when roused from its feeding, was very undulating, like that of the Green Woodpecker, and low, often settling on the ground, and only making choice of a tree when it happened to pass under one into which it rose almost vertically. 

As far as its habits could be ascertained from these short opportunities of observation, it would appear to be almost entirely a ground feeder. 

Edward Blyth says of the allied Indian species, Oreocincla dauma, that it is generally met with amongst bamboos, in which situation the ground, rather than the canes, would very likely be the attraction.

I have been thus particular in the description of the locality in which the bird appeared on account of the interval which
occurred between its first and second appearance, for it must be supposed that it was a suitable one or it would not have again
returned to it after an absence of more than a fortnight.

* Named after the naturalist, the Rev Gilbert White, the species breeds in East Asia and Siberia, migrating to South-east Asia for winter. It is only a rare vagrant to Western Europe.

** Photo: JJ Harrison via Wikimedia Commons

SCRAP DEALER HEAVILY FINED FOR CAUSING DAMAGE TO HABITAT PRECIOUS TO SONGBIRDS

Leafy site is home to unusual songbirds and wildflowers

A HAMPSHIRE  landowner has been heavily hit in the pocket after running an illegal scrap metal dealership on part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Odiham Common with Bagwell Green and Shaw is a blend of ancient woodland and pasture,  rich in wildlife including birds such as   woodcock and wood warbler. 

Having bought land on the site five years ago, Christopher Ball failed to notify Natural England of his intention to set up a business that posed a risk to  the environment and its birds and plants. 

At Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court, he was  fined £3,600  after pleading guilty to conducting unauthorised operations likely to damage the site.

As well as receiving the fine, Christopher Ball, trading as C Ball and Sons, was also ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

The court heard that site inspections had revealed that vehicles, vehicle parts and tyres, construction waste, pallets, felled branches and a bonfire site were all on the site. Vehicle fluids were leaking into the soil. 

Natural England has since taken action to clear the site.

The SSSI, which is located between Basingstoke and Aldershot, comprises nearly 130 hectares of wood pasture, rare grassland habitats, meadows and common land at the junction of the London Clay, Plateau Gravel and Lower Bagshot Beds on the edge of the Thames Basin. 

The Common was formerly used by Edward the Confessor as a hunting ground before being developed into the land which is seen today, predominantly oak trees, but with isolated patches of meadow.

The site is home to 39 ancient woodland species such as woodruff, early-purple orchid, wood spurge and Solomon’s-seal, as well as nationally rare deadwood invertebrates, reptiles and birds.

Andrew Smith, Manager for Natural England’s Thames Solent Area said: "It is alarming that a landowner should show such complete disregard for a protected site in their care.

" I am pleased that this responsibility has been recognised by the court. 

"When we find cases of damage, such as this, in some of England’s most important and precious countryside, we will take enforcement action and, if necessary, prosecute those responsible. 

"We take our role as a regulator seriously. 

"Our aim now is to work with the owner to re-establish the site and avoid damage to the SSSI in future."

As the owner and occupier of part of the SSSI, Mr Ball is required by law to obtain Natural England’s consent for “operations likely to damage the special interest” of the site. 

This includes storing or dumping materials or using vehicles on the SSSI that could cause harm.

Shortly after Mr Ball came into ownership of the land in 2014, Natural England was notified that spoil had been dumped on the site and trees had been cut down. 

This spoil was cleared from the site in response to an Enforcement Notice issued by Hart District Council in September 2014.

In May 2017 Natural England were informed that the site was now being used to store truck cabs and car chassis, alongside the dumping of other miscellaneous items such as tyres and vehicle exhausts. 

This led to a sustained intervention by various organisations, including Hart District Council, Hampshire Constabulary and Natural England to bring harmful actions on the site to an end. 

Mr Ball failed to respond to numerous warnings or to cooperate. 

Mr Ball refused the attempts of Natural England and Hart District Council to arrange for the site to be cleared and would not engage in resolving the situation, which led to an application for a closure order, which was granted in April 2019.

BYGONE BIRDING: THE DAY SUSSEX RECORDED ITS FIRST BLACK-WINGED STILT

Black-winged stilt - bill "as finely pointed as a hummingbird"

                                      
In early summer, 1859, a pond near Chichester in Sussex briefly played host to a  rare and elegant wading bird - a Black-winged stilt. This is A.E. Knox's  account, originally published in The Ibis magazine, of what happened to it.

