Bygone birding: Did goldcrest really make part of North Sea crossing on back of short-eared owl?

                                                                         

Goldcrest? Does species sometimes hitch a lift across the ocean wave? 

Below is a letter published in an edition of The Zoologist journal (1882)

Sir -

The following fact was related to me by Mr. Wilson, the foreman on the South Gare Breakwater at the mouth of the Tees:

"I was at the end of the Gare on the morning of October 16, 1879, when I saw a short-eared owl come flopping across the sea. 

"As it got nearer, I saw something sitting between its shoulders, and wondered what it could be. 

"The owl came and lit on the gearing within ten yards of where I was standing, and, directly it came down, a little bird dropped off its back and flew along the Gare. 

"I signalled for a gun, but the owl saw me move and flew off across the river. 

"We followed the little bird and caught it, and I sent it away to be made into a feather for my daughter's hat."

"The little bird was a golden-crested wren." 

Wilson could have had no inducement in telling me other than the truth, and I have every reason to believe that what I have written is correct. 

It does not necessarily follow that the goldcrest came the whole way across the North Sea on the back of the owl, but I think it is quite possible that, feeling tired on the way, it might have availed itself of the assistance of its compagnon de voyage, and so be carried to shore.

Wilson further told me he had seen another wren on an owl's back about a fortnight after he saw the first one. 

T. H. Nelson 
Redcar

Plucky goldcrest made the 400-mile flight from Dutch Coast to Spurn in just under eight hours

 

RADIO tracking by Motus has provided fascinating information on the flight of goldcrest that made the trip from a small island off the Dutch Coast

Weighing little more than a 20p coin, it completed the 400-mile journey in just under eight hours at an average speed of 27mph.

The bird had been tagged by a Dutch research team, led by Prof Sander Lagerveld of Wageningen University, which is studying the migration ecology of small passerines and bats. 

Also tagged on the same date, October 20, were several yellow-browed warblers but it is not known what happened to them nor to the goldcrest after it flew north over Spurn's Motus tracking tower.

Fancy that - shape of kingfisher's beak influenced how Japanese designed their bullet trains

                                 

HOW about this for a description of magpies on a lawn: "They strut proprietorially around my lawn like a couple of fascists at a rally"?

It is an example of the colourful writing of Charlie Corbett in his absorbing book, 12 Birds To Save Your Life.

Subtitled Nature's Lessons in Happiness, this is a frank and very moving account of  the part  that birds - and his keen, perceptive  observation of them -  have played in helping him to come to terms with life after the grief and trauma that followed the loss of his  mother to cancer.

The author was outraged and dismayed when those same magpies took out a nest of mistle thrushes which, much to his family's delight, had made their home in the branches of a sycamore in his back garden.

But ultimately he forgives the black-and-white "scoundrels", deciding his scorn for such a "beautiful, charismatic and tenacious" bird is not fair. "After all, a magpie doesn't know it's a magpie,"he writes. "It just does its magpie thing."

                                         

Strutting 'like a fascist at a rally'

Corbett, who is a language expert and journalist based in Wiltshire, goes on to explore the special significance in his recent life of 11 other species - the skylark, kingfisher, curlew, bullfinch, house sparrow, house martin, robin, wren, song thrush, chiffchaff and barn owl. 

Along the way there are some interesting nuggets - for instance, that the aerodynamic excellence of the kingfisher's beak may have influenced how the Japanese fashioned the noses of their bullet trains.

Staying on the aeronautic theme, he describes how he once saw a peregrine being mobbed by two grey wagtails - a fascinating spectacle which he likens to "two biplanes being attacked by a Tornado jet".

And the allusion to the Tornado is not far off because its designers apparently used the shape of the peregrine's nostrils - which protect the bird's lungs at high speeds - as a means to increase the safety and efficiency of their engines.

Corbett is a great fan of the writings of the clergymen-ornithologists of yesteryear and also of  former Foreign Secretary Edward Grey whose exquisite The Charm of Birds is a evidently book to which he constantly refers - and understandably so.

By comparison, to him, the authors of modern guidebooks describe birds in a way that "feels a little less familiar, a little more worthy and a little too scientific".

He continues: "They write about birds as something to look at, to study and make a note of  rather than as of an innate part of our daily life, of the human story; there doesn’t seem to be any real affection - all cold fact and no heart."

(Note the use of the semi-colon - forsaken by most contemporary writers but, where appropriate, reintroduced by Corbett to pace the rhythm of his sentences.)

Is the author worried by the loss of birds and our seeming, downwards spiral into what risks becoming a "post-Nature" planet?

Of course he is. 

