There's no bigger fan of the hoopoe - 'messenger and leader of birds' - than Baroness Miller of Chilton Domer

 

Hoopoe - 'wiser than King Solomon'

It is many happy returns of January 1 to Baroness Miller of Chilton Domer. She is someone who can always be relied on to speak up for birds and wildlife in the House of Lords. Aged 70 on Monday, Susan Miller has enjoyed a career in publishing and local government, serving, between 1987 and 2005,  on Somerset County Council and also on South  Somerset District Council for which she had a spell as its Liberal Democrat leader. She was made a Life Peer on July 28, 1998. When not active in parliament, she and her second husband, Humphrey Temperley, work on the family vineyard. Below is is her contribution to a debate on  international biodiversity which was held in the Lords on November 4, 2019.

Many noble Lords will be aware of a bird called the hoopoe. 

It has existed not only in its own right but in myth and legend for thousands of years. 

It appears in the Bible and earned its showy crest by being wiser than King Solomon: it had a part to play in his relationship with the Queen of Sheba. 

It appears in the Koran, and is particularly celebrated in the Conference of the Birds which is an amazing poem in Persian literature: the hoopoe is the messenger of the birds and their leader as they go on a long journey. 

It is a messenger again today, because it is a migratory bird, and its increasing appearances in southern England talk to us of climate change. Today, I shall talk particularly about migratory birds.

Many of our best-known summer birds are migrants. There is the cuckoo, whose calls mark the start of spring. There are swallows -your Lordships will know the well-known phrase that one does not make a summer - flycatchers and all sorts of summer visitors. 

Then we move into autumn, when other species take over: fieldfares, waxwings and so on.

Baroness Miller - student of bird migration

All those migrants have in common the need for safe passage during often very long migrations, feeding grounds on their long flights and the habitat for them when they reach their destination. 

Of course, there are threats from hunting. 

Some EU countries, such as Malta and Cyprus, are still not playing their part in this. 

Does the Minister know whether Cyprus has continued to improve since UK military bases there made a real effort to address the carnage from netting and shooting birds? 

In July, the EU Commission issued France and Spain with a notice that they are in breach of efforts to protect the turtle dove, which we virtually never hear in England now, from extinction. 

Far too much hunting is seen as tradition and tied in with patrimony.

However, the main threat to migrating birds is habitat loss: wetlands drained and turned into farmland, an expanding Sahara due to climate change and loss of food as powerful insecticides wipe out insects. 

Neonicotinoids may be banned in some countries but you can bet your bottom dollar that the manufacturers will be busy finding new markets for them.

The interplay of aid money, tackling climate change, restoring biodiversity and strengthening, not weakening, local communities is very sensitive. 

In October this year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations made an agreement with the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, which will lead into COP 15.

In particular, it is increasing funding that will boost countries’ efforts to bring about sustainable changes in agricultural policies and practices, to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and natural resources. 

The programme will address some of the most unsustainable practices in agriculture, such as the use of highly hazardous pesticides, and scale up ecosystem-based approaches that favour natural pest control and protect pollinators. 

Finally, I mention the environmental activists who are killed or imprisoned for defending habitats and challenging pollution. We often read about them in the newspapers, in places such as Brazil.

 This week, in a letter to me, Amnesty International highlighted the case of the activists who have challenged the lack of a clean-up and compensation for a chemical spill in Vietnam that wiped out 6,000 acres of coral reef, meaning that thousands of local fishermen lost their livelihoods. 

It especially highlights the case of Tran Thi Nga, a mother of two boys. 

She protested about the pollution and spoke up for fishing families.

As a result, she is currently serving nine years in jail. That is the price for speaking out against pollution. 

Will the Minister undertake to press the Vietnamese Government to recognise that this is a totally inappropriate response to pollution and to release this brave woman?

Studies of redwings, seabirds and red grouse set to go under hammer at New Year auction in Yorkshire

Keulemans' study of redwings on a winter's day

A STUDY of two redwings by  foremost Dutch bird illustrator Johannnes Keulemans (1842-1912) is expected to fetch between £200 and £300 when it comes up for auction on January 13.

Also in the sale to be conducted by Tennants of Leyburn in Yorkshire are other notable works of bird art.

They include an impressive water colour by Peter Alliss (born 1944) of red grouse in flight over a misty moorland and an ink-and-water colour depiction by Richard Talbot Kelly (1896-1971) of common terns and a kittiwake.

The pre-sale estimate is that these two paintings will also sell for between £200 and £300.

Grouse on a misty morning

Terns and a kittiwake

RSPB takes heart from improved breeding of corncrakes and Lundy's seabirds - but is nature really 'on the mend'?

 

It is always good to see  the positives but maybe the RSPB is overly-optimistic if it thinks nature in 'on the mend' - not when populations of so many bird species remain in precipitous decline. This report in today's edition of The Daily Telegraph is largely based on successful reintroduction initiatives with two mammal species, beaver and water vole, and improved breeding of corncrakes in Scotland and of seabirds (notably puffins and Manx shearwaters) on the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel.  

Bygone birding: 'destruction of rare and beautiful birds is almost as rife ever' says Times correspondent

                                                                  

Grey phalarope - target of hunters

Extract from The Times newspaper (September 9, 1901)

 

Mr. Joseph Collinson writes: "The destruction of rare and beautiful birds for specimens, if we are to judge from the provincial newspapers, is almost as rife as ever.

"The latest list of victims taken by the British bird hunter includes the spoonbill, stork, grey phalarope, snowy owl, honey buzzard, Montagu's harrier, two glossy ibis and innumerable waxwings, hoopoes and bitterns, not to mention several birds which, though not so rare, are rapidly becoming scarcer year by year. 

"It is idle to appeal to the humane sentiment of the bird vandal; the collecting of British-killed ‘specimens’ is his special calling, and he studies the Acts relating to the subject solely with a view to escape detection and punishment. 

"So far as the birds I have named are concerned, the existing law is nothing more than a farce as they can be shot down with impunity almost in every part of the country by anyone with a gun. 

"Is not this ridiculous? 

"Owing to the omission of many migratory species from the statutory orders and the incompetent and slovenly way in which the laws are carried out by the administrative bodies, those Acts are only effective in those cases where they are least needed. 

"Professor Howes, in a recent speech, expressed his opinion that the present unsatisfactory state of affairs is largely due to the apathy of the local bodies? 

"No doubt the county councils could do a great deal more for the protection of rare birds, but what is really wanted is a Bill to consolidate and amend the law." 

Bygone birding: the shooting (in December 1866) of a solitary waxwing on a bank of the River Medway in Kent

                                       

Letter published in the Morning Herald (London) - Thursday January 3, 1867

Bohemian waxwings

Sir - 

I see in your columns this morning a notice of a flock of Bohemian waxwings having visited Scotland, and some specimens shot. 

Now, according to all authorities I find these birds are of a gregarious nature, and never seen except in flocks. 

The bombycylla garrula cannot properly be called an English bird, although it has been seen at rare intervals on our shores, especially in very severe weather. 

My object in writing this is to state that on the 3rd December last, while watching out for snipe in the marshland on the right bank of the river Medway, near Rochester, I shot an extraordinarily fine specimen of the above bird which was quite alone, the only one near the spot.

Knowing the gregarious nature of it, I at once endeavoured to find the flock to which it belonged but without success, and I have no doubt but that this bird was quite alone. 

I find no instance in all the natural histories I have searched of such a fact as the above, all the specimens ever taken being found in a flock.

I have had the bird stuffed, and have shown it to several naturalists who admit it to be the finest specimen they ever saw.

It has one peculiarity which I do not find mentioned in any of the descriptions of this bird, that is, that the under feathers of the tail are of a bright tawny brown.

Having seen all the specimens in the British Museum I can state with confidence that my bird is much superior both in size and plumage to any there. 

The rarity of this bird and the peculiar circumstances under which it was shot induce me to write this, which I feel sure will prove interesting to all ornithologists, and which by its insertion will much oblige your obedient servant.

G.R.

Denmark Hill

South London.

January 2

 P.S - I enclose my card.

Great spotted woodpecker's surprise comeback in Ireland has 'sparked' problems for electricity chiefs

 

Great spotted woodpecker - enjoying life once more in Ireland

A POPULATION  increase of great spotted woodpeckers is proving a headache for Ireland's state-owned electricity operator, ESB.

Holes the birds have drummed into wooden pylons have been affected by rot, leading to power outages during periods when the poles need to be replaced.

