SAFEGUARDING BREEDING HARRIERS IN BARLEY FIELDS OF GERMANY'S RHINELAND

Marsh harriers - faring well in Rhineland

The Wryneck has received the following encouraging message from Alexander Heyd of CABS - the Campaign Against Bird Slaughter

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Summer is our quietest time of the year - poaching is usually limited to the spring and autumn migration seasons or the over-wintering of certain bird species in the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, we still have our hands full.

Germany: harrier protection in the Rhineland

Marsh Harriers and Montagu’s Harriers are ground breeders - they build their nests in reed beds and meadows. At least they should. When the birds of prey return from their African wintering grounds, the barley fields are just the right height to appear as a particularly attractive habitat for the harriers. So, they gravitate and build their nests in the grain fields. However, when the harvest begins in early July, the young are still yet to fledge, and risk being killed under the whirl of the combine harvesters. For almost 15 years, CABS staff from our HQ in Bonn have coordinated an annual harrier project in the ‘Zülpicher Börde’ (between Cologne and Aachen) where we search and identify nests; and protect them together with farmers, authorities and local bird watching groups. With the use of a drone, the nests can be precisely located without disturbing the birds too much. So far, we have found six  pairs of marsh harriers and one pair of the much rarer Montagu's harrier. Four nests are located in barley and triticale fields - the farmers have already been informed. The hatching of the chicks is now imminent!

Cyprus: Summer action against ground-nets!

A CABS team is currently checking ground nets in south-eastern Cyprus. Homeowners use these nets keep snakes and other reptiles away from their properties. They are a treacherous death trap for animals of all kinds - besides snakes and lizards, wild birds are also frequently caught. They die a slow and sufferable death because the landowners practically never check the installations. It is common to find the skeletons of dozens of protected animals in the recklessly laid nets. During the inspections, a barn owl was rescued from the nets in addition to several snakes, lizards and a chameleon. By documenting the findings in the ground nets, we want to persuade the government of Cyprus to ban this method. The local media have already taken up the issue and reported on the finding of the barn owl - a good start for this campaign!

Birdcatcher convicted in Lebanon

Following a tip-off from members of the public, our partners from the Middle Eastern Sustainable Hunting Centre (MESHC) Anti-Poaching Unit and the Society for Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) managed to catch a poacher near the village of Hammana, Mount Lebanon. The man had set up a clap-net and used bird glue near the village in the Lebanon mountains east of the capital Beirut. He had smeared the glue around a cage with a live decoy bird on the branches of a small fruit tree. The perpetrator's aim was apparently to catch goldfinches, which are popular cage birds almost everywhere in the Mediterranean and are traded on the black market. The Lebanese Internal Security Forces were notified and attended immediately; criminal proceedings have been initiated against the bird trapper. The fines are a maximum of 500,000 Lebanese liras (about €280) and up to one month in prison.

Planning for summer operations

Meanwhile, planning is now underway for our bird conservation camps in the upcoming second half of the year. In addition to several research trips now in the summer, we already have the first bird conservation camps on Malta (against wader trapping with clap-nets) and in Italy (shooting warblers in Calabria and Pied flycatcher trapping with mist nets in Lombardy) scheduled for mid-August.

As ever, you can keep up to date with the latest CABS news via our social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (visit @CABS_REPORTS). 

Furthermore, if you would like to get involved to support and enable our bird protection work as a supporter, donor or volunteer please visit the ‘Get Involved’ section of our website for details or feel free to get in touch via email, phone or any of our social platforms: https://www.komitee.de/en/get-involved/

Best regards 

Alexander and the CABS Team