RSPB DISMAY AS WHITEHALL RUBBER-STAMPS PLAN FOR 230-TURBINE OFFSHORE WINDFARM

Ørsted windfarm - the Danish giant's  industrialisation of the North Sea is to continue

THE RSPB has responded with anguish to today's announcement that Danish company Ørsted  has been granted consent to install 230 more wind turbines off the Yorkshire Coast.

Says its director for global conservation, Martin Harper: "The decision is nothing short of a gamble with the future of our seabirds - especially kittiwakes."

Broadly, the RSPB supports wind energy as an alternative  to use of fossil fuels except where its own commercial interests are jeopardised.

Ørsted's Hornsea Project Three windfarm threatens to reduce breeding seabird colonies of kittiwakes, gannets, fulmars, puffins and other marine species at its money-spinning Bempton reserve near Bridlington.

Kittiwake - the species is vulnerable to turbine collision

The planning go-ahead from Whitehall is expected to generate more investment in Grimsby from where Ørsted services its existing windfarms off the Yorkshire Coast.

Enthuses its UK boss Duncan Clark: "We are delighted.

"This  is the culmination of a thorough and rigorous process which ensures that the project can deliver much needed clean energy." 

Mr Clark says Ørsted will compensate for the potential loss of kittiwakes - through collisions and other disturbance -  by installing  four onshore nesting towers specifically designed for kittiwakes.

However, the RSPB says this 'compensation' concept is "unproven".

This pilot kittiwake tower - with external nesting ledges - is in Gateshead

The Wryneck says:  This further industrialisation of the North Sea should provide a medium-term boost to the Grimsby economy which needs all the help it can get. Trouble is that, like the fax machine, energy generated by wind is only an intermediate technology. Within 20 years, it will be obsolete as more efficient methods of producing electricity emerge. Sadly, in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of birds and other marine life, such as whales and dolphins, will be lost for ever to collisions with turbines and other disturbance. What is the point of installing nesting towers for kittiwakes in summer if many, if not most, are killed by turbines in winter? As for the RSPB, its opposition has been tepid at best with scant effort to alert the public to the threat. Belatedly, the charity is crying over spilled milk when, if had shown more campaigning vigour from the outset, the milk might never have been spilled.

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DAVID AND VICTORIA BECKHAM KEEN TO ATTRACT WILDLIFE TO GROUNDS OF OXFORDSHIRE HOME

Kingfisher - one of the waterbirds the couple are hoping to attract

CELEBRITY couple David and Victoria Beckham are creating a wildlife haven in the grounds of their Oxfordshire home  in the hope of providing valuable habitat for a wide range of species from songbirds to waterfowl.

Work is already underway on excavation of a small lake at the property - in a village near Chipping Norton -  which is approximately 800 metres from the River Dorn, a major tributary of the River Thames.

It is on a migration route for many birds, acting as a corridor for them  when foraging for food. 

Says a spokesperson for the couple: "David and Victoria are keen that the pond should become part of the local waterscape and help enrich the biodiversity of the catchment area by providing an undisturbed waterbody."

A document seen by The Wryneck outlines some of the details of  the scheme as follows: "The grass around the lake will be sown with a wildflower mix of local provenance. 

"The sides of the lake will be planted with margin-loving water plants and native, non-invasive pond weed will be used in the lake."

It continues: "Spoil from the excavation of the lake will be used to create bunds which will be planted with a high number of native trees as well as scrub and hedge plants for nesting birds.

"The varying aspect and topography of the bunds will also allow for increased flora and insect life."

The location of the lake is at the lowest level of the site, so it will both help to retain storm water and also create a new link in the local water network for the benefit of a wide range of species including kingfishers, wagtails, unusual ducks, possibly grebes, plus moorhens, coot, perhaps water rails, herons and passing waders such as little ringed plovers plus common, green or wood sandpipers.

Details have also been released of the trees and hedgerows to be planted either on the bunds or nearby.

"There will be a native and evergreen shrub selection of high nectar, pollen, berry and nuts offering, such as hazel, hawthorn, wild rose, hornbeam and blackthorn sloe.

"Trees will be arranged in organically shaped groups, creating a corridor of trees, linked by uncut shrubs, with some mature trees standing among the shrubs, as a point of access to the tree canopy. 

"Larger trees will be spaced to avoid overly shading the under-storey while at the same time supporting branches to touch, creating linked canopies, a key element for small creatures crossing at canopy level.

"Species to be planted on the bund include hazel, oak, honeysuckle, bramble, sycamore, wayfaring tree, yew, hornbeam, birch, hawthorn, crab apple, wild cherry and sorbus."

