Chris Monk
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Where have all the birds gone?
By Andrew Johnson
Published: 29 January 2007 - The Independent
It is a peculiar British institution that, for almost 30 years, has celebrated the diversity of the nation's bird population.
Each year since 1979 the Royal Society for Protection of Birds has urged people across the country to spend an hour in their garden or park and take a note of the number and types of birds they spot. The annual snapshot provides crucial information on bird populations and migration trends.
But this year the annual Big Garden Birdwatch has revealed how the predicted devastating impact of global warming on Britain's bird species is taking effect. Although the expected half-a-million results won't be fully collated until March, early indications appear to confirm the worst fears of bird lovers.
Andre Farrar, an RSPB officer who completed his survey in his garden near Ashford in Kent yesterday, said: "I haven't seen a redwing or a fieldfare (a large thrush) which you'd expect to see at this time of year. They are winter migrators, i.e. they come to Britain for the winter. It will be interesting to see if we have more of the birds that stay with us throughout the year, such as the chiffchaff; and whether winter migrators are fewer in number."
The exceptionally mild winter means birds which would normally come to the warmer shores of Britain from the Arctic don't need to bother with the exhausting overseas flight as plenty of food is still available in more northerly habitats.
In January, gardens should be teeming with birds foraging for vital winter food.
But an RSPB spokesman said yesterday that the organisation had been inundated with calls this week from people "asking where all the birds had gone".
A double blow of migratory birds not coming to Britain and native birds not leaving the countryside because food is still plentiful is the answer, and means this year's survey is likely to reveal a decline in bird numbers or a marked difference between north and south.
But not needing to migrate is the least of the problems. Conservationist fear breeding seasons will fall out of sync with available food, and birds will not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive.
The RSPB spokesman added: "Birds are nesting up to nine days earlier than they did at the end of the First World War. So, in 60 years, bird breeding has changed by a week. Populations of birds are going to have to move or adapt at speeds their adaptive process isn't geared to. Species will disappear."
A report last year by the RSPB revealed a dramatic decline in bird numbers is already underway. Of 26 species identified in 1995 as in danger and in need of an action plan, 17 had declined even further, despite efforts to save them.
The State of the UK's Birds report also showed that populations of skylarks, bullfinches and grey partridges were disappearing at an alarming rate, and the corn bunting had died out in Wales.
The RSPB says that 2007 will be one of the most crucial in its history. A raft of reports are due to give the most accurate predictions of the devastating effects of climate change globally.
One of these will be published in Paris on Friday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change survey has been six years in preparation and will help the RSPB to finalise its strategy to help birds manage the change.
By Andrew Johnson
Published: 29 January 2007 - The Independent
It is a peculiar British institution that, for almost 30 years, has celebrated the diversity of the nation's bird population.
Each year since 1979 the Royal Society for Protection of Birds has urged people across the country to spend an hour in their garden or park and take a note of the number and types of birds they spot. The annual snapshot provides crucial information on bird populations and migration trends.
But this year the annual Big Garden Birdwatch has revealed how the predicted devastating impact of global warming on Britain's bird species is taking effect. Although the expected half-a-million results won't be fully collated until March, early indications appear to confirm the worst fears of bird lovers.
Andre Farrar, an RSPB officer who completed his survey in his garden near Ashford in Kent yesterday, said: "I haven't seen a redwing or a fieldfare (a large thrush) which you'd expect to see at this time of year. They are winter migrators, i.e. they come to Britain for the winter. It will be interesting to see if we have more of the birds that stay with us throughout the year, such as the chiffchaff; and whether winter migrators are fewer in number."
The exceptionally mild winter means birds which would normally come to the warmer shores of Britain from the Arctic don't need to bother with the exhausting overseas flight as plenty of food is still available in more northerly habitats.
In January, gardens should be teeming with birds foraging for vital winter food.
But an RSPB spokesman said yesterday that the organisation had been inundated with calls this week from people "asking where all the birds had gone".
A double blow of migratory birds not coming to Britain and native birds not leaving the countryside because food is still plentiful is the answer, and means this year's survey is likely to reveal a decline in bird numbers or a marked difference between north and south.
But not needing to migrate is the least of the problems. Conservationist fear breeding seasons will fall out of sync with available food, and birds will not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive.
The RSPB spokesman added: "Birds are nesting up to nine days earlier than they did at the end of the First World War. So, in 60 years, bird breeding has changed by a week. Populations of birds are going to have to move or adapt at speeds their adaptive process isn't geared to. Species will disappear."
A report last year by the RSPB revealed a dramatic decline in bird numbers is already underway. Of 26 species identified in 1995 as in danger and in need of an action plan, 17 had declined even further, despite efforts to save them.
The State of the UK's Birds report also showed that populations of skylarks, bullfinches and grey partridges were disappearing at an alarming rate, and the corn bunting had died out in Wales.
The RSPB says that 2007 will be one of the most crucial in its history. A raft of reports are due to give the most accurate predictions of the devastating effects of climate change globally.
One of these will be published in Paris on Friday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change survey has been six years in preparation and will help the RSPB to finalise its strategy to help birds manage the change.
