Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men
and a regular segmenton On The Track... about
out-of-place birds, rare vagrants, and basically all
things feathery and Fortean.
Because we live in strange times, there are more and
more bird stories that come her way, so she has now moved
onto the main CFZ bloggo with a new column with
the same name as her aforementioned ones...
Leks have a look at black grouse numbers rise inWales
Welsh black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) numbers are on therise. However, this increase is only tobe found on those areas managed by the RSBP. The black grouse is one of the UK’s most endangered birds, once a commonsight on grass and moorland all over the country. Their numbers fell dramatically, there being25,000 breeding pairs in 1970 and just 5,000 by 2005, presumably due to theencroachment of housing into the countryside and more intensive farmingmethods. But in Wales the bird’spopulation may have trebled over the last 15 years.
Picture: RSPB
RSPB Cymru's head of biodiversity Stephen Bladwell said: "Thebreeding season is between mid-March and mid-May.
"During those times the male birds put on elaborate courting ritualscalled leks, where they puff out their throats and tails, make distinctivecalls and dance to attract females."
"That obviously makes them much easier to count. Whilst the hensusually remain camouflaged, we can count the cocks, and estimate the overallpopulation from that."
"We've been successful in working with farmers and other agenciesto help create the sort of environments where they thrive - moorland wildernessareas with supplies of their favourite foods, fresh heather shoots and varioussmall berries."
"We've also had a couple of dry Junes, which is essential inhelping to reduce chick mortality and introduce new blood into the followingyear's breeding pool."
But he warned that the black grouse is still far from safe.
In Scotland the black grouse population has also rallied, with someexperts now calling for Welsh and Scottish birds to be cross-bred in order tobroaden the gene pool and prevent localised diseases and conditions
‘Satnav’ system to track the dwindling woodcockpopulations
The woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) isScotland’s most secretive bird and its numbers fell by around 86% between 1970and 2007. The wader migrates to northern Europe and Russia to breed each yearand this year The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is going to usesatellite technology to follow 12 woodcocks on their migration.
However, it doeshave to be noted that the woodcock can be hunted in Scotland, apart from Sundaysand Christmas Day that is. The samerules apply for England and Wales too apparently.
“Perhaps the most immediate result of thisproject would be a dialogue in Europe about bag limits and sustainability inshooting,” said Dr Andrew Hoodless of the Game & Wildlife ConservationTrust. “We’re not advocating voluntary bans or some sort of restriction onhunting at this stage but it’s something we may look at in the future.”
There is currentlyno limit on the number of woodcocks that can be hunted in the UK, although somelimits exist in other European countries including France, Italy and Portugal.Between three and four million woodcocks are hunted each year across Europe.
Photo: Wikipedia
Woodcocks aresecretive birds that are rarely spotted in the wild. Hoodless said: “I amconvinced that by following our 12 satellite tagged birds we will soon havesome revealing insights into the migration strategies of woodcocks acrossEurope.
“This informationis essential for sound conservation management of the species as well as beingof fascination to us all.”
He added that theproject is hoping to expand the number of birds it monitors over the next year.
“We are looking totag a further 20 woodcocks over the next two winters to ensure a scientificallyvalid analysis,” Hoodless said. “Woodcocks generally live for three to fouryears so we’re hoping that with some of the birds we will be able to followthem for several seasons and watch their repeated migratory patterns.”
To follow the birdson their journeys log on to www.woodcockwatch.com
Tawnyowls
According to the South Nottinghamshire Ringing Groupblogspot, a tawny owl was found sitting on four eggs on 10th January this year in thecounty! And it is very unusual to find these birds breeding that early in theyear. You can read more about thisdiscovery at: http://southnottsringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/very-early-tawny-owl.html
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