The birds went extinct in Ireland the 17th or 18th Century when their favoured woodland habitats were felled to make way for farms.

But since the turn of the century, the species has returned as the result of some birds crossing the sea either from mainland Britain or Scandinavia or both.

Their arrival  caused surprise in the ornithological world because, with their weak undulating flight, woodpeckers are notoriously reluctant to cross the sea.

It is thought that there may now be as many as 100 pairs scattered across Ireland.

According to reports in the Irish media, the birds' pole-drumming activities are proving particularly problematical  in the counties of Kerry and Mayo and in Leinster.

Where is the best European city in which to hear nightingales? It's not the one you might think

City of song - up to 5,000 nightingales spend summer in or around Moscow 

BERLIN is often reckoned to be the best European city to catch up with singing nightingales - but is this true?

Not according to author Yessengali Raushanov who, shortly before his death, in 2021, came up with a robust competitor - Moscow.

In his fascinating book, The Birds Are Our Friends, he writes: "It was May 22.

"On this evening, Muscovites started pouring towards the suburb, parks, squares and woods. They wanted to listen to the nightingale's song.

"Up to 5,000 nightingales are currently registered in Russia's capital city and its adjacent territories.

"People call the last days of May 'nightingale evenings'.

"All the newspapers, magazines, radio and TV announce the nightingale's arrival as an important event and invite everyone to listen to its song.

"Organisations consider this moment a significant cultural event: they allocate special vehicles to transport staff and appoint security guards. It is a good tradition to uphold." 

This fascinating insight from Raushanov is one of many which pull back the curtain on birdlife in Russia and other parts of central and eastern Europe.

The author achieves does this not just through straightforward ornithological narrative but also through his exploration of the place of birds in legend, religion and superstition as captured in poetry and art.

For instance, the discredited belief that swallows hibernate for winter in the bottom of ponds is held dear in some parts of western Ukraine.

Indeed, some swear that, when the water freezes over, if you put your ear to the ice, you can hear the birds twittering underneath.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to scoff!

The author, who writes from a Muslim (and sometimes anti-Christian) perspective, includes in his book a reminder of what a former Bishop of Hereford once pronounced from the pulpit:

"Ladies and Gentleman, the time has come to put an end to all disputes about birds.

"It is nonsense that birds turn into  insects with the onset of  cold weather as well as that they hibernate under the mud of ponds.

"It seems God honoured us to tell you the truth.

"In fact, birds migrate to the moon for the winter. 

"The Lord has given wings to birds. And those that have wings can fly.

"This conversation is over. Stop arguing with each other and await the birds' arrival from the moon in spring."

Whether the Bishop's congregation believed him is not recorded.

Books by authors with foreign names tend not to sell well in Britain, but this title is worthy of the largest possible readership because it sheds so much light on the birding scene, both past and present, in a part of the world with which most of us are unfamiliar.

There are some notable errors - for instance, the chapter on swifts is illustrated with images of swallows - and the translation is sometimes a little wooden. But such is the author's enthusiasm and the quality of his content that any shortcomings are readily overlooked.

In fact, they are almost strengths because they somehow generate a refreshing authenticity.

Only 64 when he died, Raushanov was obviously a remarkable man. 

A native of Kazakhstan, he combined birding with writing poetry and plays. He even managed to translate Shakespeare's Hamlet into Kazakh!

The Birds Are Our Friends which is exquisitely illustrated throughout, must be one of the most refreshingly original books of recent years.

It is published in paperback (£18.99) by entrepreneurial Scottish company Whittles Publishing. www.whittlespublishing.com. 

                                           

        Plenty of birders in central Europe -  but they do things differently

Moscow - summer singing habitat of nightingales (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

                                   

What price am I bid for a White's thrush? The hammer fell at £140 in saleroom of Yorkshire auction house

Plenty of interest in this White's thrush at the auction 

BIRDERS  may have bid  up the hammer price of a White's thrush when it came up for grabs at a taxidermy  auction in Yorkshire.

The bird, a rarity in Britain, was only expected to realise between £70 and £90, but the price reached £140 - still not expensive - before the hammer fell.

Similarly, two snow buntings in a case sold for £500 against a pre-sale estimate of £150-£200.

Another good seller was a cased bullfinch where the hammer fell at £600 - well above the guide price of £150-£200.

