BIRDFAIR 2016: WHY OUR FARMLAND BIRDS ARE DISAPPEARING

Swallows are among the species hit by loss of cattleyard habitat

THE extent to which arable land  is now under the chemical cosh was underlined by the disturbing talk given by Lincolnshire  farmer Nicholas Watts.

Back in the 1960s when he was at the start of his career, probably just one  spray was applied to crops, but, since then, the agro-chemical industry has, in his words, "got into gear".

Now there are likely  to be as many as 10 applications - three herbicides, two growth regulators, two insecticides and three fungicides.

The crops grown by Nicholas, who is based at Vine House Farm, Deeping St Nicolas, include  wheat, winter barley rape and potatoes, but his output also embraces the likes of sunflower seed which primarily supplies the expanding market for wild bird seed.

He decided to reduce his own dependence on chemicals when he noted substantial decreases in farmland birds on his own fields between 1982 and 1992.

For instance, 30 singing skylarks reduced to14 and singing corn buntings  fell from between eight and 12 to just one.

Because mixed farming is no longer a viable option for most farmers, cattleyards have become a sight of the past in many parts of eastern England - more  bad news for many species of bird which formerly found them an important habitat either for feeding (wagtails and yellowhammers) or nesting (swallows).

Nicholas Watts - We've got to do a lot better

According to Nicholas' reckoning, the decline of swallows has been as much as 90 per cent over the past 50 or so years.

The loss to chemicals of many wildflowers - sometimes deemed to be "weeds" - has hit bees and insects such as butterflies whose caterpillars are plant-specific in their requirements.

The Lincolnshire lamented the loss of spotted flycatchers whose decline he attributed not just to chemicals but also to the surge in car ownership

"There are 30-million of these fly-swatters on our roads,"he said. "No wonder we are losing our flycatchers."

Nicholas was also saddened about the fate of the cuckoo. "Mother used to get fed up with their constant calling,"he recalled. "But in many places, they are  now longer to be heard."

To his immense credit, this Lincolnshire grower is trying to make his own farm as bird-friendly as possible - and his achievements have already been hugely impressive.

There are some 1,000-plus tree sparrows on his fields, and, in 2014, thoughtfully-installed nest boxes resulted in no fewer than 87 barn owls being hatched and reared.

Asked if he was optimistic for the future, he replied: "No, not really - we're not doing very well, are we?

"We've got to do a lot better - it's down to the next generation of farmers."

BIRDFAIR 2016: KENYA, GUATEMALA, CYPRUS, ST LUCIA, BULGARIA AND MORE

EVERY year, more and more places on  the globe seem to be represented at the Birdfair - and 2016 was no exception. Birding holidays are  potentially big moneyspinners. Wildlife  tourism is on the increase.  Here is a photo-selection of some of the stands represented at Rutland Water over the three days.                                          

For   a touch of the exotic, what better option than Kenya?

 

Your're sure of a friendly welcome in Guatemala

Be assured - birding opportunities abound in Bulgaria

The Caribbean offers a cornucopia of colourful species

From orioles to bee-eaters - Cyprus is a great island to see birds

St Lucia - home to sunbirds, hummingbirds and other jewels of the avian world

BIRDFAIR 2016: WHAT FUTURE THE YELLOW-SHOULDERED PARROT?

Campaigner Bibiana Sucre - cautiously optimistic about the future

                                 



IT is impossible not to admire the heroism of individuals who strive to ensure a future for threatened birds - often with few resources and in the face of sometimes violent opposition.

One such is Bibiana Sucre, who is one of a group of campaigners battling on  the Caribbean Margarita Island, 40km north of the Venezuela mainland, to halt the decline of the yellow-shouldered parrot.

Once common, this species'  population has plummeted - largely  because swathes of its dry forest habitat have been lost to sand extraction for the construction industry.

But there is another factor - parrots are popular pets in Venezuela, and many birds are snatched from the nest hen they are chicks.

Some are sold cheaply on local market stalls, but others are thought to be trafficked by dealers for far higher prices to outlets either Europe or the USA.

