El Annie
Phew..............
..................Bird populations around the world are plummeting faster than ever and the activities of humans are to blame for the crisis. The Worldwatch Institute, a US-based research body, says human population growth, habitat destruction and climate change are threatening 99% of the most imperilled bird species. It says these factors are contributing to what has become the greatest wave of extinctions since dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago. Howard Youth, writing in "Winged Messengers: The Decline of Birds", says; "Declining bird populations mark not only the loss of unique species but also the unravelling of delicate natural balances." With nearly 1,200 species - representing 12% of the world's bird population - facing extinction this century, the report outlines the reasons for the acceleration in their decline.
More information -
Ananova
EDP24
Times
Island home to draw in the terns..........................
Bough Beech is welcoming more than just the occasional traveller by launching two man-made islands on to the village reservoir for birds migrating from South Africa. The common tern - a white gull-sized bird with a black cap and a red beak - spends winter taking in the sun at the Cape of Good Hope before returning to England to nest. As terns prefer to nest on islands a group of naturalists clubbed together to add two man-made islands to the one they installed at Bough Beech Reservoir in 1999. The two new islands cost about £150 each to make and were put together by nature reserve warden Roy Coles and friends Glynis Fenn and Alan Ford, while the project was funded by members of the Kent Wildlife Trust and Sutton and East Surrey Water.
More information - this is Kent
Whoo-se bird is it anyway? .....................
A large mysterious presence is circling above a North Lincolnshire town looking for prey. The residents of Broughton have, for some time, been scouring the skyline looking out for a very large Eagle Owl which seems to have settled in the area. It is a mystery because the closest these birds of prey are supposed to live in the wild is France and Belgium. The sighting has caused quite a stir in the village with the bird calling for a mate and flying around the Broughton skyline, hunting for food. Jacqueline Atkinson (48), of Woodland Drive, said: "It's been here since Christmas. He's been around every day, in the evening like owls do."
More information - this is scunthorpe
Sands of Forvie nature reserve bought for the nation................
Two-thirds of the Sands of Forvie national nature reserve in Aberdeenshire, one of the UK's most unspoilt places with almost 2270 acres of of dunes, heath, lochs, cliffs and saltmarsh, has been bought for the nation by Scottish Natural Heritage. Details of the sale by the estate of a former owner, Sir Richard Sutton, are being kept confidential, but the price paid is thought to be about £200,000. The sand dune system is the fifth largest in the UK and one of the least disturbed. Two other small parts of the reserve are leased from their owners, the Crown Estate and a local farmer, for small sums.
More information - Herald
For more snippets of wildlife news visit conserv@tion at - http://www.habitat.org.uk/news1.htm
Annie
:t:
More information -
Ananova
EDP24
Times
Island home to draw in the terns..........................
Bough Beech is welcoming more than just the occasional traveller by launching two man-made islands on to the village reservoir for birds migrating from South Africa. The common tern - a white gull-sized bird with a black cap and a red beak - spends winter taking in the sun at the Cape of Good Hope before returning to England to nest. As terns prefer to nest on islands a group of naturalists clubbed together to add two man-made islands to the one they installed at Bough Beech Reservoir in 1999. The two new islands cost about £150 each to make and were put together by nature reserve warden Roy Coles and friends Glynis Fenn and Alan Ford, while the project was funded by members of the Kent Wildlife Trust and Sutton and East Surrey Water.
More information - this is Kent
Whoo-se bird is it anyway? .....................
A large mysterious presence is circling above a North Lincolnshire town looking for prey. The residents of Broughton have, for some time, been scouring the skyline looking out for a very large Eagle Owl which seems to have settled in the area. It is a mystery because the closest these birds of prey are supposed to live in the wild is France and Belgium. The sighting has caused quite a stir in the village with the bird calling for a mate and flying around the Broughton skyline, hunting for food. Jacqueline Atkinson (48), of Woodland Drive, said: "It's been here since Christmas. He's been around every day, in the evening like owls do."
More information - this is scunthorpe
Sands of Forvie nature reserve bought for the nation................
Two-thirds of the Sands of Forvie national nature reserve in Aberdeenshire, one of the UK's most unspoilt places with almost 2270 acres of of dunes, heath, lochs, cliffs and saltmarsh, has been bought for the nation by Scottish Natural Heritage. Details of the sale by the estate of a former owner, Sir Richard Sutton, are being kept confidential, but the price paid is thought to be about £200,000. The sand dune system is the fifth largest in the UK and one of the least disturbed. Two other small parts of the reserve are leased from their owners, the Crown Estate and a local farmer, for small sums.
More information - Herald
For more snippets of wildlife news visit conserv@tion at - http://www.habitat.org.uk/news1.htm
Annie
:t:
