El Annie
Saturday 21st December 2002, 22:46
The great British sparrow mystery......................
An alarming decline in Britain's house sparrow population indicates that something could be seriously wrong with the environment, says Rosie Cleary, the newly appointed "sparrow officer" of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). The British population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus has steadily fallen from a chirpy 12 million in the 1970s to its current plaintive size of about 6 million. In August this year, the unfortunate bird made it onto the IUCN "red list" of threatened species.
More information - BioMedNet
Ambitious plan hatched to save rare hen harrier..............
An ambitious and expensive project has been launched by Scottish Natural Heritage to encourage Orkney landowners to help halt the dramatic decline of one of the islands' birds of prey. If the executive approves the hen harrier recovery scheme, 90 farmers will be paid to recreate 1500 acres of grassland around nesting areas which have been grazed out by sheep. It should be launched in January and run for the next eight years. Based on other moorland management schemes, the cost will run to six figures and informal meetings with local farmers have shown a high degree of support on the islands. Scientists using satellite technology have pinpointed the cause of the worrying decline of the harriers - Britain's most persecuted bird of prey - as loss of vital rough grassland.
More information -
Herald
Scotsman
El Annie
http://www.habitat.org.uk/news1.htm
An alarming decline in Britain's house sparrow population indicates that something could be seriously wrong with the environment, says Rosie Cleary, the newly appointed "sparrow officer" of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). The British population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus has steadily fallen from a chirpy 12 million in the 1970s to its current plaintive size of about 6 million. In August this year, the unfortunate bird made it onto the IUCN "red list" of threatened species.
More information - BioMedNet
Ambitious plan hatched to save rare hen harrier..............
An ambitious and expensive project has been launched by Scottish Natural Heritage to encourage Orkney landowners to help halt the dramatic decline of one of the islands' birds of prey. If the executive approves the hen harrier recovery scheme, 90 farmers will be paid to recreate 1500 acres of grassland around nesting areas which have been grazed out by sheep. It should be launched in January and run for the next eight years. Based on other moorland management schemes, the cost will run to six figures and informal meetings with local farmers have shown a high degree of support on the islands. Scientists using satellite technology have pinpointed the cause of the worrying decline of the harriers - Britain's most persecuted bird of prey - as loss of vital rough grassland.
More information -
Herald
Scotsman
El Annie
http://www.habitat.org.uk/news1.htm