In an absorbing illustrated presentation, Bibiana praised the vigilance and courage of a team of fieldworkers which has been set up both to monitor numbers and to combat the activities of  poachers who are sometimes armed and dangerous.

During their work, the workers also repair parrot nests which are often damaged by the carelesness of the poachers’ methods.

Meanwhile, villagers are also being encouraged - with token payment - to help restore degraded environment by planting and watering trees once the mineral firms have moved on.

It is a slow process, not helped by the scarcity of water in a country bedevilled by economic and political problems, but  progress is being made.

Where sapling have subsequently gone on to reach maturity, yellow-shouldereds have returned to feed on their seeds.

Bibiana is herself working to change community attituitudes, especially in schools.

Keeping parrots as pets is being discouraged in favour of taking pride in seeing them fly free.

There is even now an annual  parrot festival where youngsters dress up as parrots.

With  precious support from the World Land Trust, the campaign is showing early  signs of success but the road ahead will be long and winding.

A captive-breeding programme may be an option for the future, but only if sufficient resources, knowledge and government backing are forthcoming.

"A  lot of struggles lie ahead, but we have to be positive, resolute and determined,”insists Bibiana.

                  Like this bird, the yellow-shouldered parrot risks being taken from the wild
                                             (Photo: John Backstrand/Flickr/WikimedaCommons)

BIRDFAIR 2016: AN 'OBSESSION' SPARKED BY STORM PETRELS

WHILE working in the ultra-dry state of Arizona, former schoolteacher Dr Martin Kitching found he missed living on the coast.

Now that he's back in the UK, all that has changed -  many of his working hours are spent on the ocean wave off Northumberland where he and colleagues monitor wildlife for  Marine Life.

Originally, the organisation operated from a converted lifeboat which, by the nature of its design, rolled on the waves, sometimes making recording and observing a tricky challenge.

Difficulties were compounded by the suspicions harboured by both commercial fishermen and angling trip operators who are notoriously secretive about where fish are to be found in greatest abundance.

Martin Kitching - he swapped the classroom for the North Sea

But things have taken a decided turn for the better.

Marine Life has replaced the old lifeboat with a catamaran,which is far more stable,
and the other mariners have shed their caution and are now generous about sharing data - at least when it comes to bird, dolphin and whale species.

Martin said it was a matter of “concern” that,  during 2016, minke whales  have been either absent or inconspicuous from this stretch of coast - especially as this year the herrings on which they like to feed have been plentiful.

But generally whales seem to have been faring well, with humpbacks actually increasing - possibly because of international restrictions on whale-hunting, 

Dolphins, including his favourite - the white-beaked - also seem to be holding up well.

Martin sounded an upbeat note on the status  of seabirds including gannets, fulmars, shearwaters and four species of migrating skua.

Very occasionally, phalaropes - both grey and red-necked - are spotted on the water, perhaps in the company of black-headed gulls.

The Marine Life man revealed that his “obsession” with wildlife off the coast started with the storm petrel.

Storm petrels skimming the ocean wave

“They're very hard to see because they are nocturnal and only small - about the size of a blackbird.

“It is thought they spend the day roosting on the surface of the sea."

A feather to cap is his  sighting of a very rare Wilson’s petrel - apparently the first for the North Sea.



* More information at: www.marine-life.org.uk

* Photo of storm petrels: Richard Crossley/ WikimediaCommons

BIRDFAIR 2016: BTO CHIEF'S SPOTLIGHT ON THE CUCKOO

     SO  IMPORTANT TO HAVE 'STORIES THAT RESONATE'

Geolocators are supplying precious data on the migration of cuckoos

 
THE focus fell on the cuckoo when BTO president Dr Andy Clements gave an information-packed talk on migration.

The first ringing recovery of the rapidly-declining species was in 1930 of a bird that turned up in a cooking pot in the Cameroon having been ringed 18 months earlier in Eton, Berkshire.

Ringing recoveries are, of course, few and far between and, though still of value, the technique hardly compares with the latest technology.