Planning permission for the lake was granted earlier this year, but a further application to enlarge it - and incorporate an island - is under consideration by planners at West Oxfordshire District Council.

This application has generated a protest from a neighbour, Sue Jones, who says: " I must object in the strongest terms to this new proposal. 

"I feel that his plan to enlarge the lake could increase considerably the chances of flooding in the area. 

"Also, the lake looks just too large for the area it sits in, and it is out of keeping.

"What is planned next? Motor boats zooming up and down and shattering the peace? 

"It is just not on and should not be allowed."

The council's assistant biodiversity officer, Esther Frizell-Armitage, says she has no objection in principle to the lake's enlargement but she has reserved making any recommendation pending clarification on whether boats will be used on the water.

                                              

Esther Frizell-Armitage - no objection in principle

Says she: "If so, the use of boats will need to be restricted to ensure disturbance to biodiversity (such as birds) is minimised."

The Beckhams - who have three sons and one daughter - should know early in the New Year if their application to enlarge the lake has been successful.

                                           

The lake and planting scheme for the Beckhams' family home

GOD REST YE MERRY LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - LET NOTHING YE DISMAY!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE WRYNECK TO ALL OUR READERS.       

TAWNY OWL AND WILLOW TIT AMONG WOODLAND BIRD SPECIES IN WORRYING DECLINE

                                                                     

THE worrying decline in woodland species comes under the spotlight in the latest edition of The State of the UK's Birds.

Overall, they have declined by 27 per cent since the early 1970s, with a 7 per cent evident over just the last five years.

Particularly hard hit has been the willow tit - down by 94 per cent since 1970.

For reasons that are not clear, tawny owls are also in decline.

The report has  produced jointly by the RSPB, the BTO and the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) with input from various statutory nature conservation bodies.

* The RSPB's chief executive, Beccy Speight, was yesterday in London to present a copy of the document to Prince Charles and to discuss bird-related issues.

RICK AND BRAZILIAN WIFE ELIS SHINE SPOTLIGHT ON WONDERFUL WORLD OF WADERS

Rick, pictured with the new book, on the beach at Titchwell in Norfolk 

MUCH of Britain's coastline accommodates plenty of shorebird species - especially at migration time and in winter - but they should never be taken for granted.

That is the message of the charity, Wader Quest, which campaigns vigorously to highlight the threats posed by most, if not all, of these endearing species from habitat loss, climate change, predation and much else.

At the organisation's helm is Rick Simpson whose varied working life in the past has included spells as a firefighter, a gardener, a security guard, an estate agent, an articulated lorry driver and a birding tours guide  in Brazil.

Now based near Milton Keynes in the UK with his Brazilian wife, Elis, also a keen birder, his love of waders was initially sparked by his childhood encounter with a picture of a lapwing that so fascinated him that he decided it was a bird he had to see.

Much later, the focus of his fascination fell on what is perhaps an even more iconic species - the spoon-billed sandpiper of which the global population may now be fewer than 100 pairs.

Back in 2012, this was the top target species when Rick and decided to sell up and travel the world, seeking both to see as many shorebirds species as possible and to fund-raise for conservation of this varied and delightful group of birds.

That experience-packed trip is now the subject of an absorbing book, A Quest for Waders, which recounts the highs and lows of their travels.

Briskly written and bursting with amusing anecdotes and fascinating wader information, plus scores of superb illustrations, it makes for a compelling read.

Indeed, it as much a page-turner as any detective thriller.

Rick’s passion for his mission radiates from every page, no more so than when he and Elis share their thrilling first encounter with spoonies in Thailand.

But evidently the couple were almost equally thrilled with their first meetings with many more species including, in California, a motionless mountain plover which Rick (who has a suspicious mind) at first thought was a scam - a stuffed rarity nailed to the ground.

Taking up the story, he writes: "Fortunately for us, the bird both breathed and moved - indeed, it turned out there were several of them scattered liberally around the area.

"Hardly  able to believe our luck, we watched gleefully as these busy birds tripped back and forth across the ground in short bursts." 

A Quest for Waders is now on sale, price £15 plus p&p, via the Wader Quest website, www.waderquest.net, with every penny of proceeds going to support wader conservation initiatives all over the world.

MIGRATING BIRDS AND LIGHTHOUSE LANTERNS: A STRANGE AND TRAGIC FASCINATION

WHAT a mysterious bird is the corncrake.

Few farmland birds are as secretive and difficult to see, but one once startled the keeper of a lighthouse in Scotland by arriving on the rocks below.

This is one of many fascinating records in the superb book -  A Natural History of Lighthouses (Whittles Publishing).

Over 293 pages of text and stunning illustrations, author  John A. Love's explores the history of scores of UK lighthouses, those who designed them and those brave and resilient souls who worked in them, often at great risk to limb and life.

