Cuckoo Clocking

A cuckoo named after the BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham has clocked up 60,000 miles of air travel between the UK and Africa. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has tagged a number of cuckoos with satellite-tracking devices to learn about migration patterns. Here is how some of them have fared:

Chris Class of 2011

Status: Active

Chris has made seven trips between the UK and Africa, visiting 22 countries and is currently in the Congo rainforest.

Lyster Class of 2011

Status: Inactive - missing presumed dead

Lyster was last traced to barren desert in Mauritania in 2012 on his second journey from Norfolk to Africa.

Clement Class of 2011

Status: inactive - deceased

Clement made it to his wintering grounds, travelling via Spain, but died in Cameroon on the return journey to Britain in 2012.

Hennah Class of 2014

Status: Active

Hennah was tagged in the New Forest, Hampshire in May this year. She left the UK in June and was tracked in the Central African Republic in October.

Dudley Class of 2014

Status: Active

Tagged in Sherwood Pines, Nottinghamshire this year, Dudley's transmitter indicated in July that he had cut across to Niger from his location in Spain.

Mass Raptor Poisoning

Allen Lambert worked as a gamekeeper on the Stody estate in north Norfolk. On 1 October 2014, he appeared at Norwich Magistrates' Court and was found guilty of two charges relating to the killing of 10 Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk on the estate and possession of pesticides and other items capable of being used to prepare poison baits.

A key part of the case for the defence was the idea that the number of dead Buzzards found was too high to have been achieved through illegal poisoning in one area and that the carcasses must therefore have been ‘planted’ on Mr Lambert. When the experts were consulted, however, BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) quickly provided the robust evidence that refutes this claim.

Counts of Buzzards in north Norfolk from the same time period as the crimes took place (March–April) were extracted from BirdTrack and mapped.

On the map orange dots represent counts of 10–14, red dots 15–20. These counts were logged by birdwatchers (I submit sightings to Birdtrack) during their day-to-day birding. Who could have foreseen that the simple action of recording sightings in BirdTrack would realise the immense value of such ‘normal’ observations in this way?

As well as proving beyond doubt that double-figure counts of Buzzards are a regular occurrence in Norfolk these days, data collected by BTO volunteers was used in court to highlight the recent population increase and range expansion of Buzzard. Data from Bird Atlas 2007–11 and the Norfolk Bird Atlas were used to show the eastward spread and increasing population density since the previous breeding atlas in 1988–91, while CBC/BBS data spanning 5 decades helped emphasise the recent, dramatic population increase.

It's not unusual for birdwatchers' records, provided impartially, to find valuable applications like this, though it's the first time that BirdTrack data have been utilised in such a case. Fantastic!

Phil Hollom - one of birdwatching's great pioneers

I was not aware until today that Phil Hollom died in June this year at the age of 102. I never met Phil Hollom but like most serious birders I knew his name. He was a founder member of the BTO and was naturally its oldest member when he died. I had no idea that Phil piloted Wellington bombers during the Second World War.

Phil was a keen birdwatcher from a very young age and was responsible for The Popular Handbook of British Birds that appeared in 1952 and a second volume, The Popular Handbook of Rarer British Birds published in 1960. But the guide that anchored Phil Hollom in the hearts and minds of the birdwatching fraternity was  A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe that he worked on with Guy Mountfort and Roger Tory Peterson, who produced the paintings. The guide was first published in 1954 and was, and is, a book which gave clear pointers on how to separate similar species, with maps and a succinct text. It was translated into 12 languages, racked up four editions and eighteen reprints. I purchased my copy, a reprint of the Fourth Edition, in 1985, 29 years ago. I still use it today. It contains some of the best bird paintings of any guide I know. 

It is always simply referred to as the Peterson, Mountfort and Hollom. That is what I always call it and any birder will know what you are talking about.

Thank you Phil. R.I.P..... 

Bird Atlas 2007-11 The breeding and wintering birds of Britain & Ireland

My copy of this outstanding, weighty tome was delivered yesterday evening and has been well worth the wait. It must weigh around 10 kilos! Hard bound with 720 pages.