On the 17th of May last, a specimen of the Black-winged Stilt
(Himantopus melanopterus) was spotted on the banks of a small
pond  surrounded by unreclaimed moorland, near the junction of Midhurst and Bepton Commons. 

This is the first time that the Stilt has ever been seen in the county of Sussex; and it would appear to be nearly equally scarce in all parts of the British Islands. 

Opportunities for observing the habits and manners of these
rare and accidental visitors so seldom occur, that I shall make

no apology for the length of this communication. 

Apart, however, from the rarity of the species, there are circumstances attending the occurrence of the individual in question which appear to me to be especially worthy of notice as tending to throw some light on its remarkable, and, to the ordinary observer, grotesque external conformation. 

The pond to which I have alluded is very shallow - the depth
of the water, even at 15 paces from the shore, scarcely exceeding a foot. 

About that distance from the banks, the surface was covered with numerous blossoms of the Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis). 

On examining these next day, and frequently afterwards during last month, I found them inhabited by numerous minute Dipterous and Coleopterous insects (small flies, midges, and beetles), comfortably nestled at the bottom of the flowers among the stamens, from which, indeed, none but the most delicate and attenuated instrument would be capable of extracting them without at the same time injuring the blossoms. 

Now, not one of our wading or swimming birds, except the Stilt,

possesses a beak perfectly adapted to this purpose. 

But the Stilt has a bill almost as finely pointed as that of a Hummingbird; and those which make the nearest approach to it, as some among the smaller Tringae, want the accompaniment of length of limb - that unusual development of tibia and tarsus - to enable them to wade to a sufficient distance from the shore. 

The bird was first noticed by an intelligent lad, the son of a
small farmer of the name of Pearson, while driving the cows

home to be milked in the evening. 

It was then standing nearly up to its belly in the water, and rapidly extracting the insects from the flowers, or, as the boy supposed, picking the petals themselves. 

It allowed him to approach within 20 yards before it took flight, when it extended its long red legs behind it, after the manner of a heron, and, alighting again on the opposite bank, immediately recommenced wading out to the water-plants. 

Young Pearson then hastened home to his father, who lives at a short distance from the pond; and the latter, hurrying to the spot with a loaded gun, found the bird employed as before among the flowers of the Water Crowfoot. 

But it was now exceedingly shy and wary of the gun, flying from

one side of the pond to the other, before Pearson could get
within shot (but never uttering any cry or sound), so that at last he found it necessary to resort to stratagem, and to endeavour to “ stalk ” the bird. 

This a newly-made ditch and bank, one extremity of which approached within a few yards of the water’s edge, enabled him to do successfully. 

On raising his head above the bank, just before he tired, he perceived the Stilt within 20 yards of him, knee-deep in the water, in the midst of a cloud of gnats and midges at which he was snapping right and left, much after the manner (to use Pearson’s own  simile) of a dog when teased by the flies in hot weather. 

The bird, fortunately but little damaged by the shot, was
brought to me on the following morning, and on subsequent

dissection proved to be a female. 

The ovarium contained several eggs, the largest of which was about the size of a pea. 

The stomach was crammed with beetles and gnats in a half-digested state, the elytra of the former showing that different species had been captured. 

After the first pleasurable sensations on possessing and examining in the flesh a perfect specimen of so rare a visitor had passed away, I could not help being struck with the remarkable tenuity of the tips of the mandibles as well as by the more obvious peculiarity from which the bird has derived its name (the extraordinary length of its legs).

But after listening to the simple story of George Pearson and his son, I perceived that the mystery was solved, and that here was a new instance of the wonderful adaptation of means to an end, of structure to habits, such interesting examples of which are continually presenting themselves to the observant naturalist. 

* Photo: M. Mubashir via Wikimedia Commons

COLLISION DATA FROM JAPAN UNDERLINES WINDFARM THREAT TO RAPTORS, GULLS AND OTHER BIRDS

Report  highlights windfarm threat to Japan's birds (image: Ann Williams)

AN important report from Japan has again underlined the threat that wind turbines pose to birds.

The study conducted by the Wild Bird Society of Japan - a sister-organisation to the RSPB and a member of BirdLife International - recorded 569 birds had died from colliding with wind turbines of which there are 2,000-plus installed across the county. 

Most  of the victims - 168 - were raptors. These included 92 black kites  and 58 white-tailed sea-eagles.

Second hardest hit were gulls, with 68 fatalities, and corvids with 43. 