But as the title indicates, he also chronicles how they have become habitats for an extraordinary wealth of wildlife, especially birds - not just marine species but also passerines seeking a rest on their long and exhausting migration over the seas.

These include starlings, goldcrests, blackbirds, skylarks, stonechats, redwings, song thrushes, fieldfares and wheatears, plus various warblers and flycatchers. 

There is a special focus on the pioneering work of John Alexander Harvie-Brown and John Cordeaux  who were at the forefront of an initiative to encourage lighthouse keepers to record what birds and other wildlife they encountered.

In mainland Britain, this important project ran from 1879 to 1887 by which time no fewer than 126 lighthouses had been recruited.

In Ireland, thanks to the efforts of Richard Barrington, the lighthouse research continued  for a further 10 years.

Sadly, many of the records were of dead birds that, mysteriously attracted by the beams of lights, had crashed into the lanterns with fatal consequences.

Where they could not identify the species, the keepers were encouraged to submit wings, legs or even, with smaller birds, the whole corpse.

The collisions were bad news, not just for the birds but also for the keepers because it created extra work.

The author quotes a 1902 record of  Bell Rock keeper John Campbell:"Grease, blood and feathers half obscure the lantern panes and all require liberal cleaning to keep up to inspection order."

Also from Bell Rock comes another record - this time submitted by Robert Clyne of a storm petrel that vomited all over one side of the  lantern, "the smell persisting for some time despite numerous washings and rainstorms".

The author evidently has a special admiration for Leeds ornithologist William Eagle Clarke who not only collated much, if not most, of the lighthouse research but also spent substantial periods in lighthouses such as the Eddystone (and also on the Kentish Knock lightship) in order to gather first-hand knowledge.

Sadly he seems to have succumbed to dementia before his death in 1938.

His friend, Philip Manson-Bahr wrote: "His brain became clouded, and he was no longer conscious of the world around him."

The cover price of A Natural History of Lighthouses is £30, and the book can be ordered from booksellers or online outlets.

However,  for those who order via the publishers' website - https://bit.ly/3q5higm -  there is a 20 per cent discount by inserting the promotional code WPLINCS20

This offer will run until until February 12, 2021.

MP CALLS FOR WHITE-TAILED EAGLE TO BE REINTRODUCED TO CUMBRIA

                     

Mark Jenkinson - eager for return of iconic raptor

THE Conservative MP for Workington is backing proposals for the white-tailed eagle to be reintroduced to Cumbria after many years as a breeding absentee.

Mark Jenkinson (38) brought the species to the attention of fellow MPs during a Commons debate this week on a range of environmental issues.

Said he: "The white-tailed eagle is listed in our 25-year environment plan as a species whose reintroduction we could support as we develop our nature recovery network. 

"Cumbria is at the forefront of nature recovery - we have a local nature recovery strategy pilot and, separately, we are in a group that has submitted a bid for feasibility work on the white-tailed eagle’s reintroduction. 

"Will my hon. Friend meet me to discuss how her Department might assist with that proposal?

 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Victoria Prentis, replied: "The 25-year environment plan encourages the reintroduction of species such as the white-tailed eagle. 

"I know that my hon. Friend is aware of the funding pots on offer, and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials would be very pleased to meet him and the project scheme to discuss what further action could be taken."

IMPORTANT SURVEY PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHT INTO BIRDLIFE OF THE UK OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

A NEW book on the birds and other wildlife of the UK Overseas Territories has just been published, largely thanks to the endeavours of a former Lincolnshire birder.

Birds of The Overseas Territories  is edited by Roger Riddington who grew up in Alford but later worked as a warden on Fair Isle and now lives in the Shetlands.

He worked on the project during interludes from his main job as editor of British Birds - a post from which will soon be stepping down.

Most of the overseas territories are small islands, or island complexes, occurring from the Caribbean to the furthest reaches of the South Atlantic via the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In terms of global biodiversity, their importance cannot be overestimated.

Their habitats range from coral atolls through mangroves and dry forests to the ice sheets of Antarctica, and they support at least 45 species of birds currently considered to be globally threatened. 

The territories are also home to a third of all the world's breeding albatrosses, and nine of the world's 17 species of penguin.

The various chapters have been written by individual authors, and Roger has linked the contributions in such a way that there is a coherent theme.

Birds of The Overseas Territories is published by T.D. Poyser at £35.

COULD IT BE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE BEAK?

                                                          

Birds of a feather, but which is which? 

It is sometimes said that dog owners come to resemble their pets.

But what about birders? Do they come to look like the birds they watch?

This was a theory that Ron Bendall of Glamorgan decided to investigate.