Meanwhile, a beautifully-created cameo featuring a female sparrowhawk swooping on three chaffinches fetched £1,300 against a pre-sale estimate of £500-£700.

That said, the performance of the birds offered in the sale, conducted by Tennants online and at its saleroom in Leyburn, was patchy.

Many of the avian lots - including a hen harrier and a little stint with Temminck's stint had to be withdrawn from the sale after failing to meet their reserve price.

                                    

No buyer for these sad-looking stints

On the plus side, a hoopoe sold for £300 which was midway between the estimate of £250 and £350.

                                             

Hoopoe - £300 bird

It is likely that unsold lots  may be offered either privately for sale post-auction or they may be entered in Tennants next taxidermy sale on April 17.

                                           

Hen harrier - failed to meet reserve price

                                                 

Bullfinch - hammer price was £600

The moment every chaffinch dreads - the swoop of a sparrowhawk 

                                                  

Suppose, just suppose, there was a bird called the Hitler Warbler - would its name need to be be changed?

Bewick's wren - named in honour of  Thomas Bewick though he had no association with the bird and may never have seen one (photo: Minette Lane/Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons)

CONTROVERSY  continues to rage over the decree by the American Ornithological Society that - within its geographical areas of jurisdiction - all bird species named after people should be changed.

Most of the conflict has understandably been in the U.S, but it fizzed anew this week when frontline  British naturalist David Lindo - the Urban Birder - made the subject the focus of one of his popular live webinars.

His  guest was high-profile American ornithologist  Kenn Kaufman  who revealed that, having initially opposed the name-change initiative, he had  now come round to supporting it.

It was back in October that the AOS delivered its edict on the grounds that some birds were named after white supremacists and slavery supporters, thereby giving potential offence to current and future birders.

But opponents countered that it was futile to try to ‘adjust' history and that wholesale dropping of names would be unfair to those individuals whose reputations are untainted by accusations of racism.

Kaufman  (69) noted that, in the U.S., younger and non-white birders had overwhelmingly welcomed the AOS decree.

He went on to claim that the father of American ornithology, John James Audubon, had sometimes named new birds after individuals because he believed it might help him to secure influence that could, in time, prove personally beneficial.

"In effect, he was sucking up to them," he observed. 

Kenn Kaufman - supportive of name changes

Kaufman scoffed at the name of the Swainson's Thrush because it was now acknowledged that William Swainson's writings about the thrush family had been muddled and unhelpful.

He also derided the naming of the Bewick's Wren, noting that the British birdman and wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, had not the slightest association with the species.

Support for Kaufman's  position during the webinar came from British birder and Fleet Street journalist Stuart Winter who argued that naming of birds after ornithologists of yesteryear  was reflective of white male domination of birding.

The time had come to modernise and to consider more determinedly how best to attract the birders of the future.

Bo Beolens, columnist for Bird Watching magazine,  disagreed, claiming  that 90 per cent of birders neither knew nor cared why birds were named after individuals.

Most dramatic intervention of the webinar came from American birder-photographer Rachel Hopper who said that, as a person of Jewish descent, she would be horrified if there had been such a bird as a Hitler's Warbler.

But she insisted that there was no justification for wholesale renaming of all birds named after people.

Ms Hopper was  also critical of the AOS for making its stand without having first sounded out he opinions of the wider membership.

However, it looks as if the decision has now been made.

Now comes the tricky challenge of finding vibrant and descriptive new names for birds ranging from Leach's Storm Petrel to Wilson's Phalarope.

Whether there will be similar moves in the UK to change the names of birds such as Blyth's Reed Warbler remains to be seen. 

Below are the 151 bird species set for a name change, at least in America:

1	Ross's Goose
2	Steller's Eider
3	Stejneger's Scoter
4	Barrow's Goldeneye
5	Gambel's Quail
6	Erckel's Francolin
7	Elliot's Pheasant
8	Lady Amherst's Pheasant
9	Clark's Grebe
10	Vaux's Swift
11	Chapman's Swift
12	Sick's Swift
13	Rivoli's Hummingbird
14	Anna's Hummingbird
15	Costa's Hummingbird
16	Allen's Hummingbird
17	Canivet's Emerald
18	Brace's Emerald
19	Humboldt's Sapphire
20	Xantus's Hummingbird
21	Ridgway's Rail
22	Wilson's Plover
23	Temminck's Stint
24	Baird's Sandpiper
25	Wilson's Snipe
26	Wilson's Phalarope
27	Kittlitz's Murrelet
28	Scripps Murrelet
29	Craveri's Murrelet
30	Cassin's Auklet
31	Sabine's Gull
32	Bonaparte's Gull
33	Ross's Gull
34	Franklin's Gull
35	Pallas's Gull
36	Belcher's Gull
37	Heermann's Gull
38	Forster's Tern
39	Salvin's Albatross
40	Willson's Storm-Petrel
41	Elliot's Storm-Petrel
42	Leach's Storm-Petrel
43	Townsend's Storm-Petrel
44	Ainley's Storm-Petrel
45	Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel
46	Markham's Storm-Petrel
47	Tristram's Storm-Petrel
48	Murphy's Petrel
49	Zino's Petrel
50	Fea's Petrel
51	Cook's Petrel
52	Stejneger's Petrel
54	Bulwer's Petrel
55	Jouanin's Petrel
56	Parkinson's Petrel
57	Cory's Shearwater
58	Buller's Shearwater
59	Newell's Shearwater
60	Bryan's Shearwater
61	Audubon's Shearwater
62	Brandt's Cormorant
63	Cooper's Hawk
64	Gundlach's Hawk
65	Steller's Sea-Eagle
66	Harris's Hawk
67	Ridgway's Hawk
68	Swainson's Hawk
69	Baird's Trogon
70	Lesson's Motmot
71	Williamson's Sapsucker
72	Lewis's Woodpecker
73	Hoffmann's Woodpecker
74	Nuttall's Woodpecker
75	Strickland's Woodpecker
76	Fernandina's Flicker
77	Zeledon's Antbird
78	Euler's Flycatcher
79	Hammond's Flycatcher
80	Say's Phoebe
81	Nutting's Flycatcher
82	La Sagra's Flycatcher
83	Couch's Kingbird
84	Cassin's Kingbird
85	Bell's Vireo
86	Hutton's Vireo
87	Cassin's Vireo
88	Steller's Jay
89	Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
90	Clark's Nutcracker
91	Blyth's Reed Warbler
92	Pallas's Grasshopper-Warbler
93	Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler
94	Pallas's Leaf-Warbler
95	Swinhoe's White-eye
96	Sumichrast's Wren
97	Nava's Wren
98	Bewick's Wren
99	Boucard's Wren
100	Cabani's Wren
101	Bendire's Thrasher
102	LeConte's Thrasher
103	Townsend's Solitaire
104	White's Thrush
105	Bicknell's Thrush
106	Swainson's Thrush
107	Bishop's Oo
108	Sprague's Pipit
109	Pallas's Rosefinch
110	Cassin's Finch
111	Lawrence's Goldfinch
112	Smith's Longspur
113	McKay's Bunting
114	Pallas's Bunting
115	Botteri's Sparrow
116	Cassin's Sparrow
117	Bachman's Sparrow
118	Brewer's Sparrow
119	Worthen's Sparrow
120	Baird's Junco
121	Harris's Sparrow
122	Bell's Sparrow
123	Nelson's Sparrow
124	Baird's Sparrow
125	LeConte's Sparrow
126	Henslow's Sparrow
127	Lincoln's Sparrow
128	Abert's Towhee
129	Cabani's Ground-Sparrow
130	Bullock's Oriole
131	Audubon's Oriole
132	Scott's Oriole
133	Brewer's Blackbird
134	Bachman's Warbler
135	Swainson's Warbler
136	Lucy's Warbler
137	Virginia's Warbler
138	Semper's Warbler
139	MacGillivray's Warbler
140	Belding's Yellowthroat
141	Kirtland's Warbler
142	Adelaide's Warbler
143	Grace's Warbler
144	Townsend's Warbler
145	Wilson's Warbler
146	Carmiol's Tanager
147	Lesson's Seedeater
148	Morelet's Seedeater
149	Blackburnian Warbler
150	Zenaida Dove
151	Montezuma Quail

* Also in prospect for a name change is the Eskimo Curlew because 'Eskimo' is now widely regarded as derogatory to indigenous tribes.

* * The Urban Birder webinar, with Kenn Kaufman as guest, is  featured  on YouTube.

In Conservation With… Kenn Kaufman (youtube.com)