As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time
Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a
regular segment on 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...
BTO cuckoos all on their
way back to Africa
14 birds with tags in 2012
July 2012. The BTO cuckoos, the two survivors from last year and a dozen
newly tagged birds, have mostly set off on their migration southwards to
Africa. Five birds were tagged in Scotland and five in Wales, including a
female bird.
Females
Despite their efforts to catch more females, it proved difficult and just one
female bird was tagged in Wales. Unhappily, the female bird, having left Wales
on 9th July she appeared in Surrey on 11th July, but was found in a garden with
some injuries to her head and her wing, implying she had been attacked by
another bird. She is currently recuperating in the Wildlife Aid Foundation
hospital; it is hoped she will recover enough to continue her migration. BTO
was very keen to track more female birds to see how their migration compared
with their male counterparts.
The first cuckoo to leave this year was Chris, one of the birds tagged
in 2011, who left on about 14th June after just 6 weeks in the UK. As of 16th
July, only one other tagged cuckoo was still in the UK, a Scottish bird known
as Wallace, who hasn't moved far at all from the spot he was tagged. The other
birds are spread across Europe.
Dartford warbler decline
The Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), paints a bleak picture for the Dartford
warbler (Sylvia undata) which appears to have
declined substantially in the last few years, because of the harsh winters
leading up to 2010.
The RBBP report shows that the robin-sized Dartford
warbler, also more common further south in Europe, is showing signs of
struggling in the UK because of the recent harsher winters. The report shows
that in some parts of its range, the Dartford warbler has suffered particularly
badly. For example, in 2004, there were almost 1000 pairs in the Thames Basin
and Wealden Heaths, but in 2010 there were reports of just 50 pairs across
these areas of Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex. Thankfully, however,
those tiny outlying populations in counties like Norfolk and Staffordshire - away
from the larger strongholds on the heathlands of southern England - seem to
have survived, at least helping to preserve the bird's range in England and
Wales.
Mark Eaton, RSPB scientist and RBBP chair, said: "Sadly,
the Dartford warbler is currently a casualty of the combined double whammy of
weather and climate: a changing climate in the south of its range is affecting
it, with rapid declines in its Spanish and Portuguese heartlands. While in the
north of its range, where the summer climate is improving, it is being badly
affected by harsh wintry weather."
The RSPB has been working to help the Dartford warbler
since the harsh winter of 1962/1963 when there were only a handful of these
birds left in Britain. Extensive habitat management to regenerate and improve
heathland had enabled a vital recovery of the Dartford warbler in England, but
the impacts of further harsh winters are in danger of knocking the population
back at some key sites.
Tiny
bird - the firecrest - thriving in woodland areas of the East, says new report
Warmer summers are leading to booming
numbers of one of Britain’s smallest birds in East Anglia, according to a new
report.
The firecrest ( Regulus ignicapillus) which normally prefers life in Continental Europe, is becoming more
common in woodland areas in Norfolk, say authors of the latest Rare Breeding
Birds Panel (RBBP).
The tiny colourful bird first colonised
the UK half a century ago, but the population has risen, and the latest reports
suggests there may be over 1,000 pairs nesting in Britain. At least 116 of
these nest in Norfolk, the majority of which are found in Thetford Forest.
Four firecrests weigh less than an
ounce and the bird competes with the goldcrest for the title of Britain’s
smallest bird.
In 2010, the latest year to be covered
by the RBBP report, there were reports of at least 800 pairs of the tiny
woodland bird. But experts believe there could be well in excess of 1,000 pairs
now nesting in the UK, all in England and Wales, because of its resemblance to
the goldcrest.
The warmer summers seen in recent
decades favour the firecrest, and during the winter it leaves its nesting sites
to winter along the coast of South West England or on Continental Europe.
Rare birds make
home in nature reserve
The Westcountry has become home to a second nesting site
of a bird more commonly seen in the southern of Europe, it has been confirmed.
Great white egrets (Ardea alba), a large heron-type bird, had not successfully bred in Britain until last year.
Photo: Wikipedia
However, after one nest was established in June at Shapwick Heath
National Nature Reserve in Somerset, Natural England has now confirmed the
existence of a second there.
Natural England's project officer for the species, Kevin Anderson, said
it was good news.
"This species has never bred in Britain before, so to have two
successful nests in the first breeding year is remarkable," he said.
Volunteers have kept up a round-the-clock vigil to ensure that both
nests have not been disturbed.
Mr Anderson added: "We'd like to thank our volunteers for their
commitment and determination, especially during the continued wet weather,
they've been brilliant."
Rare birds
hatch at Slimbridge
More than a dozen spoon-billed sandpipers (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), a critically
endangered species, were hatched in captivity at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre
this week, a first for the UK.