He invited an artist-pal, Mr S. Hulings, to take his sketchbook along to the meeting of his local cage bird society - and this was the result.

No prizes for working out which of the society members kept budgerigars and which kept canaries.

So next time you attend a mass-twitch, perhaps take a look around you - how many different species can you detect? 

LANCEOLATED WARBLER FOUND (AND SHOT) ON THIS DAY - NOVEMBER 18 - IN 1909

Caton Haigh - killed rare bird with one shot

It was on November 18, 1909, that Lincolnshire ornithologist George Caton Haigh recorded, near Saltfleetby, what was  the first UK mainland example of lanceolated warbler.

He describes the finding thus:  "I first observed the bird in the long grass on the side of one of the marsh drains out of which it ran on to the short grass of the adjoining field. 

"I watched it for a short time as it ran about the ground like a mouse, and I noticed that it kept its tail depressed, and not erected over the back, as is usually the case with the grasshopper warbler when running over open ground. 

"At one time it flew up to a barbed-wire post up which it climbed with the facility of a treecreeper. 

"It soon flew back to the ground, and I shot it just as it reached the long grass again. 

"Unfortunately the bird was much shattered by the shot, and I had great difficulty in making a skin of it. 

"It proved to be a male, and I think adult, and was excessively fat. In appearance this bird is considerably smaller than the grasshopper warbler." 

Caton Haigh, from Grainsby, near Grimsby, is also credited with finding - again on the Lincolnshire Coast - Britain's first  Radde’s warbler (October 1,1898) and Greenish warbler (September 5, 1896).

As was the practice of the day, he shot these birds - and many others - prior to identification.

Many of the skins are stored by the Natural History museum at premises in Tring, Hertfordshire.

The eccentric life of Caton Haigh is described in the ebook, Shotgun Ornithologist: The Birdman of Grainsby Hall, available via Kindle (price £1).

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INTRIGUING NEW BOOK TAKES US INTO THE LIFE OF A MUCH-LOVED BIRD OF THE BRITISH UPLANDS

                                                        

FASCINATING insights about a favourite member of the thrush family are revealed in a new book - The Ring Ouzel, A View from The North York Moors.

Although, within the UK, it is  a somewhat scarce breeding uplands species, it occurs widely on migration in all sorts of habitats, sometimes in unlikely locations such as London parks.

It is the favourite species of broadcaster and author David Lindo, The Urban Birder,  who encounters  it most years on scrubland at  his wilderness patch  near Wormwood Scrubs prison.

It also has a knack of turning up on allotments or in paddocks containing livestock.

The book's authors, Vic Fairbrother and Ken Hutchinson, have been studying the species for the past couple of decades, but they have also pored through countless historic publications to enrich their research.

 Using vivid extracts from field notebooks and profusely illustrated with photographs, as well as delightful paintings and sketches by  Jonathan Pomroy, the reader is transported to the beautiful North York Moors National Park. 

We can share in the excitement as the first ring ouzels of the year return from their winter quarters in North Africa, witness their courtship displays, the establishment of territories and the female ouzel painstakingly building her nest and laying eggs. 

This is followed by the monitoring of the hatching and fledging of chicks.

To hear the song of the ring ouzel carrying for a surprising distance across the high moorland in the early morning is one of the many delights of upland Britain. 

The authors have recorded and analysed both simple and complex songs in their study area and, following comparison with recordings from Scotland, Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales, have confirmed the suspected presence of local dialects.

The contraction in distribution and number of ring ouzels breeding in Britain, the work of the Ring Ouzel Study Group, the introduction of conservation measures and the potential impact of climate change are all described. 

Crucially, attention is also drawn to the first indications of the species' decline in Switzerland.

As a migrant, the ring ouzel faces additional pressures and problems on passage, and there is an important section on the challenges it faces in  in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco where it spends winter.

This milestone publication brings the ring ouzel into sharp focus for the first time.

This highly readable study book is published in softback at £21.95 by Dunbeath-based firm Whittles Publishing, and can be bought or ordered wherever books are sold.

'THEY WOULD FLING THEMSELVES INTO THE SKY ALMOST LIKE A SHUTTLECOCK'

                                                                 

Snow bunting on beach at Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire

Snow buntings are a great favourite with UK birders, but few get the opportunity to see them in their favoured summer habitats in  the Arctic. One who studied them closely while on a trip to Siberia in 1875 was Sheffield steel magnate and ornithologist Henry Seebohm (1832-95). Below is his commentary on the species as published in the first volume of his fascinating book, The Birds of Siberia.

At Mezen we were much interested in watching a large flock of snow buntings. 

