FINAL CURTAIN COMES DOWN ON BIRDFAIR - BURDEN WAS TOO MUCH FOR ORGANISERS

Birders queue to enter the last Birdfair 

IT'S the end of the line for Birdfair - probably the world's most popular gathering festival for birders.

From its launch more than 30 years ago, the event was hosted by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust  at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, near Stamford.

But today, the Trust announced that, "after careful consideration of a number of key factors", it had taken the "difficult decision" to stop running the event.

In a statement this afternoon, Head of Engagement Jamie Perry explains: "The global pandemic has had a significant effect on our day-to-day operations as a charity. 

"Like many other similar institutions, we have seen income streams lost or reduced, with a resultant impact on our financial reserves and thus the delivery of our charitable work. 

"Birdfair operations have contributed to these financial concerns."

He continues: "Birdfair proceeds have always been donated in full to Birdlife International. 

"The Trust has never received any part of this, but we have nevertheless borne 100 per cent of the risks and liabilities and have supplied the staff and volunteer effort of running the event. 

"This is a significant burden for any organisation, let alone a small local charity such as ourselves.”

Both the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled because of the global pandemic which still prevails. 

Mr Perry further notes increasing concerns over climate crisis.

"The current format of Birdfair is heavily influenced by travel and tourism, with exhibitors travelling from 80 different countries to attend. 

"The carbon footprint generated both by the event itself and the activities it promotes does not now fit well with our own strategy towards tackling the climate crisis." 

He adds that the event has grown considerably over the years, and the Trust is concerned about the impact that the event might be having on Rutland Water Nature Reserve itself in terms of soil compaction in the site area.

He concludes: "The Trust has therefore had to conclude that continuing to run Birdfair presents our charity with unsustainable financial, ecological and reputational risks."

The Wryneck says: Everyone will understand the Trust's decision, but why did it take until late-November to announce it? It is now almost certainly too late - at least for 2022 - for anyone else to take up the reins and stage the event at another venue. What other options did the Trust explore as an alternative to pulling the plug on the event? Could, for example, the rights to Birdfair - and the goodwill -  have been transferred, sold even, to a commercial events company? And, with all its clout, could the RSPB not have done something to rescue the fair? A lot of people, while immensely grateful for the memories, will feel deflated at how the high-ups of the birding world seem to have patted themselves on the back for past achievements, washed their hands  and walked away.

                                              

PUFFIN AND SNOWY OWL MAY BE 'ON PATH TO EXTINCTION' WARNS AMERICAN AUTHOR

TIME was when hummingbird - served in a walnut shell - was on the menu of an upmarket  restaurant at Boston Harbour in the USA.

It was  regarded as a special delicacy though perhaps not so rich in flavour as another culinary favourite, the now-extinct Eskimo curlew.

This offbeat information is included in an absorbing new book, Birdpedia - A Brief Compendium of Avian Lore, by American ornithologist Christopher W. Leahy.

In his section on how wild birds regularly used to feature on the menu in the United States, he notes that, even today, robin pie occasionally reaches (illegally) the table in some rural areas.

Leahy, whose other books include the authoritative Birds of Mongolia, is extraordinarily exhaustive in his survey, with almost 200 entries on topics ranging from plumage and migration to birds in art, fiction, drama (including Shakespeare), poetry and religion.

To his credit, despite his cheerful tone, the author's perspective is not one of undiluted feel-good optimism.

He says it how it is, warning that iconic species such as Atlantic puffin and snowy owl  may be "on the path to extinction".

In his survey of man-made threats, he describes "the indiscriminate use of highly toxic chemicals to control insects  as one of the chief follies of the modern era because many birds depend on insects for their diet".

Back in the 1960s, the American writer, Rachel Carson, was the first to warn on pesticides in her famous book, Silent Spring.

It led to her being targeted in a smear campaign, not just from the agro-chemical lobby but also from some politicians, with one coming up with the bizarre statement that, because unmarried, she was  "probably a communist"! 