"We humans and the wildlife that surrounds us have become strangers in the great cocktail party of Life on Earth,"he frets. "It is much easier and more enticing to watch David Attenborough explore the jungles of Madagascar on the BBC on a comfy sofa  than to  go outside and form an attachment to the local squadron of plain brown and white sparrows chittering away on the road. 

"But the sparrows are Nature's ballast, and once they’re gone we won’t get them back."

To end on a cheerful note,  hats off to Corbett for his readiness to poke fun at himself - notably with an acknowledgement of his failed efforts to capture acceptable images of bullfinches which he describes as "cheerful, stocky little bird", but somehow "unreachable" in their thick hedgerows.

" I have I tried in vain to photograph bullfinches,"he says ruefully. "Which is why I am the proud possessor of about 50 photographs showing grey-pink-red blurs in the far distance."

And let's face it, he must be having a laugh (perhaps at the reader's expense) when he likens the sight of a flying kingfisher to "a dazzling samba dancer skipping through a dimly-lit London pub."  

Come off it, Charlie! Kingfisher as samba dancer?That's surely stretching things just a little bit.

12 Birds To Save Your Life is a book to read, then to re-read.

Published in paperback by Penguin at £9.99, it is available wherever books are sold.   

Bygone birding: Wiltshire rector 'singularly happy' to claim county record of black woodpecker

From Birds of Wiltshire (1887)  by the Rev Alfred Charles Smith, Rector of Yatesbury

I think myself singularly happy in claiming  the Black Woodpecker as a record for Wiltshire.

I have never been able to assent to the verdict of those who have pronounced all the recorded specimens in Great Britain as mistakes or impositions.

I cannot, and I do not, believe that all our older ornithologists were so mistaken or deceived, and, on looking over long lists of instances given on what seems to be excellent authority, I feel that  Picus martius has occasionally appeared in England, perhaps more frequently in former years than of late. 

At all events, the single specimen I adduce is now in Mr. James Rawlence's collection at Bulbridge, in the parish of Wilton, and that gentleman received it from Mr. Samuel Pope, then of Kingston Deverill Farm, who assured Mr. Rawlence it was killed while they were shooting rooks in Longleat Park. 

I regret that I cannot give the exact date, but it was some years ago, and it was sent to be stuffed by Mr. King, the well-known bird-stuffer at Warminster, now unhappily deceased, or he might have supplied this and other desired particulars. 

The Black Woodpecker is much larger than all the other European species and is entirely black in colour, the top of the head only excepted, which is of a rich blood-red. 

It is a strong powerful bird, and is common in northern Europe, and found sparingly in the fir forests of Germany and Switzerland. 

When I was in Norway in 1850, I was so fortunate as to fall in with it in the great forest of the Glommen, and shot it as it was ascending the trunk of a fir tree. 

There were two in company, and I followed them as they flew screaming through the forest, but I never saw birds fly more heavily, or with such apparent exertion and such clumsy motion as these. 

It was surprising, too, with what loud-sounding taps they hammered with their powerful beaks on the bark of the trees they were ascending, and I could well understand how they gained the Norwegian name of Spill-Kraka - 'Splinter Crow'  - from the mass of splinters always to be found at the foot of the tree where they carry on their labours. 

In France, it is Le Pic Noir; in Germany, Schwarzspecht; in Italy, Picchio Corvo.

****

More about the Black Woodpecker:

THE BLACK WOODPECKER IN BRITAIN: FACT, FICTION OR FRAUD? eBook : Wright, James: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Price: £2

£36,000 salary on offer for curlew enthusiast - but he or she will have to be a bit of a bureaucrat

                                                                 

 

CALLING all curlew enthusiasts!

A £36,000 one-year contract is up for grabs at the Curlew Recovery Partnership.

Below is the notice of vacancy: 

The England Curlew Recovery Partnership is looking for an outstanding conservationist and network builder who can manage this transformative partnership.

The Eurasian curlew is arguably the most pressing bird conservation priority in the UK.

More than that, it has unparalleled importance as a symbol of Britain’s wild places. 

An extraordinary conservation effort to save the curlew is underway, and there is hope that in bringing back this much-loved species we can recover the fortunes of much of our nature.

The partnership builds on the existing informal network of projects and individuals working  at a local level, connecting them at a national level to other projects, conservation NGOs and Government agencies.

The Partnership Director post is hosted by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust on behalf of the partnership.

The partnership steering group, which is chaired by the author and campaigner Mary Colwell, will agree your work-programme which will involve working closely with a broad range of leading conservation organisations.