Geolocators, sometimes as small as shirt buttons, are now routinely attached to birds such as cuckoos and swifts in order  to track their international travels.

As a result of climate change, many migrants are now arriving a week or two earlier than in the past (three weeks in the case of sand martins).

However, there has been barely any change in arrival times for Cuculus canorus and Apus apus.
 
It seems both species fly north-west to West Africa from their wintering grounds in the Congo, then put their migration on hold until heavy rainfall prompts a burst of insect-hatching activity to provide sustenance in advance of their long flights over the arid sands of the Sahara, thence to Europe.

These rainfall events do not seem to have been affected by climate change - hence, according to some scientists, the continuing constancy of the arrival times of both  species in the UK.

Andy Clements - secrets of migration

 

But is that a meaningful piece of data? Is the interpretation necessarily valid?

Swifts are far faster fliers than cuckoos, so why do they arrive here so much later - two weeks  or more?

Continuing, the BTO boss noted that a typical cuckoo only spends 15 per cent of its time in the UK - compared with 47 per cent in the Congo and 38 per cent in the process of migrating.

Dr Clements said it was important that the BTO’s data was made accessible to both birders and non-birders.

For this reason, cuckoos fitted with geolocators have been given individual names - for instance, one has been named “Chris” after Chris Packham, the broadcaster who is also BTO president.

Maybe, Packham is not the greatest of household names - would Madonna or Rooney  have been better choices?

But the idea is sound enough, and the initiative was sufficient to have garnered some headlines from the BBC and other media outlets.

“It’s really important to have  stories that resonate with the public,” he said.

Dr Clements ended with a reference to a headline to a feature  in The Independent newspaper about how the cuckoo’s springtime  migration was being tracked:

It read: “Now we can see spring coming from 4000 miles away.”

More fascinating  information on cuckoos, other species and the work of the BTO at:www.bto.org 
 
 * Cuckoo photo: Vogelartinfo/Wikimedia Commons

BIRDFAIR 2016: CHRIS PACKHAM * GEORGIA LOCOCK * LORNA FAYE DUNSIRE * MARK SULTANA

           CHRIS PACKHAM: MY DEBT TO PUNK ROCK

BROADCASTER and author Chris Packham  turned adversity to advantage when gremlins in the sound system bedevilled the start of his Saturday-morning presentation in the Events Marquee.

It reminded him of his attendance at a 70s concert by The Clash when, as the  band came on stage, keyboard player Mick Jones  tripped and fell on his face.

"The audience roared with  laughter, but Mick was not best pleased,”recalled Chris (55). “The band responded by leaving the stage, reprising their entrance five minutes later.“

Thereupon, the nation’s favourite wildlife broadcaster  walked off stage - only to return a few moments later when the sound had been sorted.

Birder, broadcaster, author . . and tadpole predator

In recent years, Chris has become part of the furniture of the BBC’s wildlife programming output - for instance, on programmes such as Springwatch which he has been co-presenting with Michaela Strachan (50) - so his reference to a punk rock concert may have come as  something of a surprise.

But he was a punk rocker himself in his teens - not for the safety pins and the spitting in the moshpit but because he saw the movement  as a way of channelling some of his anger  to creative effect.

“We were making our own clothes and music - albeit pretty terrible,”he recalled.

But why, growing up on the leafy outskirts of Southampton,  the sense of angst?

Evidently, he was something of a childhood loner whose interest in birds and wildlife had sometimes strayed into the eccentric - for instance, swallowing up to a dozen tadpoles at a time .

“They were fairly tasteless, but I can still remember the sensation of them wriggling under my tongue,”he recalled.

When he went out, his mum told him to be back by dark, but he got round that by borrowing his father’s torch.

“So it never got dark," he joked.

Occasionally, he would kick a football about with the rest of the lads in the local park on a Sunday, but later they ostracised him.

“They cut me loose,”he said. “I couldn’t understand why. It made me angry.”

This led to bullying at a time when this practice was not scorned in the same way as it is today.

Teachers - even parents - tended to turn a blind eye, and the victims were simply expected to deal with it.