The author notes with sadness that, during her work on Silent Spring, Carson developed breast cancer and died of complication in April, 1964. she was only 57.

At just £9.99 in hardback, Birdpedia represents excellent value  for money, both for Leahy's breezily-written and authoritative text and for the enchanting sketches by illustrator Abby McBride.

It is published in the UK by Princeton University Press and available wherever books are sold.

SALEROOM NEWS: FRENZIED BIDDING PUSHES UP PRICE OF RAVEN AT LINCOLNSHIRE AUCTION

Under the hammer - what secrets could this handsome bird tell? 

They say every bird has a story to tell, but this raven's story will probably never be told.

Where and when did it live? How did it die? Who was the taxidermist who mounted it?  And what is its fate in the years to come?

The doubtless once wise corvid was one of the star lots at an auction staged today by John Taylors of Louth in Lincolnshire.

The bird attracted frenzied bidding over the internet such that the price had reached £340 - yes £340 - before the hammer fell.

Who was the buyer? In common with customary saleroom practice, Taylors are not revealing the successful bidder.

Several other items of taxidermy were also up for grabs.

More modest - but still impressive - sale prices were realised by a jay (£50), a buzzard (£95) and a golden pheasant (£75).

                                      

This jay fetched £50 

 

WORKS ON PROPOSED NEW LIFEBOAT STATION DELAYED TO SAFEGUARD WINTER SHOREBIRDS

Artist's impression of the proposed new lifeboat station as it will be seen from the promenade (Picture: RNLI)

CONSTRUCTION work on a proposed new lifeboat station on the East Coast of England will be delayed to safeguard overwintering shorebirds.

Although the £3-million project at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, is scheduled to start in April next year, piling will be postponed until May 1 by which time the knot, dunlin, curlew, sanderling and other species will have flown north to their breeding grounds.

This has been agreed following discussions between the RNLI, Natural England and North East Lincolnshire Council.

Works will then be put on hold again after August 31 when the birds will be returning.

A downside is that there is likely to be displacement for migrating common and Sandwich terns which often rest on this part of the beach.   

The new station to be built on the beach will replace the existing one, which is on a public highway, and will have its own slipway for launch and recovery of the lifeboat. 

Target date for completion is mid-2023.

Existing lifeboat station is on a public highway and blind bend

         

Natural England has insisted  that works must not be carried out during autumn and winter for fear of disturbing shorebirds such as these sanderling and dunlin

THAT ORKNEYS THRUSH: WAS IT FROM NORTHERN ALASKA - SHOULD IT BE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?

                                               

Varied thrush - Did Orkneys bird mistake Orkneys for Los Angeles County? 

    

AMID  speculation about the origins of the Varied Thrush that recently spent a few days in The Orkneys, a paper published more than 120 years ago might offer some pointers.

American ornithologist Joseph Grinnell identified plumage differences that led him to conclude that were two separate breeding races in Alaska - one on the coast and one inland.

Below is an abbreviated version of the report that he wrote for the April 1901 edition of The Auk, quarterly journal of the Nuttall Ornithological Society.

"Well-marked differences exist in the case of the female between the race of the Varied Thrush (Hesperocichla naevia naevia) breeding in the humid area around Sitka on the South-east coast of Alaska and that of the race (Hesperocichla naevia meruloides) breeding in the dryer interior region in the north of the same state. 

"The Sitkan race is characterised by a predominance of deep browns, restriction of white or light markings, and by a shorter and more rounded wing.

"By contrast, the northern and interior race (Hesperocichla naevia meruloides) has a much greyer and paler coloration, greater extension of white markings, and a longer and more pointed wing. 

"Unfortunately I have no male birds from Sitka, except juveniles, but three spring males from the Kowak Valley in the North-west of Alaska when compared with late-winter males taken from northern California are of a lighter slate colour dorsally and slightly paler tawny beneath. 

"The females of this species appear to be much more subject to protective coloration, so-called, than the males, and it is therefore reasonable to expect climatic variations to be more pronounced in the females than in the males, especially when the climate of the sunnier habitat is of an extreme nature. 