The role will be to mobilise and co-ordinate the existing resources across the partners, and among grassroots conservationists in the form of farmers, land managers, practitioners, gamekeepers, volunteers and all those that have a passion for curlews.

It is important  also to ensure that Curlew conservation is informed by new scientific evidence and that projects are informed by best practice. 

The successful candidate  be an experienced conservationist, adept at building links between scientists, Whitehall decision-makers, local communities and land-managers. 

The successful candidate will be at the heart of one of the most high profile conservation initiatives in Britain, and will need to be inspiring, collaborative, diplomatic and energetic.

* Curlew Action, Defra, Natural England, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the RSPB, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the British Trust for Ornithology, Natural England, Curlew Country, the Duchy of Cornwall and the Bolton Castle Estate.

Apart from the salary, benefits include:

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service

• Contributory pension scheme (conditions apply)

• Life assurance

• Free parking

• Cycle to work scheme

• Free entry to all Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust centres

And here is the job description: 

Main function of role: 

To manage delivery of the work programme of the Curlew Recovery Partnership on behalf of the Steering Group Partnership and the Chair. To mobilise and co-ordinate the existing resources across the main partners, the broader group of partner organisations and with the grassroots conservationists in the form of farmers, land managers, practitioners, gamekeepers, volunteers and all those that have a passion for Curlews in England. 

Main duties:

National co-ordination

• Respond to UK Government consultations, particularly relating to Defra agri-environment schemes (AES) such as the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELM) and woodland creation schemes.

• Develop policy briefs for Defra on key topics in Curlew conservation, including predator management, silage/hay cutting and forestry.

• Co-ordinate for schemes, such as Farming in Protected Landscapes, to ensure effective sharing of outputs relevant to Curlew conservation and capturing key findings for Defra policymakers. 

• Work with partners to identify opportunities for improved co-ordination of data collection for breeding Curlews at regional and national level.

• Represent CRP on (and share resources with) the UK and Ireland Curlew Action Group (CAG) and the Curlew Wales Steering Group and correspond and co-ordinate training activities with Working for Waders in Scotland.

• Support the development of research to increase the evidence-base for Curlew conservation, in particular by encouraging multi-partner research collaborations

External communications and activities

• Develop and maintain the CRP website, blog, social media, and email accounts.

• Develop and maintain the CRP network of  some 350 Curlew conservationists, primarily across England.

• Support local Curlew groups in England through provision of advice and resources about funding, fieldwork etc.

• Visit important Curlew areas and projects to understand local issues and engage with a broad range of Curlew conservationists.

• Engage with local, regional, and national media to disseminate key messages about Curlew conservation and promote CRP network activities.

Internal communications and activities

•Ensure that the CRP, including its Steering Group and Working Groups, is effectively managed.

• Manage the CRP finances and provide a monthly update to the Chair and SG (with support from colleagues in GWCT who administer the CRP bank account).

• Identify opportunities for future CRP funding, both from UK Government and various public and private sources, to support management overhead and delivery of local research and conservation projects.

CRP resources

• Work with SG members to develop, deliver and co-ordinate CRP training activities including field and online workshops, online videos, and online resources.

• Work with SG members to develop and deliver the Curlew Fieldworker Toolkit and undergo regular updates to ensure content confirms with best practise.

Closing date for applications is November 30, with interviews to be held on December 8-9.

And the person specifications:

Essential: 

● Degree or equivalent experience in a relevant subject

● Current driving licence and passport

Desirable

● A recognised qualification or accreditation in project management (e.g. PRINCE2, APM accreditation).

Experience

Essential: 

● Track record of working with local grass-roots projects and/or farmers to develop and deliver conservation projects

● Track record of working with local and national governments, private sector and civil society bodies

● Experience in organising and facilitating multi-stakeholder participatory processes and policy dialogues

● Experience in partnership building and relationship management

● Understanding of relevant technical fields (including species recovery; wader ecology; economics of rural environments; stakeholder engagement techniques; natural capital and ecosystem service approaches)

● Understanding of the relevant policy context, including agriculture, forestry and species recovery, especially as it relates to conservation of Curlews and their habitats

● Experience of the UK biodiversity fundraising environment and of managing grants and funding partnerships 

● Experience of project design, planning and evaluation

● IT skills including use of Microsoft Office Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint and the use of online tools for document sharing and collaboration

Desirable: 

● Experience of Curlew conservation projects or similar species recovery initiatives

● Experience of implementing effective organisational governance arrangements

Competencies

● Ability to co-ordinate stakeholders within the Recovery Partnership, including dealing with conflicting opinions and objectives

● Ability to work effectively with multiple partners, giving growing momentum towards partnership working