Their favourite resort was the steep bank of the river where they found abundance of food in the manure which was thrown away. 

In a country where there is plenty of grass in summer and very little corn is cultivated and where the cattle have to be stall-fed for seven or eight months out of the twelve, manure apparently is of little value, and hundreds of cartloads are annually deposited on the steep banks of the river where it is washed away by the floods caused by the sudden melting of the snow in May. 

The snow buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in the ice on the river where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained their supply of water. 

In both places, the boys of the village had set white horsehair snares and seemed to be very successful in their sport. 

At this time of the year (March), these birds are fat and are excellent eating. 

We were told that, in a fortnight, they would be here in much greater numbers, and would be sold for a rouble the hundred or even less. 

None of the birds we got were in full summer plumage, yet they looked extremely handsome as they ran along the snow like a wagtail or a dotterel or fluttered from place to place with a butterfly-like kind of flight. 

We occasionally saw them hop, but they generally preferred to run. 

The most interesting fact which we observed was that the snow bunting occasionally perches in trees. 

We saw two in the forest, one of which perched in a spruce fir.

When we later watched them  in the streets of Ust-Zylma, we were told that they arrived April 1.

In spite of its abundance, we could not help looking upon it with all the interest attaching to a rare bird. 

The brilliant contrast of the black and white on the plumage of these birds, then rapidly assuming their summer dress, was especially beautiful during flight. 

The flight itself is peculiar, somewhat like that of a butterfly, as if it altered its mind every few seconds as to which direction it would take.

It can scarcely be called an undulating flight. 

The bird certainly does rest its wings every few seconds, but either they are expanded when at rest, or they are rested for so short a time that the plane of flight is not sufficiently altered to warrant its being called undulatory. 

The snow buntings in Ust-Zylma were principally in flocks, but, now and then, we saw a couple of birds together which seemed to have paired, and occasionally, when the sun was hotter than usual, a solitary specimen might be seen perched upon a rail attempting to sing, but we never heard them sing on the wing. 

Unfortunately, we did not get far enough north to meet with these birds at their breeding stations.

In 1874, when the Norwegian ornithologist, Robert Collett, and I were in Norway, we found the snow bunting breeding on the island of Vadso in the Varanger Fjord. 

We were too late for eggs, as this bird is a very early breeder, and the young were already in the nest by the middle of June.

However, we had many opportunities of watching the male birds. 

They would fling themselves up into the air almost like a shuttlecock, singing all the time a low and melodious warble, not unlike that of a shorelark or perhaps still more like that of the Lapland bunting, and they would immediately descend in a spiral curve with wing and tails expanded, and finish their song on a rock. 

Although we only once or twice heard the snow buntings attempting to sing in Ust-Zylma, they were by no means silent birds and were continually calling to each other. 

The call note is a zh, not unlike that of the brambling or greenfinch. 

The alarm-note is a loud tweek.

As they fly together in flocks they merely twitter to each other, not unlike purple sandpipers on the seashore.

                                           

Henry Seebohm - businessman and birder

A BIT OF A FLAP! CONTROVERSY AS DUKE AGREES TO BECOME PATRON OF BIRDING ORGANISATION

                                                                              

THERE has been a backlash to the news that the Duke of Cambridge has agreed to become patron of the BTO in succession to his grandfather, Prince Philip.

Describing the news as "very exciting", the BTO issued the statement below. 

"The patronage reflects the close alignment between two of The Duke of Cambridge’s long-standing areas of interest - supporting communities to protect their natural environment for future generations and helping children and young people to build their skills, confidence and aspirations.

"These are areas where the BTO is doing a growing body of work.

"With the support of His Royal Highness, the BTO wants to deliver the benefits of public participation in science through nature to many people, including those communities that have traditionally been under-represented." 

But despite the "excitement" of the BTO hierarchy, many in the birding community - including its own members - are dismayed.

This is because of the Duke's longstanding enthusiasm for  shooting grouse and other gamebirds - in keeping with a longstanding Royal tradition.

By close of play today, the BTO's Facebook page had received more than 350 complaints such as these below. 

Kate Willis: "Another grouse shooter that kills for fun and takes his young son along to watch." 

Shona Magill: "OMG Has the BTO lost the plot?"

Stuart Foster: " I can't think anyone less fitting for this. He takes his son shooting for goodness sake!"

Honor Wheeler: "I was considering joining this organisation, but, alas, with royals as patrons, I'm no longer interested."

Stuart Keen: "Oh dear, the BTO have just put a serious dent in their credibility."

Sid Durruti: "I've donated to the BTO over the years. No more."

Andrew Huyton: "I think I'll be cancelling my membership unless HRH denounces grouse shooting at the very least."