"In the winter home of Varied Thrushes, there is also a different distribution of the two races, but their latitudinal relation is reversed.

"Thirty-five skins from Los Angeles County, in southern California, are all but one referable strictly to birds (meruloides) from northern Alaska while the majority of the winter skins from the coast region of central and northern California are of the Sitkan race (naevia). 

"In other words, though its summer habitat is more northerly, meruloides migrates further south in winter than naevia. Its migration route is much the longest. 

"Naevia's apparently much shorter migration route probably extends at most between the latitudes of Sitka and Monterey."

On the basis that the meruloides race has the capacity to migrate longer distances, is it fair to assume that The Orkneys bird is from northern Alaska and should, by rights, now be in southern California? 

Grinnell ends his article thus: "The wing-contour seems to offer a criterion by which to judge the length of the annual migration of a bird - by the study of further material I hope to arrive at some more definite conclusions in this regard."

NATURE'S OWN MUSIC: AUTHOR'S CELEBRATION OF A MUCH-LOVED SONGBIRD OF FARMLAND

 

IN medieval Britain, eating skylarks was believed to cure ailments of the throat.

Meanwhile, in Italy, eating larks was considered to be a remedy for liver disease.

These are among the nuggets in  nature writer John Lewis-Stempel’s engaging new book - The Soaring Life of The Lark.

It is only a short volume - fewer than 100 pages - but it is a highly-readable compendium of insights about this very special bird, not least as an inspiration to  countless poets (notably Shelley) and musicians such as Vaughan Williams.

Borrowing from one of his earlier books, Where Poppies Blow, the author also describes how the song of the skylark provided cheer to soldiers - presumably in both sets of trenches - on the Western Front in the 1914-18 war.

He laments how larks were once exploited in their thousands by the caged birds trade. (Remarkably, they still sang, even in confinement.)

Importantly, Stempel-Lewis also provides a reminder of the ongoing decrease in their population in Europe as the result of modern intensive agricultural methods.

Can anything be done?

"Yes and easily," he writes. "One simple solution is for the 'skylark plot' which costs next to nothing in money or time.

"Such plots help the birds forage for food once the crops grow and become dense.

"If there were a thousand such plots, the decline of the skylark could be halted."

It is a nice thought, but is this really so?

The sad fact, surely,  is that on most farms there are insufficient insects to enable the species to flourish.

The decline of the skylark is therefore likely to continue.

The Soaring Life of The Lark is published by Doubleday Books at £9.99.

BYGONE BIRDING: EGG OF GREAT AUK WAS DISCOVERED IN ENGLISH PARISH CHURCH

From the April 1892 edition of The Auk, quarterly journal of  the Nuttall Ornithological Club.

Mr Symington Grieve of Edinburgh, in a recent letter to Capt. J. W. Collins, announces the discovery of one more egg of the Great Auk "this time in a museum kept in the tower of an English parish church". 

The egg was labelled 'Penguin', and the owner of the museum was under the impression that it was the egg of one of the penguins of the southern hemisphere until he read a magazine  article that the Great Auk also was known as the Penguin in the American localities that were frequented by the bird.

He had the egg examined by experts who pronounced it undoubtedly an egg of Alca impennis. 

From all that can be discovered of its history it appears in all probability to have come from Newfoundland."

Frederic A. Lucas 

Washington DC

USA

EXOTIC BIRD LISTENS IN ON HIS MAJESTY'S CONVERSATION WITH AMAZON TYCOON

What is thought to be a golden pheasant (upper centre) listens intently as the Prince of Wales enjoys light-hearted  banter with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his lady friend, Lauren Sanchez. The picture, taken at Dumfries House (about 40 miles from the COP conference in Glasgow), was posted on his social media pages by the tycoon who is, like His Majesty, at the forefront of initiatives to tackle climate change.  The identity of the lady on the left is not known. Below are pictures of the house and part of its stunning 2,000-acre estate which is open to the public and offers great opportunities for viewing and hearing a range of songbirds.