● Demonstrated capacity to strategically manage diverse teams to achieve results

● Demonstrable project management skills including development of work plans, project financial management, monitoring and evaluation and effective reporting

● Excellent written and oral presentation skills and ability to communicate to a variety of audiences 

● Excellent communication and networking skills, able to negotiate with, persuade and influence a wide range of stakeholders 

● Able to work independently, prioritise workload and meet deadlines, with a high degree of autonomy over day-to-day work programme

● Willingness to travel extensively around England and occasionally further afield (chiefly other countries in the UK and Europe)

● Able to raise substantial funds for conservation projects

More information  at:

WWT - Curlew Partnership Director

The CRP consists of the following organisations: Curlew Action, Defra, Natural England, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the RSPB, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the British Trust for Ornithology, Natural England, Curlew Country, the Duchy of Cornwall and the Bolton Castle Estate.

The Wryneck says: It is a sad reflection of current times that a bureaucratic framework has to be set up to encourage what should be happening  naturally - that is to say, curlews breeding in abundance right across Britain. How long before similar structures need to be set up to safeguard nightingales, swifts, skylarks, yellowhammers and other declining birds? Disappointingly, this project seems to have no defined targets. Might it not have more success if remuneration of whoever is appointed director was linked to results.  What is more, it fails to address another isssue - the ongoing confiscation of 'curlew' eggs from MoD airfields which has decimated the breeding population of the species in the county of Lincolnshire. On balance, this curlew initiative is probably a good one - just not quite as good as it seems.

Yes, it will be back! Dates confirmed for return of Global Birdfair to Rutland Showground in 2023.

 

A shoveler duck spreads the happy word 

CONFIRMATION has come from organiser Tim Appleton that Global Birdfair will return next year following its successful debut this summer.

As previously, it will be staged at the Rutland showground on the outskirts of Oakham.

The dates are July 14-16, 2023.

Last year, the number of attendees exceeded 11,600, most attending one or more of the 132 lectures staged in three different marquees and the Osprey theatre.

The event hosted 245 exhibitors across various sectors including conservation, art, media, photography, books, optical equipment, nature tourism, local produce, clothing and bird food.

More than 130 volunteers gave their time to help ensure the smooth running of the event.

Sponsors included the RSPB, Birdguides, Viking Optical, Anglian Water, Swarovski Optik, Zeiss, Sony UK, Vive Andalucia, Park Cameras, Leica, BBC Wildlife Magazine and Rockjumper.

More details about what the 2023 event is likely to hold in store will be announced in February.                                     

The showground - roll on July 2023! (photo: Discover Rutland)

A most mysterious bird - the Victorian-era great bustard that sold for £1,300 at auction in North Yorkshire

The female bustard - some insect damage to plumage but otherwise apparently in good condition

WHAT may have been one of the last great bustards to have roamed the wilds of eastern England has sold for £1,300 at auction.

Stuffed and mounted, the bird went under the hammer at the sale conducted by Tennants of Leyburn in North Yorkshire. 

The pre-sale guide price was £800-£1,200 but bidding reached £1,300 before the hammer fell.

There was evidence of insect damage to the underbelly of the bird, plus some minor insect damage to the tail feathers.

The case also required restoration and repainting.

A note in the auction catalogue states: 

Taxidermy: A Large Late Victorian Cased Great Bustard (Otis tarda), dated 1880, by J. Travis, Naturalist, Animal & Bird Preserver, Gold Street, Saffron Walden, a large full mount adult female, with head turning slightly to the left, stood upon painted faux rockwork, amidst a natural setting of tall grasses, set against a blue-yellow watercolour painted sky back drop, enclosed within a large typical period ebonised three-glass display case, raised upon four squat feet, 88cm by 36.5cm by 85.5cm, taxidermist's oval paper trade label to verso, data label to verso- Female Bustard, taken by Mr W. Jones, Manor Farm, West Wickham, Feb 6th 1880, stating purchased from George Bristow 1942, by James Harrison, a detailed account of this bird appears in Miller Christy The Birds of Essex, (1890), page 230, including a photocopy of the entry.

The name George Bristow is of interest because of his implication in the so-called Hastings Rarities scandal.

Pictured below is the photocopy

No details of the purchaser have been released.

The sale was in May this year.

 

 

* Images: Tennants of Leyburn

The firm will be holding its next taxidermy/natural history sale on November 30. 

More information at  https://www.tennants.co.uk

Government unveils £30-million 'Big Nature' fund to plant trees, restore peatland and improve water quality

                                                    

Thérèse Coffey - "international leadership"

A £30-million  Big Nature Impact Fund has today been unveiled by Whitehall.

