JTweedie
Well-known member
What is holding back the spread of Choughs to other places? I know you can find them in some places such as Islay, parts of Wales and in Cornwall.
The Cornwall article mentions past persecution and changes in agriculture for their decline, but are there other reasons why they won't spread? For example, why wouldn't we see Choughs in Arran or the Ayrshire coast? Are they sedentary, unwilling to move to new territories on their own? I saw Choughs well above 1500 m in northern Spain last year. They were flying over a landscape populated by cattle who are left out to roam on their own, but otherwise the land was densely vegetated and very steep.
This article mentions at the end:
"Changes in distribution and numbers in recent years are difficult to attribute to land management. However, the low-intensity, extensive pastoral farming and the abundance of natural and man-made nesting sites are crucial to Choughs. However, these do not explain why so much apparently suitable habitat is unoccupied, for example on Mull. Neither can it explain the recent increases in Colonsay. Nor can the expansion, contraction and then recovery in Islay be explained by land-use change, management-practices or nest site availability."
The Cornwall article mentions past persecution and changes in agriculture for their decline, but are there other reasons why they won't spread? For example, why wouldn't we see Choughs in Arran or the Ayrshire coast? Are they sedentary, unwilling to move to new territories on their own? I saw Choughs well above 1500 m in northern Spain last year. They were flying over a landscape populated by cattle who are left out to roam on their own, but otherwise the land was densely vegetated and very steep.
This article mentions at the end:
"Changes in distribution and numbers in recent years are difficult to attribute to land management. However, the low-intensity, extensive pastoral farming and the abundance of natural and man-made nesting sites are crucial to Choughs. However, these do not explain why so much apparently suitable habitat is unoccupied, for example on Mull. Neither can it explain the recent increases in Colonsay. Nor can the expansion, contraction and then recovery in Islay be explained by land-use change, management-practices or nest site availability."
