IMPORTANT SURVEY PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHT INTO BIRDLIFE OF THE UK OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

A NEW book on the birds and other wildlife of the UK Overseas Territories has just been published, largely thanks to the endeavours of a former Lincolnshire birder.

Birds of The Overseas Territories  is edited by Roger Riddington who grew up in Alford but later worked as a warden on Fair Isle and now lives in the Shetlands.

He worked on the project during interludes from his main job as editor of British Birds - a post from which will soon be stepping down.

Most of the overseas territories are small islands, or island complexes, occurring from the Caribbean to the furthest reaches of the South Atlantic via the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In terms of global biodiversity, their importance cannot be overestimated.

Their habitats range from coral atolls through mangroves and dry forests to the ice sheets of Antarctica, and they support at least 45 species of birds currently considered to be globally threatened. 

The territories are also home to a third of all the world's breeding albatrosses, and nine of the world's 17 species of penguin.

The various chapters have been written by individual authors, and Roger has linked the contributions in such a way that there is a coherent theme.

Birds of The Overseas Territories is published by T.D. Poyser at £35.

COULD IT BE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE BEAK?

                                                          

Birds of a feather, but which is which? 

It is sometimes said that dog owners come to resemble their pets.

But what about birders? Do they come to look like the birds they watch?

This was a theory that Ron Bendall of Glamorgan decided to investigate.

He invited an artist-pal, Mr S. Hulings, to take his sketchbook along to the meeting of his local cage bird society - and this was the result.

No prizes for working out which of the society members kept budgerigars and which kept canaries.

So next time you attend a mass-twitch, perhaps take a look around you - how many different species can you detect? 

LANCEOLATED WARBLER FOUND (AND SHOT) ON THIS DAY - NOVEMBER 18 - IN 1909

Caton Haigh - killed rare bird with one shot

It was on November 18, 1909, that Lincolnshire ornithologist George Caton Haigh recorded, near Saltfleetby, what was  the first UK mainland example of lanceolated warbler.

He describes the finding thus:  "I first observed the bird in the long grass on the side of one of the marsh drains out of which it ran on to the short grass of the adjoining field. 

"I watched it for a short time as it ran about the ground like a mouse, and I noticed that it kept its tail depressed, and not erected over the back, as is usually the case with the grasshopper warbler when running over open ground. 

"At one time it flew up to a barbed-wire post up which it climbed with the facility of a treecreeper. 

"It soon flew back to the ground, and I shot it just as it reached the long grass again. 

"Unfortunately the bird was much shattered by the shot, and I had great difficulty in making a skin of it. 

"It proved to be a male, and I think adult, and was excessively fat. In appearance this bird is considerably smaller than the grasshopper warbler." 

Caton Haigh, from Grainsby, near Grimsby, is also credited with finding - again on the Lincolnshire Coast - Britain's first  Radde’s warbler (October 1,1898) and Greenish warbler (September 5, 1896).

As was the practice of the day, he shot these birds - and many others - prior to identification.

Many of the skins are stored by the Natural History museum at premises in Tring, Hertfordshire.

The eccentric life of Caton Haigh is described in the ebook, Shotgun Ornithologist: The Birdman of Grainsby Hall, available via Kindle (price £1).

https://amzn.to/3lK8hqC

INTRIGUING NEW BOOK TAKES US INTO THE LIFE OF A MUCH-LOVED BIRD OF THE BRITISH UPLANDS

                                                        

FASCINATING insights about a favourite member of the thrush family are revealed in a new book - The Ring Ouzel, A View from The North York Moors.

Although, within the UK, it is  a somewhat scarce breeding uplands species, it occurs widely on migration in all sorts of habitats, sometimes in unlikely locations such as London parks.

It is the favourite species of broadcaster and author David Lindo, The Urban Birder,  who encounters  it most years on scrubland at  his wilderness patch  near Wormwood Scrubs prison.

It also has a knack of turning up on allotments or in paddocks containing livestock.

The book's authors, Vic Fairbrother and Ken Hutchinson, have been studying the species for the past couple of decades, but they have also pored through countless historic publications to enrich their research.

 Using vivid extracts from field notebooks and profusely illustrated with photographs, as well as delightful paintings and sketches by  Jonathan Pomroy, the reader is transported to the beautiful North York Moors National Park. 

We can share in the excitement as the first ring ouzels of the year return from their winter quarters in North Africa, witness their courtship displays, the establishment of territories and the female ouzel painstakingly building her nest and laying eggs. 