Even now, a slight resentment is apparent, but Chris said his strategy had always been to “keep laughing”

Probably mindful that his career has been more successful than those of most of his tormentors, he continued|: “He or she who laughs last laughs loudest.”

With  a hint of disappointment in his voice, he noted that children who attend wildlife events today tend to be “middle class kids brought along in their parents in a  four-by-four Volvo”.

As a teenager, Chris wrote short stories, none of which has been published (as yet).

He said he has always been put off by the thought of writing about himself because he plainly despises personal vainglory.

He said he saw autobiography as being “for those who either love themselves or are up themselves”.

However, he was persuaded to jot down some of the  formative experiences
of his early years in Fingers in The Sparkle Jar which has sold strongly since its publication earlier this year.

Chris shared the stage (and the billing) with up-and-coming Staffordshire naturalist and wildlife activist Georgia Locock, aged 17, who read extracts from his  book and fired questions at its author.

Georgia Locock - voice and face of the future

One of the topics considered was how childhood (and parenthood) have evolved (not always in a good way) over the past 40 or so years.

Children have less freedom to roam, and adults are sometimes fearful of encouraging young people’s interest in nature  - for instance, by taking them out on field trips - for fear of being accused of “grooming”.

Georgia confirmed that - in  her passion for the welfare of wildlife, particularly badgers - she was possibly regarded as something of an oddball by fellow-students, but she would not let that deter her.

“I’m just going to stick with it,”she insisted.

Earlier in the session, Chris commended former RSPB conservation director Dr Mark Avery for spearheading the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting as part of an initiative aimed at saving the hen harrier from extinction (it is strongly suspected  the raptors are being illegally shot or poisoned by gamekeepers, possibly with the nod-and-wink approval of landowners).

A campaign petition has attracted 115,000-plus signatures - well in excess
of the 100,000 required to prompt a parliamentary debate at some time in the future.

By lending his weight to  the campaign, Chris has incurred the wrath of the shooting fraternity who have accused him of “celebrity bullying”.

The shooters, meanwhile, have found their own celebrity in the former of cricketing legend Sir Ian Botham who has been doing his bit on the airwaves to gun down the Avery-Packham campaign.

Almost 1,000 bird fair visitors, including a few  children, packed into the marquee for the session.

Also part of the event was a much-applauded recital of her poem on the hen harrier  by Lorna Faye Dunsire.

Lorna Faye Dunsire - inspirational poet

The session ended on an upbeat note with a revelation from Mark Sultana of Birdlife Malta that, though a referendum last year approved the continued hunting of migrant birds, a special exception is to be made in the case of the turtle dove - shooting of which will be banned.

Mark Sultana - hope for the turtle dove

Chris praised Maltese birders because their enjoyment of the hobby is constantly undermined  by an awareness that the birds they are watching are liable to be blasted out of the sky before their very eyes.

"Just imagine that,"said Chris. "Thankfully, that’s not an experience shared by birders in this country."

Speaking up for birds  - Chris and friends

The marquee was packed for the absorbing presentation by the quartet of speakers

* Georgia Locock's blog is at: https://georgiaswildlifewatch.com/

* Lorna recites her hen harrier poem in an appropriate moorland setting at:  
youtu.be/Pwy_cfT_w3g

BIRDFAIR 2016: EDWARD MAYER ON SWIFTS * CRAIG ROUND ON CORNCRAKES

HUGE crowds flocked to the three-day 2016 Birdfair at Rutland Water - the 28th in the series. The first two days were hit by showers, but that did not  matter much since most of the action - and interaction - took place  under canvas. Exhibitors, speakers and visitors and came from all parts of the world Below is the first of a series of special reports from the event - billed as “the international wildlife event of the year.  