Brett Skerry: "Like making Mr Fox patron of chickens."

The BTO has not responded to the protests.

Before the brouhaha erupted, its chief executive Dr Andy Clements, said: "I am delighted that The Duke of Cambridge has become our patron, following on from his grandfather who worked so tirelessly on our behalf. 

"We hope that we will be able to support the Duke's strong interest in protecting the environment through our evidence-based work around environmental issues in the UK."

COUNCIL KEEN TO MAKE WETLAND RESERVE MORE ATTRACTIVE TO WADERS AND WILDFOWL

Target species for Cress Marsh include spoonbill and lapwing

A BUSY winter is ahead at Cress Marsh - the  bird reserve near Grimsby created by North East Lincolnshire Council to provide a home for  waders and wildfowl likely to be displaced by future industrial development in the area.

NELC and its regeneration partner, Engie, are keen to make the site, at Stallingborough,  more attractive  to birds such as Spoonbills, Little Egrets, Cormorants, Redshank, Golden Plover, Curlew and Lapwing. 

To this end, tall vegetation is being  cleared in order to enhance the habitat.

Says NELC's ecology technician, Siân Niblo: “Predators can hide in tall grass, and the birds prefer wide open space for roosting, so we have all been pitching in to clear vegetation  from the lagoon at the centre of the site. 

"This has to be done by hand and is no easy task, but it is important to make the ground more appealing for our feathering guests.” 

Sian is currently compiling a log of birds that have been recorded at the site, and, to date, she has 111 different species on her list.

The birds share Cress Marsh with butterflies, dragonflies, deer, foxes  and a herd of cattle which will be there until next month.

Meanwhile, the reserve - known as a mitigation site - has been shortlisted for a national award,  the Innovation in Property and Asset Management category of the local government achievement awards.

the site  was developed after consultation with Natural England, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, the Humber Nature Partnership, the Environment Agency and landowners.

The chief feature is a large central lagoon, which feeds seven more water-filled ‘cells’ via pipework infrastructure.                                  

Rosebay willow herb and other invasive plants are being removed by hand

                                               

The bird hide that overlooks the main lagoon

                                          

Cress Marsh is open to birds - but not to the public

The main lagoon - not too many birds so far but the council hopes to make it more bird-attractive

The Wryneck says: Cress Marsh was an excellent initiative, but ornithologists monitoring the site have been underwhelmed by both the quantity and variety of species recorded. Benchmarked against the RSPB's Frampton Marsh reserve, near Boston, Cress Marsh performs poorly. One factor could be the overhead power cables which pose an obvious collision threat to birds, particularly after dark. It seems an odd oversight that this issue seems to have been disregarded by the various wildlife organisations which were consulted during the planning stage.

CONCERT OR CACOPHONY? WACKY PAINTING SET TO FETCH BIG BUCKS AT AUCTION IN PARIS

                                                    

This eccentric 17th Century painting, entitled Concert of The Birds, is due to be sold next Tuesday by auctioneers Christies at their Paris saleroom. The work, by Paul de Vos, is expected to fetch upwards of 250,000 Euros (£231,000). Not often that you see a whooper swan and great spotted woodpecker  in the same image. Somehow, it is hard to believe the music would be all that sweet on the ear.

SWALLOWS AND HOOPOES STAR IN ONLINE ART SALE

                                                                     

Arriving or leaving? Gillmor's white cliffs study of swallows

A SIGNED watercolour of swallows by acclaimed bird artist Robert Gillmor is one of the lots in an online auction which closes on Tuesday August 26.

Also included in the sale is a pencil drawing by Mary Fedden of hoopoes in a landscape.

The sale is being conducted by Salisbury-based Woolley and Wallis (01722 424500). 

The guide price for the swallows is £150-£200  and for the hoopoes £800-£1,200.

The works come from the estate of the late Dame Elisabeth Frink, herself a noted artist.

Hoopoes in a landscape

RSPB RESERVE WARDEN LIVED TO TELL THE TALE DESPITE FRIGHTENING TUMBLE FROM BIKE

Toby - only one bad memory from fabulous time at Frampton

A SEASONAL warden at an RSPB reserve escaped injury in a nasty fall from his bicycle.

Toby Carter lost concentration while checking the sky to see if a raptor had put up a flock of waders.

He lost control as he pedalled over a speed-bump and hurtled over the handlebars - with his precious Zeiss binoculars around his neck and a scope in its harness on his  back.

Luckily, his head escaped serious impact with the road, but he was severely shaken and sustained heavy bruising plus serious cuts and grazes to his leg.

The incident happened last summer while the Bangor University Environmental Studies student was working at the Frampton Marshes reserve near Boston in Lincolnshire.