The stated aim is to encourage  private investors to help fund green projects - for instance, planting of as many as 16 million trees, peat restoration and water quality improvement.

A proposed spin-off to biodiversity-enhancement will be the creation of green jobs and the "opening up of new avenues for green finance".

More details will be announced in due course.

In the meantime, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey comments: "We continue to demonstrate international leadership through commitments to create a natural world that is richer in plants and wildlife."

Spectacular! New Ennerdale National Nature Reserve in Cumbria is ninth largest in England

                                                     

Ennerdale - river is home to Ice Age fish species

A NEW National Nature Reserve has today been officially declared by Natural England. 

Comprising more than 3,000 hectares of water, forests and mountains, Wild Ennerdale in West Cumbria is the largest nature reserve in the county and the ninth largest in England.

Its designation as an NNR follows partnership working over the past two decades by four organisations - Forestry England, National Trust, United Utilities and Natural England.

Enthuses NE chairmanTony Juniper: "Wild Ennerdale is a diverse landscape which supports  unique wildlife, including red squirrels, pearl mussels and the Arctic charr - a fish that dates back to the last Ice Age."

He continues: "National Nature Reserves are at the very centre of our ambition to create a vibrant national Nature Recovery Network comprised of bigger and better places for both wildlife and people.

"The Ennerdale partnership is a great example of what we have in mind and shows how working together can achieve that aim."

Agrees Environment Minister Trudy Harrison: "Ennerdale  is a haven for fish, birds and insects and provides much treasured access to green space for local people. 

"The declaration today strengthens our commitment to nature’s recovery and our ambitions under the 25 Year Environment Plan to leave the natural world in a better state than we found it." 

Bygone birding: Quest for house sparrow in southern California and Arizona

                                                                         

House sparrows - some in North American saw the introduced English species as 'a plague'

The following article appeared in a 1905-6 edition of The Condor,  bi-monthly magazine of the Cooper Ornithological Club of California. Written by O.W. Howard, it is entitled, The English Sparrow in the Southwest.

SO far as I can ascertain, the English sparrow (Passer domesticus) is found in every state in the Union, and in most of our large cities they are so common as to be considered a plague.

Why are there no English sparrows in southern California where the climatic conditions are so mild and inviting?

My first experience with the English sparrow occurred in December, 1901,when I had occasion to visit the town of Bakersfield.

I was much surprised to find the little fellows feeding on the paved streets in the centre of town. 

I knew the sparrows were common in San Francisco and neighbouring towns but had no idea they had found their way so far south. 

Later, in the spring of 1902, I found the sparrows nesting commonly about the principal buildings of Bakersfield; even at the court house they were occupying deserted swallows’ nests.

In 1903, I again visited Bakersfield several times and found that the sparrows had increased considerably. 

A number of pairs were nesting in cypress trees in yards and seemed to take the place of linnets. 

Late in the fall of the same year, I chanced to stop at the town of Tehachapi, about 4000 feet elevation, situated at the extreme summit of Tehachapi Pass through which the Southern Pacific railroad runs. 

Here I found the English sparrow in flocks feeding around the railroad yard. 

This was another revelation to me for I took it for granted that Bakersfield was their southernmost limit and did not expect to find them at this high altitude.

The Tehachapi Mountains are considered the natural dividing line between northern and southern California, the San Joaquin Valley on the north and the Antelope Valley on the south. 

After finding the sparrows at Tehachapi, I naturally expected to find them next at the town of Mojave which is located on the edge of the desert in Antelope valley and only about twenty-five miles south of Tehachapi. 

I searched several times at the town of Mojave during the year 1903 but failed to find a single sparrow. 

I have not had opportunity to visit that locality since 1903, but in the meantime have made some observations in Arizona.

While located at Tucson, in May, 1904, I was very much surprised one morning to see an English sparrow alight within ten feet of me on the principal street and at once commence scratching for its favourite food. 

I saw several other birds the same day and later in the season found about half a dozen pairs nesting in the switchboard boxes which are placed on telephone poles about 25 feet above the ground.

The birds entered these boxes through small holes in the bottom which seemed hardly large enough to admit the body of the bird, and an amusing thing to me was to see the little fellows with great bunches of nesting material in their beaks working like troopers and never stopping at the entrance hole but fairly diving up through it - if it is possible to dive up!

I inquired of some of the linemen as to whether or not the English sparrow had been seen in Tucson in previous years and could learn of only one pair which had nested in one of these same boxes the previous year. 

I am quite sure this is the first record for Tucson, for, in eight seasons’ collecting in Arizona, I stopped at Tucson each year and would hardly overlook a bird so conspicuous. 