These latest chicks are part of an emergency conservation breeding
mission to insure the species against imminent extinction in the wild.
A few more eggs are expected to hatch in the coming days and, if
successful, will add to the flock of 12 already at the Centre, brought back
from Russia last year.
WWT head of conservation breeding, Nigel Jarrett, said: "The
spoon-billed sandpiper is a beautiful and unique bird, but whatever it looked
like we couldn't stand by while it went extinct."
Fewer than 100 pairs of spoon-billed sandpiper are thought to remain.
In a flap: Rare African bird on the brink of extinction spotted in
Manchester
Dozens of twitchers flocked
to Hattersley to see a Northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita). Experts are unsure if the bird, which is about the
size of a heron, has flown thousands of miles off
course or escaped from a private collection.
Only a few hundred birds are thought
to live in the wild with a small number also kept in captivity around the world.
Small colonies exist in Morocco and Syria and there have been schemes to
reintroduce the ibis to Turkey, Austria and Spain.
Photo: Bird Life International
Gemma Lomas, a customer services
assistant at the sports centre, told the Manchester
Evening News: "We thought it looked unusual but we didn't think too
much of it at the time.
"We then started getting bird
watchers down here, setting up with their binoculars to get a glimpse of it.
"We also had a man from Salford
University who told us a few facts and he said that there had been sightings in
Cheshire and Staffordshire areas earlier in the year so it could be moving
around. We've not seen it since the weekend and we're not sure if it's just
moved on or been scared away."
Its numbers started to decline about
300 years ago - possibly due to hunting, loss of foraging habitat and more
recently the use of pesticides.
Wildlife writer Sean Wood, who has seen
the bird, said: "My first thoughts were, obviously, it's an escapee from a
bird garden or zoo, but there were no rings or tags visible, and birds such as
this normally have their wing feathers clipped so they can't fly off.
"This wonderful bird, once widespread
across southern Europe and featuring in the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, is
quite literally on the brink - which also means the Hattersley bird is most
likely an escapee, but you never know."
Professor spends 40 years studying rare
guillemots on the stunning remote island
Professor of behavioural ecology at the University of
Sheffield, Tim Birkhead, has been dubbed the 'birdman of Skomer' after
travelling to the remote island annually for the last 40 years to study its
rare guillemots (Uria aalge). He first set foot on the uninhabited
National Nature Reserve off the coast of Wales back in 1972 aged just 22.
It was on this initial trip he became fascinated with the
diminishing colony of Amos guillemots living on the island that has kept him going
back year after year.
He told the Guardian: 'I love observing these birds.
They are so garrulous, so dynamic. They fall out with each other and with
neighbours. They have long-term relationships and flings. Just like humans,
really.'
Professor Birkhead added that the birds have the ability to
spot their partner from a distance even if they are surrounded by hundreds of
other birds.
He made the discovery that guillemots are monogamous birds
while watching a nest on the cliff of the island.
He said: 'The bird right in front of me stood up off the
egg and made its greeting call. I looked out to sea, and among the myriad of
birds flying backward and forwards this one bird was arrowing in from around
500m out.
'I was amazed that the bird on the nest had been able to
pick out its partner from among all those hundreds of birds.'
When he first began his investigation - the longest-running
of its kind - into the Amos guillemot colony he found there was a population of
just 2,000.
This was a drastic reduction on the estimated colony of
100,000 situated on the island in the 1930s - possible due to oil pollution.
A frequent boat service now brings hundreds of bird fans to
the island every week during the breeding season - a stark contrast to
Professor Birkhead's early trips to Skomer when he needed to charter a private
boat to take him over.
There is accommodation for visitors and a study centre for
scientists who research the other island birds such as the puffin.
Cirl bunting reintroduction in Cornwall
'sustainable'
A close cousin of the yellowhammer, the cirl bunting (Emberiza
cirlus) used to be found on farmland across the county, but
disappeared in the early 1990s.
(Male) Photo: Wikipedia
The
reintroduction started in 2006 and the charity hopes the population has reached
a level where no further birds need to be released.
The
RSPB said there are 43 pairs living in Cornwall.
The
bird was seen across southern England but is now only found on coastlines in
Devon and Cornwall.
Stuart
Croft, from the RSPB, said at the start of the project that a population of up
to 40 pairs was seen as sustainable.
Mr
Croft said the chicks used for the reintroduction came from the Devon
population.
The
last release happened in 2011.
He
said: "Because the population has reached the target we'll now be purely
monitoring the birds to see how they're doing."
The
RSPB said there were about 860 pairs breeding in the UK.