It doesn’t always pay to arrive early - a soggy start for these visitors as they wait to be checked in

Maybe the organisers might consider easing their no-entrance-before-9am policy to reduce queuing times and save visitors from a potential soaking

Waiting for the starting gun - volunteers at the entrance prepare for the big influx of visitors 

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           'SWIFTS CAN CHEER UP THE DREARIEST STREET'
 

Swift - like a shark in the sky

FIRST speaker of the 2016 birdfair was former  gallery manager for the Tate Gallery,  Edward Mayer, who has now retired in order to dedicate much of his time to speaking and campaigning on behalf of  the Swift Conservation Trust.

Prior to his talk he revealed that, on arrival at Rutland Water, the sight of the queue had  put the wind up him.

He confided: “I was concerned I would not be in time for my 9.30 start, so I slipped through a hole in the fence.”

Infectiously exuberant, Edward described some of the initiatives taking place in the UK, Germany and Switzerland to provide nest box homes on domestic and other buildings such as libraries and colleges.   

Edward Mayer - so many opportunities

The UK swift population is reckoned to be declining by about three per cent a year - partly because there are fewer airborne insects and partly because changing roof construction and repair methods are eliminating what once was nest space for these superb but all-too-short-staying summer visitors.

He told his audience: “There’s not a lot most  of us can do about the population of stone curlews, or even curlews, but the swift is one bird we can certainly help.”

If local councils, housebuilding companies, churches and individual homeowners  started to install nestboxes or swift bricks, then the population decline of  swifts could be slowed or halted.

Edward enthused about how, such is their animation, that swifts overhead can “cheer up even the dreariest street”.

He decried some modern buildings which are applauded for being “green and eco” when in fact they are nothing of the kind.

Citing The Shard in London, he noted that it was useless to birds for  either nesting or perching,  and its reflective windows posed a collision hazard.

Where no birds nest - The Shard in London

"The trouble in this country is the attitude of many towards  wildlife  is like that of the Americans towards native Indians -  best  put on reserves and forgotten about.

He added: “Instead of sitting inside watching ghastly TV, we should get out and enjoy the Nature all around us.”

More information from:
www.swift-conservation.org

* Photo of swift: Jojo/WikimediaCommons
* Photo of The Shard: Colin/ WikimediaCommons

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                           A GOOD YEAR FOR CORNCRAKES

       

Corncrake - doing well in Outer Hebrides

 
CRAIG Round, a professional  birder and guide for the past 20 years, was excellent on the birdlife of the Outer Hebrides - particularly North and South Uist and Benbecula.

Apart from the wildlife, which includes otters, much  of the magic is down to the serene landscape along with the ever-changing nature of the light and the sky.

Craig's illustrated talk sparkled with humour. Displaying an image of two sheep on a road, he joked:“The rush hour traffic can be a bit of a nightmare.“

The Outer Hebrides are a  magnet for migrating birds both on their way north in spring and south in autumn

Species range from wheatear to little stint, sometimes resplendent in breeding plumage.

Purple sandpiper (heading south in late July and August) are a particular feature as (throughout summer) are the sounds and sights of drumming snipe.

Of the predominantly maritime species, skuas - Artic, great, long-tailed and pomarine - are a feature, especially if  large numbers on passage come close to beaches.

“Sometimes you get between 60  and 80 long-taileds in front, behind and overhead,” enthused Craig. “It’s magical.”

Thanks to initiatives by the RSPB and resident crofters, corncrake numberss are increasing - and 2016 has again been a successful breeding year with up to 193 calling males.

This is a secretive species, but sometimes they can briefly be glimpsed running in the open.

“They’re very quick,“ said Craig. “Someone once described them as a cross between a ferret and a ginger rat!”

Despite their sturdy build, they are surprisingly strong and direct when airborne.

“They fly like waders,” continued Craig.

The calling males are famously noisy at night, and there are even tales of islanders throwing shoes through the window to try to shut them up!

The Outer Hebrides are also a good place to see birds of prey including hen harrier, golden eagle and white-tailed sea eagles(dubbed “flying barn doors” because of the 8ft wingspan of the  female).

The occasional snowy owl may turn up in winter.

 * More details about the Outer Hebrides are available at:
www.speysidewildlife.co.uk

* Photo: Rachel Davies/ Flickr/ WikimediaCommons


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