Lack Of Birds (1 Viewer)

Sandra (Taylor) said:

A work colleague has recently come back from a holiday in France.

She's travelled hundreds of sterile miles through Brittany & Normandy and tells me she was staggered at the lack of birds and wildlife seen. Sweetcorn crops everywhere but an upsetting lack of birds or roadkill. She thinks there may be more at the coast though near Mont St. Michael she saw one gull.

Does anyone have a comment I can pass on to her please
Difficult to know what to make of this.
We recently went from Thessalonika to Paralia- about 80 miles.
Saw very little on the way
Once we spent a few days looking around suitable habitats locally there was a great variety of birds and its not even a noted birdwatching area.
Ditto Faro to Ria Formosa, Portugal, or driving from Manchester to the Lakes.
Was your friend actually exploring the suitable habitats or just generaly observing a lack of birds as they drove?
I covered two areas in the Lakes today. Driving there, I saw nothing . Once I was out of the car in likely habitats there were tons of birds.

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pratincol said:

Sandra (Taylor) said:

A work colleague has recently come back from a holiday in France.

She's travelled hundreds of sterile miles through Brittany & Normandy and tells me she was staggered at the lack of birds and wildlife seen. Sweetcorn crops everywhere but an upsetting lack of birds or roadkill. She thinks there may be more at the coast though near Mont St. Michael she saw one gull.

Does anyone have a comment I can pass on to her please
Difficult to know what to make of this.
We recently went from Thessalonika to Paralia- about 80 miles.
Saw very little on the way
Once we spent a few days looking around suitable habitats locally there was a great variety of birds and its not even a noted birdwatching area.
Ditto Faro to Ria Formosa, Portugal, or driving from Manchester to the Lakes.
Was your friend actually exploring the suitable habitats or just generaly observing a lack of birds as they drove?
I covered two areas in the Lakes today. Driving there, I saw nothing . Once I was out of the car in likely habitats there were tons of birds.

Click to expand...

Not sure that she was exploring suitable habitats - just driving. But I'll clarify
that. Thanks for your response. I won't be able to correspond for two weeks after today as I'll be in Scotland without access to BF!

Sandra

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temmie said:

I found the Mont-saint-Michel area very birdy (april 2016).

But currently, my local patch is also very birdless...

I guess it's a combination of:
1. time of year. End of august/beginning of september is not very 'active'. Winter flocks have not formed yet and birds can still hide in lush scrub.
2. very hot summer. I don't know how to explain this exactly, but I feel that the hot summer wasn't any good for local birds. Not many nests in the surroundings, and very likely not many succesful nests.
3. the ongoing trend of habitat destruction / deterioration. A long-term driving force, but in combination with 1. and 2., it could be the last push needed for some species towards local extirpation.

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