The same season (1904), I saw a single pair of the sparrows at Tombstone, Arizona, and Mr. F. C. Willard also saw a pair of the birds at Tombstone, being the first record for that town. 

I do not know of any other records for Arizona though the birds may be common in some of the northern towns.

One would naturally think from the notes gathered that the English sparrows are gradually closing in on southern California and that, before many moons, we can expect to see them in the streets of Los Angeles.

Should this come to pass there will be a good chance for the Cooper Ornithological Club to do some missionary work by taking steps to keep this pest from multiplying. 

The house finch, or linnet, seems to take the place of the English sparrow in this locality and is also considered a pest, but holds no comparison in that regard to the English sparrow. 

I fear the house finches would not last long if the sparrows once got a good start.

Example of Berlin emphasises that urban habitats are precious to birds, bees and other wildlife

                                                    

Plenty of greenery in Berlin - city where nature flourishes (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

NEW research has reiterated the value - widely under-appreciated - of cities as hotspots for nature.

According to a report in the journal, Science, grasshoppers, sand lizards, nightingales and skylarks are thriving in suitable green spaces in Berlin.

The article has been written by American freelance journalist Gabriel Popkin who describes "urban ecology" as a discipline which has revealed the city to be one of the world’s greenest capitals.

He writes: "The relatively modest green spaces found in Berlin and other cities cannot compensate for the destruction of larger habitats, nor stop the extinction crisis that threatens an estimated 1 million species worldwide. 

"But a growing chorus of ecologists and environmentalists says urban habitats have been overlooked for too long to the detriment of many of the plants and animals conservationists are trying to protect."

Of particular note has been the recent discovery by ecologist Anita Grossman that bees often seem to prefer heavily urbanized areas because they thrive in warmth radiating from pavements and buildings - the so-called "urban heat island".

                                         

Anita Grossman - urban bee expert

In a single parched and untended patch of grasses and flowers on the edge of a graveyard in Berlin's Mitte district, she identified no fewer than 19 different wild bee species which seemed happier there than in manicured and chemical-drenched fields and gardens where uncontaminated pollen and nectar is often in short supply.

The article will strike a chord with Britain's David Lindo - the "urban birder" - who has long banged the drum for town and cities as wildlife habitats.

Lindo's theory is in complete contradiction to the prevailing view that buildings, roads and car parks are more likely to displace nature than to help conserve it.

* Popkin's article is published in Science, Vol 378, Issue 6619.

Pioneering urban ecology finds surprising biodiversity in Berlin’s green spaces | Science | AAAS

Woodcock and more - superb bird paintings set to go under hammer at sale in North Yorkshire

                                                            

This enchanting study by Rodger McPhail  of a woodcock in snow is expected to fetch between £1,000 and £1,500 when it goes under the hammer at a sale being conducted tomorrow (Saturday November 12) by Tennants auction house of Leyburn in North Yorkshire. The other paintings - of whooper swans, peregrine falcon and wigeon - by three different artists are expected to sell for more modest sums.  More information at: https://auctions.tennants.co.uk

Ornithology as poetry - American writer's refreshing look at the mystery of birds and the lessons they teach us

 

From kingfishers to frigate birds - intriguing collection of poems 

INTERVIEWED for a recent edition of Time magazine, US poet laureate Ada Limón was asked why several examples in her  latest collection, The Hurting Kind, seemed to be about birdwatching. 

As quoted, her reply had a delightful simplicity: "I've always loved birds. They are not worried about news. They're focusing on this moment. There's a lesson to be learned from that."

Very true, and somehow reassuring in these troubled times.

The Californian's poet's sentiments are reflected in a poem inspired by her brief sight of a brilliantly coloured belted kingfisher scanning a creek for crayfish, tadpoles and minnows.

"People were nothing to that bird hovering over the creek,"she writes. "I was nothing to that bird which wasn't concerned with history's bloody battles."

After further reflection on the "flying fisher" which, by now, has flown off "in a blur", Limón's thoughts turn inwards, and the poem ends on a cryptic but strangely haunting note.

There is a solitude in the world

I cannot pierce. I would die for it.

Another bird that comes under the poet laureate's focus is the magnicent frigade bird whose red neck she likens to "a wound or hidden treasure - or both". 

A strange and disturbing analogy with a startling impact. What can she mean by that? 

From first poem to last, this is a very interesting, illuminating and often challenging  collection of poems - one where imagery, pace, timing of phrases and depth of emotion replace conventional poetic devices such as rhyme, assonance and alliteration. 

                                                                   

Ada Limon: 'There is a solitude in the world'

''

A reviewer for the Los Angeles Times commented: "If you haven't read poetry in a while, this volume might be what you need to reconnect with the form."

Spot on! Not many people read poetry, but, as evidenced by this enchanting book, they perhaps don't know what they'e missing.

The enchanting cover illustration, incidentally, is by the poet's own mother, Stacia Brady.

The Hurting Kind is published at £12.99 by Corsair Poetry, a division of Little Brown. It is available wherever books are sold. 

Jim Wright

Bygone birding: How telephone and power wires claimed lives of countless American shorebirds

                                                                           

The spring 1904 magazine in which the article appeared (image: Biodiversity Heritage Library) 

The following article by artist and ornithologist W. Otto Emerson was published in the March/April 1904 edition of The Condor, bi-monthly magazine of the Cooper Ornithological Club of California. In it, he recounts "the disastrous effect upon birdlife of the numerous telephone, telegraph and electric power wires which are strung along our highways, across lines of migration or favourite paths to feeding grounds". His conclusion is that the collisions result in innumerable shorebirds being killed annually. 

Within the past few years, several instances have come under my observation which seem worthy of record.

The first case was noted September 8, 1898, in connection with the telephone line which, passing over the saltmarshes, joins Haywards with a landing on the bay shore, some four miles west. 

Only two wires are used, which are attached to fourteen foot poles set some twenty feet out in the salicornia to the right of the roadway. 

Beyond this, on both sides of the road, the marshes are cut up for miles into a series of checkerboard ponds for saltwater evaporation purposes. 

In August, September and October these ponds are a mass of glittering white - more or less - as the water has been run off. 

Small shore waders come by the thousands to feed upon the mass of larvae which collect about the edges of the ponds. 

On the date mentioned, I drove over the road for the first time to find what fall migrants had returned. 

On picking up eight or ten dead sandpipers from the road, I was at first unable to make out what had killed them. 

I then noticed a fluttering bird out in the marsh in line of the phone wires, and found it to be a phalarope with a broken wing. 

This revealed the secret. 

I soon observed a flock go by from one pond to another and saw none of them strike the wire on that trip, but later saw several individuals that had fallen from a flock of sandpipers. 

I picked up forty dead birds that lay along the road and about the marsh. 

Some were under the wires while others would be flung off ten or twenty feet by the impact of hitting a wire in rapid flight. 

A little farther, on I found a bird hanging by the wing and another by the neck to the wire. 

Most of those picked up were found to be cut across the front of the head or breast. 

Some were cut into the flesh deeply; a few were beheaded.

I made the next day another trip over the road and found the remains of thirty odd birds, mostly red-necked phalaropes and western sandpipers. 

Quite a number of other sandpiper or tattler species were among those found on my first visit.

As I watched the flocks when they came in from the bay, or flew from one set of ponds to another, it was observed that their line of flight would just be in range to hit either of the two wires. 

Coming with such a zig-zag and rapid flight they were not able to see the two wires in time to dip or rise in order to avoid being caught by the trap. 

If one of the foremost birds of the flock struck the wire and fell, the rest would turn their course somewhat - more from seeing their falling companion, I think, than from being able to distinguish at the speed they were going, the real cause of the disaster.

                                        

William Otto Emerson -  lifelong California resident (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

On my last visit in this direction, on May 11, 1903, I found five red-necked phalaropes in full spring plumage, plus several least sandpipers and western sandpipers. 

Larger birds than these would not be so liable to come in contact with the wires, flying as they do considerably slower and higher in the air.

This destruction of shorebirds goes on night and day the year round. 

I asked some of the saltpond owners if they noticed birds flying against the wires.

They said some mornings after the spring or fall flights, they had seen dozens lying along the road. 

Cats from warehouses and dwellings had learned the convenient larder and had grown fat, while Japanese and Italian workmen imitated the cats.

Mr. F. H. Hollins, of San Jose, mentioned to me some years ago that he had picked up two or three dozen phalaropes one morning (Nov. 1898) along the main thoroughfare, five miles east of the saltmarsh. 

They lay under the wires and he thought they must have been killed during the night flight.

Mr. Clark P. Streater picked up on the main business street of Santa Cruz, California, in September, 1903, a black rail killed by overhead wires.

On June 29, 1903, Prof. F. E. L. Beal and I found one of the oddest tangles into which a bird ever managed to get itself. 

It was a great horned owl, on one of the canyon ranches, and was wound up in a barbed wire fence. 

He was hanging by the wing, wound several times around the wires, so that it was impossible to extricate him. 

The fence had only two wires, and led down a slope into the upper end of a gully or canyon. 