This supports the hypothesis that large predators and scavengers are at particularly high risk of collision because of their feeding behaviour.

By necessity, they fly with their heads down, surveying the land beneath them for any sign of food - oblivious to larger obstacles higher up.

Two thirds of these fatalities were discovered through government surveys while the rest were reported by passers-by. 

Writes Tatsuya Ura, senior WBSJ research biologist:"Further discoveries of the devastating effect of wind farms on grey-faced buzzard, oriental honey buzzard, Japanese buzzard, greater white-fronted goose and Tundra swan were discovered through additional radar surveys conducted by the WBSJ.

"The danger is clear to see - and there are even more wind farms being constructed, both on land and out to sea. 

"Migratory birds are particularly threatened by such structures as they often travel in large flocks along set routes. 

"Any obstacles blocking their flight paths will not only cause fatalities, but may force them to burn crucial energy reserves diverting their route, or abandon much-needed rest stops altogether."

Since 2010, the WBSJ has been working with the private sector to influence the location of offshore wind farms at the planning stage, seeking to ensure making sure they will not be located in the path of migratory flyways or near important bird habitats.

The challenge  is not confined  to wind farms. 

The government and private sector are now planning new, heavyweight power lines carrying electricity from wind farms in northern Japan. 

Powerlines, like wind farms, are a big collision risk for large birds such as cormorants, swans, herons and cranes.

***

* Available as an ebook via Kindle: 

A Fault to Nature: Birds, Migration and The Problem with Windfarms

BTO PUBLISHES VALUABLE NEW RESEARCH ON NOMADIC LIFESTYLE OF SHORT-EARED OWLS

Short-eared owl - a life on the move

THE nomadic lifestyle of the short-eared owl has been underlined by the travels of a bird fitted with a satellite tag while at her nest site in Scotland.

She is now wintering near Oualidia in Morocco having been tagged on June 11 this year on the island of Arran. 

From Scotland via Devon and France to Morocco

The BTO, which is steering  research on the species, this week issued a statement about her travels.

"The bird left Arran to visit Bute and Kintyre from 15-17 July, returning to Arran for 10 days and then moving to mainland Ayrshire on 27 July. 

"She remained here (near Dalmellington) until the end of October, then moved to Devon, where she was present on 8 November, leaving the following evening to head south. 

"With the help of a strong tail wind, she travelled 495 km into France in just six hours - that's an average of 82.5 km/h! 

"She then continued south, crossing the Pyrenees on 13 November and the Strait of Gibraltar on 24 November to reach Morocco."

The BTO’s short-eared owl tracking project aims to find out more about their fine-scale habitat requirements in order to provide advice on how best to create and maintain suitable conditions. 

The trust is also keen to learn more about the species'  migration strategies and connectivity between populations.

The data should prove helpful in providing guidance to policy-makers and land managers.

These tags are solar powered and record the birds’ locations to within an accuracy of a few metres. 

So long as they receive enough light to charge the battery, the tags record precise fixes every three hours (less frequently during dark winters), then relay these to the project scientist, John Calladine.

John Calladine with a tagged bird

So far, the BTO, working with local collaborators, has tracked nine short-eared Owls in Scotland since 2017. 

All have provided detailed information on habitat and landscape use, and some have gone on to show astonishing movements and behaviours which differ markedly both between birds and also by the same bird between years.

A female tagged in Stirlingshire in 2017 overwintered locally, then undertook a wide-ranging exploratory flight within Scotland before settling down to breed again in Perthshire in March 2018. 

Not long after her chicks had hatched she left her mate to continue feeding them and flew to Norway where the tracking data strongly-suggest that she bred for a second time within the same year. 

The tag then tracked her movements to Ireland, Cornwall and Norfolk before recording her final hours as she attempted to migrate back to Norway in spring 2019, sadly perishing in storm close to the Norwegian coast.

The trust aims to tag between three and  five short-eared Owls each year for the next few years.

Illustrations: BTO

A female tagged in Stirling is thought to have  bred in both Scotland and Norway in the same year 

                                         

JUST WHY DID THAT LONG-BILLED MURRELET END UP OFF DAWLISH ON THE DEVON COAST?

Graham Catley (centre) chats with birders at Covenham Reservoir in Lincolnshire

Hats off to Lincolnshire Bird Club stalwart and former county bird recorder Graham Catley for his excellent  illustrated talk at the December indoor meeting of the RSPB’s Grimsby group!

It was packed with amusing anecdotes, solid information and breathtaking photographs of rare birds - many of which he has found in Lincolnshire (some 10 of them being first records for the county).

Since he was a schoolboy, starting out in the late 60s with a pair of basic 8x30 Prinz binoculars and a Peterson identification guide, his birding has taken him to all parts of Europe and beyond, but he has retained a special affection for his own home patch around Barton-on-Humber, Goxhill, Killingolme and Alkborough in northern Lincolnshire.

It was at Far Ings in 1969 that he encountered his first hoopoe and, at Goxhill, he once had a remarkable spell of witnessing four golden orioles on separate occasions over a five-year period.

In the early days, he had no car, so he was often reliant on his bike, lifts from friends and hitch-hiking to get out and about.

Because of his skill at detecting and identifying difficult species, such as certain gulls, warblers and flycatchers, he was invited to serve on the prestigious British Birds Rarities Committee during the late '80s and early '90s, and he remains in demand as a foremost UK consultant and commentator on matters ornithological.

His portfolio of photographs is probably unsurpassed, and he treated the 50-strong audience at the Grimsby group meeting to some cracking shots - particularly flight studies of vagrant pratincoles, swifts, terns (including an American black tern he found at Covenham reservoir) and gulls.

Of the ivory gull, he described how a sense of smell is crucial to the species because its habitat is the Arctic where there is very little daylight in the winter month. 

Its diet includes the corpses of porpoises and seals, the scent of which it can detect from as far as 30 miles away, prompting hopes that, perhaps one day, one might turn up at Donna Nook.

Of this species, he enthused: "It is one of those birds you always want to see more of."

Earlier in his birding career, Graham was also an accomplished sketcher, and, as longstanding LBC members are aware, his illustrations featured extensively in the county bird reports of yesteryear.

He described some of his birding techniques, for instance decamping under a bush to await the company of some vagrant warbler, but he acknowledged that fieldcraft - plus putting in hours of time and effort - are not the sole keys to birding success.

“Luck is also important, “ he noted.

His tally of sightings is impressive - some 320 species within the UK alone - but, as he freely (and ruefully) admitted, there have been plenty of instances of "ones that got away", perhaps the most frustrating being when a rarity has been reported on the local patch while he is tracking another rarity hundreds of miles away. 

After more than 50 years’ birding, there has been no waning in Graham’s enthusiasm - it is as intense, if not more so, than ever.

The mysteries of bird migration continue to intrigue him - for instance, why the travels of individual birds of some species, such as white-billed diver, sora rail and Pallas's leaf warbler incline them to veer thousands of miles off their traditional migration routes.

Another famous case was that of a long-billed murrelet which, in November 2006, Graham photographed when, amazingly, it turned up on the coast of Dawlish in Devon - a ridiculously long way from its proper home in the Pacific. 

Another feature of the  talk was its relentlessly inspirational undercurrent. 

"Keep watching," seemed to be the message. "You never know where a Siberian rubythroat or some rare thrush from America might turn up - perhaps even in your back garden!"

Next meeting of the Grimsby group, which holds its indoor meetings at the Holy Trinity parish hall on Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, is on January 20 when Dr Michael Leach will give a talk entitled Beneath the Dark Canopy.

FIVE BIRD-CHAMPIONING MPS LOST TO PARLIAMENT IN GENERAL ELECTION SHAKE-OUT

Anna Turley - little tern enthusiast

FIVE bird-supporting  MPs have lost their Common  seats in the wake of Election 2019.

A total of 17 MPs were so-called 'bird champions', committed to flying the flag for individual species.

They included Angela Smith (hen harrier), Caroline Spelman (willow tit) Anna Turley (little tern) and former GP Dr Sarah Wollaston (cirl bunting).

But Dr Wollaston lost out at Totnes after defecting from the Conservatives to Devon over her opposition to Brexit, while Ms Turley (Redcar) was a victim of the swing from Labour to Conservative.

Ms Smith formerly represented Penistone, but, after falling out with the Labour Party, she joined the Liberal Democrats for whom she fought, unsuccessfully, the Altrincham and Sale constituency.

Meanwhile, Ms Spelman decided not to seek re-election in the Meridien constituency because of the barrage of abuse she and staff encountered over her opposition to Brexit

The former Father of the House, Ken Clarke, was not a species champion, but is an enthusiastic birdwatcher.

