UK breeding bird population shrinks by more than 44 million since 1966 (1 Viewer)

From The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/19/uk-breeding-bird-population-decline

It is interesting that house sparrow numbers have dropped by 50%. I wonder does any-one have an explanation for this. I bet the BTO/RSPB would be interested

No comments from the conservationists about the abject failure of conservation to stop the loss of 44 MILLION BIRDS in little over 50 years despite huge amounts of money being spent on conservation.

It's not going to stop there either. As the price of food continues to rise the demands on farmland and currently wild land will increase.

There appears to be many more birds declining than increasing. The conservation organisations might have just slowed the decrease.

Himalaya said:

There appears to be many more birds declining than increasing. The conservation organisations might have just slowed the decrease.

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The song bird slaughter in Malta cannot help at all. Nor can the blatant eradication of habit to ensure profit for wind farm investors.

John o'Sullivan said:

No comments from the conservationists about the abject failure of conservation to stop the loss of 44 MILLION BIRDS in little over 50 years despite huge amounts of money being spent on conservation.

It's not going to stop there either. As the price of food continues to rise the demands on farmland and currently wild land will increase.

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and how many do you think would have been lost if conservation organisations hadn't spent all this money?!

What a bizarre comment.

Of course its not going to stop there so we need conservation organisations more than ever.

Ratal said:

The song bird slaughter in Malta cannot help at all. Nor can the blatant eradication of habit to ensure profit for wind farm investors.

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The Malta issue seems to be a long standing one that existed long before the current marked declines. For the migrant birds a lot of the more significant problems are probably in their wintering grounds. It doesn't mean that we should not be doing everything we can to stop this particular bird slaughter, but that this alone will not have any effect if the birds have nowhere suitable to breed whn they reached their breeding grounds or are unable to feed in their wintering quarters.

Windfarms are not likely to be a significant factor, a more significant factor is likely to be the increased pressure on wildlife sensitive areas by considerably increased numbers car based visitors, but perhaps an even greater negative effect is being caused by vastly increased numbers of large commercial vehicles lumbering along our roads and lanes, but again that impact may be small compared with the effect of drastically changed farming practices that involve there being fewer farm animals and the increased monicultural nature of farming.

Farmingwise another practice that has greatly increased over the past 50 years is that of replacing haymaking with silaging, silaging is carried out earlier than haymaking and may be critical to ground nesting birds and cause the loss of nestlings or even completly eliminating those birds ability to raise a brood on farmland. The number of farmsteads have also drastically decreased, many remaining buildings replaced by barn conversions and causing the loss of bird species that were to some extent dependant upon the food sources that were available around farm buildings. Combine this pressure with more intensive use of public access land in ways that they were not used in the past and you have some possible ways of explaining the decline.

Attacking the conservations is not going to help, they have been issuing the warnings for over 40 years but their efforts have largely been ignored or belittled often because the message they have is inconvenient for many peoples chosen lifestyles and even more inconvenient for the commercial interests who stand to lose money if we change our behaviour.

Himalaya said:

There appears to be many more birds declining than increasing. The conservation organisations might have just slowed the decrease.

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Indeed! Habitat changes, on macro- and micro-scales likely have much to do with declines, both in breeding and wintering areas: for example, Common Starling populations have declined in UK and northern Europe in parallel with reduced numbers of livestock, partly through the practice of keeping stock under shelter in winter*, and so grass fields have no exposed soil in which Starlings forage; also, despite the knowledge from the 1960s that hedges maintained with an 'A' cross-section are far more attractive to breeding passerines than those cut with a 'V' cross-section, the proportion of the former hedge style remains tiny.

There are many other factors that interplay, but the mere existence of good evidence-based advice and practice is no guarantee that they will be applied subsequently or consistently**. I would argue that this is why conservation organisations seem to have to re-invent the wheel every decade or so.
MJB
*Much of Central Europe's livestock is reared to slaughtering age entirely in vast sheds...
**As politicians and media outlets demonstrate endlessly!:C

Indeed, it is also worthwhile remembere=ing that much of the UK's factory farming output has simply been replaced by even more intensive farming and output in other parts of Europe and is finding its way back to UK shelves.

The "A" and "V" hedge cross section factor is something that I have not heard of before, but I can understand the reason for it being done in this way (easier for machines), and the reason why it is less passerine friendly. Of couse hedge cutting by machine is less bird friendly than hedges being cut by hand and this to some extent will be repeated with garden hedges especially when very noisy petrol hedge trimmers are used.

i look forward to comments from john on policeforum pouring scorn on the millions spent on policing given the continued occurence of crime, or on medicineforum bewailing the investment in medical science as people continue to die.

cheers,
James

Having seen the hundreds of kilometers of pristine habitat destroyed whilst a wind farm is being put up, I beg to differ that they are not an impactor onto the UK bird numbers.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete have to be transported, and the associated construction materials for the bases...then the eco crucifixes are placed up, and the slaughter continues. So, looking at how far the industrialisation of our wild places has encroaged into habitats, Id say in my own opinion they are death traps before, during and after construction.

speckled wood said:

The "A" and "V" hedge cross section factor is something that I have not heard of before, but I can understand the reason for it being done in this way (easier for machines), and the reason why it is less passerine friendly. Of course hedge cutting by machine is less bird friendly than hedges being cut by hand and this to some extent will be repeated with garden hedges especially when very noisy petrol hedge trimmers are used.