Some of the sandy hill had slid down leaving the wire with several posts swinging free, some six or eight feet in air, for a distance of several hundred yards. 

No doubt the owl, intent upon some prospective midnight lunch, as he flew along down the gulch, came in contact with the top wire. 

This, having caught his fluffy feathers, naturally wound Bubo tight in its barbs. 

The legs were badly cut by the struggle for freedom which was further evidenced by the feathers about the neck. 

He had evidently used his beak as well as feet. 

In this age of barbed wire, there are more ways than one by which an animal may come to an untimely end.

Anti-pigeon measures approved after bank warns "aggressive" birds might prompt branch closure

             

Attack mode? Pigeons are "aggressive" to maintenance staff claims bank

BARCLAYS Bank has been given the planning green light to update the pigeon-deterrent system outside its premises in Victoria Street, Grimsby.

Existing netting will be replaced and spikes installed to prevent the birds from roosting or nesting on the ledges.

In a report, bank's agents Stride Treglown says: "The branch has been subject to an infestation of feral pigeons, roosting on the building’s roof ledges, depositing waste on to the brickwork, stairwell and plant machinery as well as the hard landscaping around the branch. 

"The holes and breaks in the existing netting are also causing birds to be trapped, potentially leading to suffering, injury or death of the animal."

"The waste is unsightly and presents a slip hazard to customers, staff and other pedestrians, and a risk to health and safety. 

"This is particularly of concern on the emergency escape stairs, which if unsafe to use due to bird waste, would impact on the risk assessment of the bank, and cause the bank to close if safe escape routes cannot be maintained."

The report continues: "Similarly birds interfering with the plant at the rear of the branch through waste, nest materials and feather deposits - or by aggressive behaviour toward maintenance staff -  jeopardises the operation of the bank.

"Where bird waste builds up, the parasites and bacteria that thrive on bird waste can migrate into the building and pose a further risk to human health.

"Bird waste is acidic. Continued exposure of the building and plant machinery to the waste can cause corrosion and staining."

The bank's application did not go before North East Lincolnshire Council's planning committee but was determined by case officer Emily Davidson under delegated powers.

In response to comments from a resident that the birds brought personality and cheerfulness to the town centre, she responded: "The application does not seek to harm any animals, nor destroy nests, and there are various other areas which birds can utilise in the area.

She added: "At present there is no policy requirement for planning  applications to include biodiversity gain."                                        

The bank in Victoria Street, Grimsby, is a Listed building 

Number of bird flu cases since start of October 2022 nears 100 according to today's statement from Defra

LATEST confirmed bird flu outbreaks in England have been at poultry premises  near:

* Tattenhall in Cheshire

* Farringdon in Oxfordshire

* Oundle in Northamptonshire  

* Torpoint in Cornwall

These cases - all confirmed this week- bring the number to 98  since 1 October 2022.

There have been 232 cases since the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak started in October 2021 according to a statement released this morning by Defra.

£156,000 grant to help safeguard island-nesting seabirds from brown rats and other 'invasive' species

                                                           

Ground-nestings birds such as puffins are vulnerable to rodents

WHITEHALL  has today announced funding of  £156,000 to help safeguard  England’s island seabird populations against the threat of 'invasive' predators.

Islands such as Coquet Island and the Isles of Scilly are internationally important for millions of seabirds, with the former - off the Northumberland Coast - being the only breeding place in the UK for roseate terns.

However, some key breeding populations are in decline due to multiple threats including invasive mammals such as stoats and mice.

Says Defra: "The eggs and chicks of ground-nesting seabirds including puffins, razorbills, gannets, terns and European storm petrels are particularly vulnerable, and their populations can quickly be decimated by invasive mammals.

"The funding, to be provided from July next year, will ensure existing biosecurity measures across England’s seabird islands are maintained and enhanced so we can continue to protect the recovery and secure the future of important seabirds."

It is hoped that the grant will be sufficient to help fund:

* The employment of a full time biosecurity officer

* A conservation detection dog team that will train dogs to search for and indicate the presence of brown rats

* Information campaigns targeting island visitors

* Training of volunteers to support biosecurity implementation across England’s seabird island Special Protection Areas

* Frequent surveillance checks

Says Minister for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs, Lord Benyon: "British seabirds are part of what make our coastlines so beautiful, and it’s vitally important we continue to do all we can to help them thrive.

Defra will be entrusting much of the initative to RSPB whose seabird recovery officer Laura Bambini comments:"This is important for building resilience in our seabird populations which are in a precarious situation.

Agrees the charity's marine policy officer Kirsten Carter: "Even just a single inadvertently introduced predator can have a devastating effect on an island where the native species have no natural defences."