After a successful political career with the Conservatives, he was shown the door by his party over his opposition to Brexit and did not stand for re-election in the Rushcliffe constituency.

Safely returned to Parliament by electors are the following:

Jake Berry: curlew 
James Cartlidge: turtle dove
Therese Coffey: bittern
Mark Garnier: lesser spotted woodpecker
Nick Herbert: lapwing
Kevin Hollinrake: puffin
Kerry McCarthy: swift
Jess Phillips: dunnock
Derek Thomas: Manx shearwater
Kelly Tolhurst: nightingale
Matt Warman: redshank
Gavin Williamson: barn owl


* Available (price 0.99)  as a Kindle ebook:
Birds and Politicians

LINCOLNSHIRE BIRD OBSERVATORY ONCE HOSTED VISIT FROM MISS WORLD BEAUTY CONTESTANT!

Present all year in Lincolnshire - but no longer breeding

COULD the curlew resume breeding in Lincolnshire? What about the crane? Or even the beaver?

The chief executive of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Paul Learoyd, offered these enticing thoughts at the December meeting of the Grimsby and Cleethorpes group. 

His informative and entertaining presentation was a whistlestop tour of how the Trust has gone from strength to strength over the course of its 70 years.

Paul Learoyd - Trust supremo

He described the red squirrel as “one that got away”. Up until the 1970s, it was still breeding at Lynwood, near Market Rasen, but, as in most of the rest of the UK, it failed to survive disease and the onset of the larger and hardier grey squirrel.

Paul cited the red squirrel as example of a species where choices about nature conservation are on the horns of a dilemma.

There is a colony in pines on the Lancashire coast. But pines are not native to this part of England. If they were to be removed, the red squirrels would also be lost but  it would open up the dunes, offering prospects of a return for an even scarcer species, the nattterjack toad.

Paul lamented the loss, through disease, of almost all of Lincolnshire’s elm trees. He feared, too, that a similar fate beckoned for 75 per cent of the county’s ash trees.

However, he hoped that prospects might be  better for species such as oak, beech, silver birch and some varieties of cherry.

In response to a question from the audience, the chief noted there was a lot of talk from politicians, about planting millions of trees, but not so much about the species or the location. “Important grassland could be at risk,” he warned.

He acknowledged there were concerns, too, about the proliferation of wind farms after an audience member, who had visited an offshore site, expressed concerns after having witnessed the mangled remains of guillemots, gannets and Manx shearwaters.

Mr Learoyd’s own misgivings were more focused on the impact on carbon-capturing peak bogs in Scotland if they were to be given over to wind power developments.

Earlier in his presentation, he showed an illustration of a radar unit temporarily located at Gibraltar Point bird observatory, the Trust’s flagship reserve, in order to track flocks of migrating birds.

Asked if the information gathered had been published, he said it revealed the presence of flocks of common scoter, but the findings belonged to the researchers. The Government was pressing for such data to be made available.

Many of the photographs from the Gibraltar Point of yesteryear were fascinating - for instance, the first bird-ringing station, scenes from shooting of The Dambusters film and even a visit in 1974 from 19-year-old Patricia Orfila, Gibraltar’s entry in the Miss World contest.

Miss Gibraltar - visited observatory

Over the years, David Attenborough seems to have been a regular visitor to Gib, not least because he had a friendship with the late Ted Smith, a great pioneer of the nature conservation movement in Lincolnshire and beyond.

There have been  many battles along the way. For instance, Malcolm Campbell wanted the sands given over not to providing nesting habitat for little terns, but to a track for setting on-land speed records.

Paul  described the Trust's longstanding initiatives with little terns, with safeguarding breeding grey  seals at Donna Nook and in protecting wildflower-rich roadside verges.

Seals at Donna Nook - as many as 7,000 animals (adults and pups) currently in residence

He also expressed concerns about current river management practices and the loss of important flood plains to housing and other development.

Although there is a widespread clamour for intensified river dredging, this only hastens the flow, worsening downstream flood risk.

An example was the episode in June this year when 50 homes flooded in Wainfleet and Thorpe St Peter in Lincolnshire.

As a result, five members of the  Trust's staff had to leave their homes for two weeks.

The talk, held at Grimsby Town Hall, included, during the interval, festive refreshments supplied by members.

It concluded with a presentation of a £1000 cheque from the Grimsby branch to the Trust to further its important work.

***

* Available now as a Kindle ebook:

A Fault to Nature: Birds, Migration and The Problem  with Windfarms