This is followed by the monitoring of the hatching and fledging of chicks.

To hear the song of the ring ouzel carrying for a surprising distance across the high moorland in the early morning is one of the many delights of upland Britain. 

The authors have recorded and analysed both simple and complex songs in their study area and, following comparison with recordings from Scotland, Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales, have confirmed the suspected presence of local dialects.

The contraction in distribution and number of ring ouzels breeding in Britain, the work of the Ring Ouzel Study Group, the introduction of conservation measures and the potential impact of climate change are all described. 

Crucially, attention is also drawn to the first indications of the species' decline in Switzerland.

As a migrant, the ring ouzel faces additional pressures and problems on passage, and there is an important section on the challenges it faces in  in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco where it spends winter.

This milestone publication brings the ring ouzel into sharp focus for the first time.

This highly readable study book is published in softback at £21.95 by Dunbeath-based firm Whittles Publishing, and can be bought or ordered wherever books are sold.

'THEY WOULD FLING THEMSELVES INTO THE SKY ALMOST LIKE A SHUTTLECOCK'

                                                                 

Snow bunting on beach at Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire

Snow buntings are a great favourite with UK birders, but few get the opportunity to see them in their favoured summer habitats in  the Arctic. One who studied them closely while on a trip to Siberia in 1875 was Sheffield steel magnate and ornithologist Henry Seebohm (1832-95). Below is his commentary on the species as published in the first volume of his fascinating book, The Birds of Siberia.

At Mezen we were much interested in watching a large flock of snow buntings. 

Their favourite resort was the steep bank of the river where they found abundance of food in the manure which was thrown away. 

In a country where there is plenty of grass in summer and very little corn is cultivated and where the cattle have to be stall-fed for seven or eight months out of the twelve, manure apparently is of little value, and hundreds of cartloads are annually deposited on the steep banks of the river where it is washed away by the floods caused by the sudden melting of the snow in May. 

The snow buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in the ice on the river where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained their supply of water. 

In both places, the boys of the village had set white horsehair snares and seemed to be very successful in their sport. 

At this time of the year (March), these birds are fat and are excellent eating. 

We were told that, in a fortnight, they would be here in much greater numbers, and would be sold for a rouble the hundred or even less. 

None of the birds we got were in full summer plumage, yet they looked extremely handsome as they ran along the snow like a wagtail or a dotterel or fluttered from place to place with a butterfly-like kind of flight. 

We occasionally saw them hop, but they generally preferred to run. 

The most interesting fact which we observed was that the snow bunting occasionally perches in trees. 

We saw two in the forest, one of which perched in a spruce fir.

When we later watched them  in the streets of Ust-Zylma, we were told that they arrived April 1.

In spite of its abundance, we could not help looking upon it with all the interest attaching to a rare bird. 

The brilliant contrast of the black and white on the plumage of these birds, then rapidly assuming their summer dress, was especially beautiful during flight. 

The flight itself is peculiar, somewhat like that of a butterfly, as if it altered its mind every few seconds as to which direction it would take.

It can scarcely be called an undulating flight. 

The bird certainly does rest its wings every few seconds, but either they are expanded when at rest, or they are rested for so short a time that the plane of flight is not sufficiently altered to warrant its being called undulatory. 

The snow buntings in Ust-Zylma were principally in flocks, but, now and then, we saw a couple of birds together which seemed to have paired, and occasionally, when the sun was hotter than usual, a solitary specimen might be seen perched upon a rail attempting to sing, but we never heard them sing on the wing. 

Unfortunately, we did not get far enough north to meet with these birds at their breeding stations.

In 1874, when the Norwegian ornithologist, Robert Collett, and I were in Norway, we found the snow bunting breeding on the island of Vadso in the Varanger Fjord. 

We were too late for eggs, as this bird is a very early breeder, and the young were already in the nest by the middle of June.

However, we had many opportunities of watching the male birds. 

They would fling themselves up into the air almost like a shuttlecock, singing all the time a low and melodious warble, not unlike that of a shorelark or perhaps still more like that of the Lapland bunting, and they would immediately descend in a spiral curve with wing and tails expanded, and finish their song on a rock. 

Although we only once or twice heard the snow buntings attempting to sing in Ust-Zylma, they were by no means silent birds and were continually calling to each other. 

The call note is a zh, not unlike that of the brambling or greenfinch. 

The alarm-note is a loud tweek.

As they fly together in flocks they merely twitter to each other, not unlike purple sandpipers on the seashore.