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From my engineering background, I would actually argue that cutting a hedge mechanically in an 'A' cross-section is easier if the cutting mechanism is the typical long-blade 'slicer', mounted on the rear of a tractor. In the rest position, the slicer is mounted vertically behind the cab; to cut, the whole mechanism is swung to left or right as required, then the slicer is set at the cutting angle. If the top of the slicer is angled towards the hedge, then the operator simply moves the whole mechanism towards the hedge - this will allow the cut to be of 'A' cross-section.

What actually happens for most hedge-cutting is that the whole mechanism is swung towards the hedge so that the slicer is pressed into the hedge; before cutting, the slicer is raised to an angle between the vertical and towards the tractor, so that the cut is vertical or 'V'-shaped to a greater or lesser degree. The tractor actually has to be nearer the hedge this way, allowing the operator less vision of the action. (Mind you, many hedges are very close to roads or tracks and 'A'sections are impractical.)

I would guess that most 'A'-section hedges are maintained privately by farmers or landowners cutting their own hedges (or by monitoring the contractor); furthermore, I would guess that most 'V'-section hedges are the responsibility of local authorities, where contracts are awarded without consideration of the nesting and fruiting seasons.:eek!:

Even where such consideration has been taken into account, sub-contracting and sub-sub-contracting pretty well ensures that the necessary expertise and understanding won't transfer to the operator. Setting aside those contractors who actively disregard these aspects, the result too often is some young chap who has scraped enough money together to run a clapped-out tractor and cutter to try and earn a small income - I've met more than a few, all decent, but uniformed people. None had ever been monitored by the local authority - keeping track of essential quality of council services is not only expensive, but is beyond any council's shrinking resources.:C

This is why it is important for people who care about these things to keep on reminding others periodically so that the message has a chance of spreading. John's gloom is very probably close to the likely outcome, but he's also consistently gloomy in publicising his gloom - I'm not, for I keep enthusiastically exhorting people not to give up! After all, we might be able to delay the worst by years or decades; I should warn you that this might not register on the geological timescale...:-O
MJB

I seem to recall that concrete requires a huge amount of energy to produce as well Ratal. My memory is not good enough to remeber wheer I read that though B

Rich

Ratal said:

Having seen the hundreds of kilometers of pristine habitat destroyed whilst a wind farm is being put up, I beg to differ that they are not an impactor onto the UK bird numbers.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete have to be transported, and the associated construction materials for the bases...then the eco crucifixes are placed up, and the slaughter continues. So, looking at how far the industrialisation of our wild places has encroaged into habitats, Id say in my own opinion they are death traps before, during and after construction.

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Ratal said:

Having seen the hundreds of kilometers of pristine habitat destroyed whilst a wind farm is being put up, I beg to differ that they are not an impactor onto the UK bird numbers.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete have to be transported, and the associated construction materials for the bases...then the eco crucifixes are placed up, and the slaughter continues. So, looking at how far the industrialisation of our wild places has encroaged into habitats, Id say in my own opinion they are death traps before, during and after construction.

Click to expand...

I'm sure they do impact but in terms of the big picture, wind farms affect a very small area compared to agriculture

It all comes down to our excessive use of energy, ... I do take the view that some means of power generation should be visible to all as a reminder of the realities of this, however the nimbies are not going to allow it, human nature and all that.

speckled wood said:

From The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/19/uk-breeding-bird-population-decline

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this received a brief mention on BBC national bulletin a few days ago.

As regards hedgecutting, as one who is invloved, most work is done August - October out of consideration for nesting birds, maximum of twice, usually a single cut.

going back some 20 to 30 years ago living in London, magpies discovered that buildings we put up make ideal nest sites, once they became established invariably the first blackbird nest of the year was raided

As mentioned earlier regarding factory farming, this is how most supermarket chicken and eggs reaches our shelves. chickens are reared in large sheds, and their only view of the outside world is when they are loaded into crates at the age of nine months to go for slaughter.

Most eggs, likewise are produced by birds kept in sheds, likewise at 18months these go for slaughter unless rehomed by organisations by the BHWT. While battery cages are outlawed in theory, our European neighbours don't seem to care about complying, this does not stop imports from outside the EU with even less legislation

Speaking from this side of the Pond, where industrial farming is high art, I can well believe it is the major culprit. Loss of wintering habitat is at least a close second. There have been a number of studies here on wind farms' effect on the large raptors but I've not seen any on songbirds. I have seen some on aerials and it is not pretty. It seems odd to see y'all lamenting the decline of Starlings. Here their decline would be little lamented.

Had to cut short my search for a White-faced Ibis today because I did not think I would need more than a light wind-breaker. Of course it proceeded to piss and blow! The wind chill must have been down around 40F!

Ptitsa said:

It seems odd to see y'all lamenting the decline of Starlings. Here their decline would be little lamented.

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round them all up and send them over here. In exchange you can have all our grey squirrels!