"Perhaps, I got a bit cocky,"  says Toby (20), who is from Leicestershire. "I thought I had already passed the speed-bump - the last of three on the way to one of the car parks.

"I think I'll bear my Frampton scars for the rest of my life!"

Toby made his revelation in a video about what otherwise was evidently an immensely enjoyable spell at Frampton where he saw a huge range of different birds, some of them rare and many, such as golden plover and wigeon  in what he described as "insane" quantities.

He compiled the video to coincide with this weekend's virtual Birdfair in his capacity as an 'ambassador' for the optics manufacturer, Zeiss, a longstanding supporter of the event.  

In his first week at the reserve, he found its 11th recorded red-veined darter, its  second record of lesser emperor dragonfly and second record of otter .

Fortunately, the otter did not make prey of the chicks of Frampton's first pair of breeding black-necked grebes.

Other highlights included maintaining an acquaintance with a long-staying long-billed dowitcher, marvelling at the purring of turtle doves, spotting a squacco heron and studying colour-ringed godwits and other waders to establish their migration patterns.

But there was much more to life as a seasonal warden than just detecting and watching the birds.

Toby, a birder since he was five, was also involved with organising children's activities, such as bug-hunting and mini-raft making, updating the record board, installing signage and producing a weekly blog for publication via social media.

From time to time, he was also interviewed by BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

In a nutshell what  message would he put out about Frampton Marsh?

"It's a fantastic reserve," he says. "Every day at Frampton is a good day - just don't fall off your bicycle!"

DID PRIME MINISTER CATCH GLIMPSE OF SEA EAGLES DURING SHORT HOLIDAY ON SCOTTISH COAST?

Did holidaying couple forget binoculars?

HATS off to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds on their choice of summer holiday location.

The remote wrest coast of Scotland is seldom less than fantastic for watching birds and other wildlife.

With luck, bird species likely to have been visible included eagles - white-tailed, golden or both.

 On their hikes,  they may well have encountered skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets, yellow or grey wagtails and maybe, on the marshier terrain, golden plover, curlew and common sandpiper.

Out to sea, there would have been gannets , skuas, terns, gulls and eider duck as well as herring and black-backed gulls. 

Guillemots, puffins and razorbills might also have been in view - and perhaps the occasional peregrine overhead.

However, their terrier, Dylan, was off the lead so he will probably have chased off sand-feeding waders such as dunlin, knot, ringed plover, oystercatcher, whimbrel and godwit.

At this time last year, she was a celebrity visitor to the British Birdfair at Rutland Water, near Stamford.

The seas hold for her a special fascination and she will doubtless have been scanning the water s for sightings of whales and porpoises.

However, there may have been an omission. Judging from the photographs, the couple forgot to take with them their binoculars.

Unfortunately, the couple who were with baby son Wilfred had to cut short their holiday break after the location was revealed in the Press, making their security vulnerable.

* Photo: Courtesy Carrie Symonds/Instagram

 

THE MAJESTIC LAMMERGEIER: A BIRD THAT DOESN'T LIKE BATHING - OR DOES IT?

Lammergeier - what a magnificent creature!

 

A Lammergeier that has taken up residence - at least temporarily in the Peak District - has made headlines this summer. Delving through the ornithological archives, this intriguing item appeared in a 1912 edition of The Ibis, journal of the British Ornithologists' Union.

It is an established fact that the red colouring matter in the feathers of the Bearded Vulture, and also the colouring on its eggs, are due to superficial deposits of oxide of iron, but how the oxide gets there is still, I understand, a moot point. 

As regards the stains on the feathers, two theories have been advanced.

It has been suggested that these may be due to the fact (a) that the birds bathe in ferruginous streams or (b) that the iron is derived from the birds' blood. 

Ornithologist Allan Hume was inclined to think the latter as he emphatically states that the Lammergeier is "a very dirty bird and never washes". 

For the last twenty years or so, I have been closely attending to the habits of this bird and had hitherto always been under the impression that it neither bathes nor drinks water. 

It may, therefore, be of interest to some readers to know that, while out searching for nests of this species in a lonely mountain-glen in the Koti State, close to Sinda, in India, I came across a spot to which the Lammergeyers apparently habitually resort, not only to drink but also to bathe.

One of my native hunters had often assured me that he had frequently seen these birds bathing, but, up to this time I had refused to believe him.

Today (October 29, 1911), he exultingly drew my attention to this fact.

The spot selected by these Lammergeiers for drinking and bathing was at the bottom of a small waterfall, and, during the course of a couple of hours or so, I noticed no fewer than four of them follow each other in quick succession, and, without any hesitation, fly straight to this place.

Three of them drank and the fourth had a bath.