                                           

Henry Seebohm - businessman and birder

A BIT OF A FLAP! CONTROVERSY AS DUKE AGREES TO BECOME PATRON OF BIRDING ORGANISATION

                                                                              

THERE has been a backlash to the news that the Duke of Cambridge has agreed to become patron of the BTO in succession to his grandfather, Prince Philip.

Describing the news as "very exciting", the BTO issued the statement below. 

"The patronage reflects the close alignment between two of The Duke of Cambridge’s long-standing areas of interest - supporting communities to protect their natural environment for future generations and helping children and young people to build their skills, confidence and aspirations.

"These are areas where the BTO is doing a growing body of work.

"With the support of His Royal Highness, the BTO wants to deliver the benefits of public participation in science through nature to many people, including those communities that have traditionally been under-represented." 

But despite the "excitement" of the BTO hierarchy, many in the birding community - including its own members - are dismayed.

This is because of the Duke's longstanding enthusiasm for  shooting grouse and other gamebirds - in keeping with a longstanding Royal tradition.

By close of play today, the BTO's Facebook page had received more than 350 complaints such as these below. 

Kate Willis: "Another grouse shooter that kills for fun and takes his young son along to watch." 

Shona Magill: "OMG Has the BTO lost the plot?"

Stuart Foster: " I can't think anyone less fitting for this. He takes his son shooting for goodness sake!"

Honor Wheeler: "I was considering joining this organisation, but, alas, with royals as patrons, I'm no longer interested."

Stuart Keen: "Oh dear, the BTO have just put a serious dent in their credibility."

Sid Durruti: "I've donated to the BTO over the years. No more."

Andrew Huyton: "I think I'll be cancelling my membership unless HRH denounces grouse shooting at the very least."

Brett Skerry: "Like making Mr Fox patron of chickens."

The BTO has not responded to the protests.

Before the brouhaha erupted, its chief executive Dr Andy Clements, said: "I am delighted that The Duke of Cambridge has become our patron, following on from his grandfather who worked so tirelessly on our behalf. 

"We hope that we will be able to support the Duke's strong interest in protecting the environment through our evidence-based work around environmental issues in the UK."

COUNCIL KEEN TO MAKE WETLAND RESERVE MORE ATTRACTIVE TO WADERS AND WILDFOWL

Target species for Cress Marsh include spoonbill and lapwing

A BUSY winter is ahead at Cress Marsh - the  bird reserve near Grimsby created by North East Lincolnshire Council to provide a home for  waders and wildfowl likely to be displaced by future industrial development in the area.

NELC and its regeneration partner, Engie, are keen to make the site, at Stallingborough,  more attractive  to birds such as Spoonbills, Little Egrets, Cormorants, Redshank, Golden Plover, Curlew and Lapwing. 

To this end, tall vegetation is being  cleared in order to enhance the habitat.

Says NELC's ecology technician, Siân Niblo: “Predators can hide in tall grass, and the birds prefer wide open space for roosting, so we have all been pitching in to clear vegetation  from the lagoon at the centre of the site. 

"This has to be done by hand and is no easy task, but it is important to make the ground more appealing for our feathering guests.” 

Sian is currently compiling a log of birds that have been recorded at the site, and, to date, she has 111 different species on her list.

The birds share Cress Marsh with butterflies, dragonflies, deer, foxes  and a herd of cattle which will be there until next month.

Meanwhile, the reserve - known as a mitigation site - has been shortlisted for a national award,  the Innovation in Property and Asset Management category of the local government achievement awards.

the site  was developed after consultation with Natural England, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, the Humber Nature Partnership, the Environment Agency and landowners.

The chief feature is a large central lagoon, which feeds seven more water-filled ‘cells’ via pipework infrastructure.                                  

Rosebay willow herb and other invasive plants are being removed by hand

                                               

The bird hide that overlooks the main lagoon

                                          

Cress Marsh is open to birds - but not to the public

The main lagoon - not too many birds so far but the council hopes to make it more bird-attractive

The Wryneck says: Cress Marsh was an excellent initiative, but ornithologists monitoring the site have been underwhelmed by both the quantity and variety of species recorded. Benchmarked against the RSPB's Frampton Marsh reserve, near Boston, Cress Marsh performs poorly. One factor could be the overhead power cables which pose an obvious collision threat to birds, particularly after dark. It seems an odd oversight that this issue seems to have been disregarded by the various wildlife organisations which were consulted during the planning stage.