FUTURE FOR VULTURES LOOKS BLEAK AS THREATS CONTINUE TO CIRCLE

                                           

THIS report in today's edition of The Daily Telegraph chimes with a presentation made by  Vanessa Amaral-Rogers of the RSPB at Global Birdfair.

She revealed that, despite a ban, Asian countries (Nepal excluded) are turning a blind eye to the use of a chemical noxious to vultures in order to treat sick livestock.

She said the RSPB has been carrying out 'covert' checks at pharmacies to establish the extent of the lawbreaking.

The hope is that evidence might persuade authorities to take a tougher line on lawbreaking.

Elswehere, the charity has a team of some 60 scientists working around the world on various projects.

At any one time, it is also has up to 20 reseach students working on their PhD or Masters degrees, plus a team of support staff.

Within the UK, a particular focus has been the environmental of a seed-treating insecticide chemical, Clothiavidin.

According to Ms Amaral-Rogers, one project revealed that traces of it had been found in 51 percent of songbirds and 81 per cent of game birds.

                                          

Vanessa Amaral-Rogers - RSPB science communications executive 

THE UK'S LATEST BIRDWATCHING HOTSPOT? LINCOLNSHIRE STAKES ITS CLAIM

                                         

THE flag has been flying for Lincolnshire at this weekend's  three-day Global Birdfair being held at the Rutland county showground near Oakham.

Although the Lincolnshire Coast does not boast breeding populations of iconic species such as puffins, gannets or choughs, its beaches, mudflats and saltmarsh are a magnet for huge numbers of birds, especially waders, in autumn and winter.

This has prompted the Lincolnshire Bird Club and VisitLincolnshire.com to pool resources on a new tourism initiative.

  

The Lincolnshire Coastal Bird Trail was officially launched on Friday at Global Birdfair.

The following day, LBC chairman Phil Espin gave an illustrated talk both  about the trail and the county's rich birdlife past and present.

Locations on the coastal trail are:

* Alkborough Flats

* Cleethorpes Seafront

* Donna Nook

* Coastal Country Park

* Gibraltar Point

* Freiston Shore

* Frampton Marsh

The new tourism initiative is supported by heavyweight conservation organisations such as Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England.

                                               

Phil Espin - putting Lincolnshire on the birdwatching map 

The trail can be explored online at:

www.visitlincolnshire.com/birdwatching 

 * Keep checking The Wryneck for further exclusive reports from Global Birdfair

SHOULD THERE BE AN OLYMPIC GAMES FOR PUFFINS?

 

From The Sun newspaper (July 16, 2022)

BYGONE BIRDING: 'GROUSE-SHOOTERS ARE FEW WHILE NATURE-LOVERS ARE MANY AND INCREASING'

                                                   

Buzzard - 'soaring flight is picturesque addition to the scenery'

Report from the Ealing Gazette & West Middlesex Observer of March 11, 1922 

On behalf of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sir Montagu Sharpe, chairman, and Mr Frank Lemon, honorary secretary, have addressed the following letter to The Times:

"The attention of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has repeatedly been drawn to an account in The Field of December 10 of last year's activities of the Argyllshire Vermin Club. 

"Whilst appreciating the necessity of keeping down the numbers of predatory beasts and birds in the interest of creatures necessary for the support of man, we fear that such wholesale destruction as that described may have disastrous effect on the avifauna of the British Isles.

"It is the killing of 160 buzzards and 475 hawks which arouse our anxiety.

"We cannot help suspecting that there are species which it has been the persistent endeavour during the past half-century of naturalists and ornithologists to protect. 

"We also fear that in order to have accomplished so much, the killing may to some extent have been done by pole-traps and poison, the use of both being illegal. 

"In addition to their illegality, the use of such instruments is to be deplored, both on account of the cruel sufferings which they inflict on their victims and because of their indiscriminate action. 

"We earnestly hope that the executive officers of the vermin clubs of Scotland will see their way to draw up and enforce strict rules which will effectually prevent indiscriminate slaughter and which will forbid the killing of interesting and rare birds.

"These include white-tailed and golden eagles (the former well-nigh extinct in Great Britain), harriers, kestrels and merlins, as well as buzzards which are useful and innocuous and whose soaring flight is a most picturesque addition to the scenery and one which gives immense pleasure to nature-lovers.

"If we may be allowed to say som, the sight of native avifauna on its own ground is of greater value than is the rigid preservation of grouse because, whilst grouse shooters are few, nature lovers are many - and their numbers are increasingly the wide world over." 

SEVEN-HOUR TWITCH: CRICKET GROUND, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire quickie Shannon Gabriel bowls to Surrey's Hamish Amla

Situation: Third day of four, Yorkshire CCC v Surrey CCC

Date: July 13, 2022

Time: 11am - 6pm

Weather: Sunny and hot

Target species: Red kite (perhaps one might pass overhead)

Star species seen: Swift

Other species seen: Herring gull, pied wagtail, feral pigeon

Amla cuts a disconsolate figure after being dismissed (caught at second slip) for 79 in Surrey's first innings

60-MINUTE TWITCH: SOUTH CLIFF GARDENS AND SOUTH BAY, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE

Scarborough - Queen of the Yorkshire Riviera

Date: July 12, 2002

Time: 2.30-3.30 pm 

Weather Overcast, humid, very warm

Target species: Spotted flycatcher

Star species: Stonechat

Other species recorded: Herring gull, woodpigeon, blackbird, song thrush, stock dove, rock dove, carrion crow, goldfinch, great tit, blue tit, robin, wren, swallow, dunnock, house sparrow, chiffchaff, whitethroat, rabbit, grey squirrel.

Stonechat from afar

                                                 

Woodpigeon

Juvenile robin

South Cliff Gardens - home to multiple trees and shrubs

Plenty of habitat for songbirds . . 

. . and also some cliffy terrain

                                                            

BYGONE BIRDING (1906): UNHAPPY FATE OF ESKIMO CURLEW CAPTURED AT SEA

 

This study of the Eskimo curlew is by acclaimed Scottish artist Archibald Thorburn

The Eskimo curlew was once one of the most numerous shorebirds in tundra habitats of western Arctic Canada and Alaska. But persecution - notably shooting - resulted in its population plummeting in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Since then, there has not been a reliable sighting since 1987, nor a confirmed sighting since 1963. The species is thus now assumed to be extinct. Below is an extract from The Auk (October 1906), an American ornithological journal, of an unusual record of a bird coming board a ship.

An Eskimo curlew captured at sea

It may be of interest to note that when the SS Baltic was about half way between Ireland and Newfoundland, on May 26, 1906, an Eskimo curlew came on board between 2pm and 3pm.

It gave evidence, which was noticed by at least one other passenger, of having eaten within a few hours. 

Being evidently fatigued, it was finally caught by one of the steerage passengers, and confined to a cage roughly made from a soap box. 

It was fed on chopped beef and chicken and ate heartily, but died a short time before we reached the Sandy Hook lightship - possibly from too much food and too little exercise.

This curlew finds its way to the British Isles with sufficient frequency to be mentioned in the English handbooks as an occasional visitor. 

Robert Barbour

Montclair

New Jersey