While drinking, the birds sat on a prominent stone which projected out from the middle of the water, and they always took frequent and long draughts. 

The bird which took a bath alighted at first close to the edge of the stream, then walked slowly into it, and dipped its head several times in the water and splashed about with its wings. 

After a short time, it walked back to the edge of the stream, preened its feathers a little, spread out its wings - apparently to dry them - and then took another dip. 

This was repeated several times, and the bath lasted for between ten and fifteen minutes.

I had no bottle or other vessel with me, and was therefore unable to bring away any of the water from this stream with a view to getting it analysed.

It would have been interesting to know for certain whether it contained any iron in solution or not. 

The next time that I happen to visit this spot, I shall not forget to bring away some of the water.

I note that Captain F. Adair - in his book,  A Summer in High Asia (p. 222) - mentions having shot a Lammergeier close to the Tagalang Pass, in Ladakh, when it was "drinking water at a stream".

It seems significant that, in confinement, the Bearded Vulture loses, or does not acquire, its tawny tint. 

Would it be possible to acquire this colouring matter on its feathers from mud-baths? 

I throw out this suggestion because, two or three years ago I noticed a Lammergeyer indulging in a bath of this nature on the ledge of a precipice. 

The bath lasted for about five minutes, and, at the end of it, the bird shook its feathers, raising a thick cloud of dust just as a fowl does. 

The late Dr. Adams appears also to have noticed these birds indulging in such baths.

He writes: "A red or cinnamon-coloured powder is plentifully distributed among the feathers of the neck and breast of young and adult individuals, and would seem to be composed of soil containing iron which they obtain from dusting themselves like other birds - a habit much indulged in by the denizens of bare rocky mountains, from the bear and ibex down to the mountain finch."

P. T. L. DODSWORTH

Carlton Grove

Simla, S.W. (Punjab) 

India

* Photo: Richard Bartz, Munich, via Wikimedia Commons

MARTINS HAVE SPORTING CHANCE OF BREEDING SUCCESS AS TRADESMEN RALLY TO THEIR SUPPORT

 

The seafront hotel where refurbishment is currently underway

PROSPECTS look bright for a family of house martins  that have made their home on the front wall of a hotel on the seafront in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.

Since flying to the resort in spring from their winter home in Africa, they have built their mud nest under the eaves of  The Kingsway hotel.

Following a change of ownership, the hotel currently has no guests (apart from the birds) pending a complete facelift.

But the nest became vulnerable to disturbance following the arrival last week of tradesmen including Grimsby firm Alturn Scaffolding and Cleethorpes-based window installers Rapide Frame Supplies.

However, to their huge credit, they have all  have taken the tiny birds to their hearts as have the hotel's owners, David and Jennifer Christian.

Everyone is working round the health and safety of the martins as the parents flit to and from the nests with insects to feed the chicks.

The hope is that, within the next week or so, the chicks will have fledged successfully ready to  join their parents on the long migration - which includes crossing the Sahara desert - to southern Africa.

The progress of the house martins - which are smaller relatives of swallows -  is being monitored by the Lincolnshire Bird Club which records the population and distribution of the county’s birds 

"This is a very special species," says a club official. "Cave-dwelling pre-historic man  first learned how to build houses by watching what house martins did with mud. 

"It’s great that both the hotel owners and the traders have been so keen to safeguard this particular pair - a perfect example of industry working hand-in-hand with nature."     

                                 

What's going on here? One of the parent birds checks that the coast is clear

And then flies up to the nest to feed the chicks (photo: courtesy Alturn Scaffolding)

How the Grimsby Telegraph covered the story

The Wryneck says: Brilliant! Hats off to hoteliers David and Jennifer Christian,  Gareth Evans and Jordan Mussell  of Alturn Scaffolding and Tim Cattell and his team at Rapide. And good luck to the house martins!

DID MICHAEL PORTILLO NOT HEAR SWEET SONG OF NIGHTINGALE IN FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE?

                                                                  

Portillo in France  -  oblivious to birdsong

Poor show by Michael Portillo  in this week's episode of BBC TV's Great Continental Railway Journeys which took him to France's beautiful Loire Valley. Not only was there no mention from the politician-turned-broadcaster of the nightingales singing in the background, but the birds were subsequently silenced either by his commentary or the intrusive musical score. Must do better!

EDWARD LEAR'S CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED STUDY OF PARROTS SELLS FOR £60,000 AT AUCTION

THE continuing strength of the market in rare bird books was reflected in the sale price of this edition of Edward Lear's first work - Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots. Following brisk bidding in an online auction conducted by Christies earlier this month, the hammer came down at £60,000 - right at the top end of  the pre-sale estimate.