• The book is the result of contributions from over 40,000 volunteers and a total financial investment of £1.4 million.
• The advent of online data capture means that this atlas captured 10 times more data than any previous national atlas. It includes over 16 million individual observations of 214 million birds of 502 species.
• Advances in mapping and modelling technologies have enabled the BTO to pull even more meaning from the data - species accounts include new maps that are easy to interpret and will be even more useful to a broader range of users.
• Over 8,000 copies of the book have already been sold, so this looks like being the best-selling BTO book of all time.
• The book highlights some really striking changes to our bird populations over a worryingly short time frame, particularly the breeding abundance change maps for migrant passerines, waders and farmland birds. We need to understand these changes better and we need to do this fast - before it is too late.

Every serious birder should have a copy of this momentous work in their library.

The Birds of Sussex Book

This is the most detailed publication yet on the birdlife of Sussex. This once in a generation book by the Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) describes the status and changing fortunes of all the wild birds of Sussex. Over two million bird records and four years of intensive Atlas survey work underpin this compelling book. Due out early 2014.

The Birds of Sussex is published by the SOS in partnership with the BTO and you can pre-order your copy here:  www.bto.org/sussex-birds 

The book is written by a team of the county's finest bird experts and edited by Adrian Thomas of the RSPB. For each of the 397 species on the Sussex list the book reveals:

• What birds are found where
• Why they are there
• 'Winners and losers' - those birds doing well and those in trouble
• What the threats and outlook are for each species

The book contains over 600 pages in full colour and stunning photographs of over 250 species, all taken in Sussex.

The pre-publication price is £20 for SOS members and £25 for non-members.

Urban Birds Take a Lie-in

According to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) our urban birds tend to arrive at garden feeders somewhat later than their countryside counterparts. The rationale is that in urban areas the amount of heat loss from the average home is such as to keep the surrounding environment somewhat warmer than country areas. Urban birds then take a 'lie-in' as they have not expended so much energy to keep warm through the night unlike birds in more rural areas.

I am up most weekdays at 6:30am and I notice that my garden birds are at our feeders soon after first light. No lie-in for them it appears. Greedy little so-and-sos!

A Halt in Decline of House Sparrows

Wild gardens seem to have helped to halt the decline in number of House Sparrows Passer domesticus. Monitoring has suggested a severe decline in the UK population with a drop of 71% since 1977, that's a fall from about 12 million pairs in the 1970s to between 6 and 7 million pairs today. However, the latest data from the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Garden Birdwatch (a survey conducted by birdwatchers and householders across the country) reckons that the decline in gardens has stabilised since 2009.

Male House Sparrow

The report shows that in 1995 the proportion of gardens recording one or more house sparrows was about 80%. This fell steadily to 60% in 2009 and has remained at the same rate since. News to be cautiously welcomed. Clare Simm, BTO's Garden Birdwatch development officer, said: "It is too soon to say that they are increasing but the decline has definitely levelled off since 2009 and hopefully this means they will start to increase again".

The house sparrow is a "Red-listed" conservation species which has been in long-term decline, particularly in urban and suburban environments. Greater London lost 70% of its sparrows between 1994 and 2001. House sparrow populations across Britain have been hit by a loss of nesting sites and food sources, particularly a lack of insects to feed their young. Air pollution and the use of pesticides are also being blamed. 

But we are a nation of wildlife lovers and many of us are now managing our gardens for wildlife, which certainly benefits our house sparrows. A few days ago I was astonished to count no less than twelve juvenile house sparrows perched in my lilac tree, where most of the feeders hang. Astonishing because these twelve were all juveniles.

The BTO has recommended five measures for gardeners to encourage house sparrows:

• Let an area of garden go wild to encourage insects
• Plant species such as hawthorn and ivy which provide thick vegetation
• Provide a house sparrow terrace or a group of nest boxes near the eaves of your property
• If you feed birds, provide them with seed mix that includes large grains
• Regularly clean feeding stations to prevent disease

And one from me: provide clean drinking water daily.

Rutland Breeding Bird Atlas 2008 - 2011

I purchased a copy of this excellent record during my recent visit to Uppingham in Rutland. The edition published in 1992 documented the county's breeding birds as part of the BTO's "The New Atlas of Breeding Birds of Britain & Ireland 1988 - 1991". Recording for "Bird Atlas 2007 - 2011" stimulated fieldwork for this update. All 117 Rutland tetrads were visited. Where timed visits were made interested observers submitted lists of species breeding in their local area. The results were mapped at two levels, 'Present' and 'Breeding' to enable direct comparisons to be made with the 1988 - 1990 survey. The changes which have occurred are in some cases dramatic.

 
For example, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor was recorded as present in 11 tetrads during 1988 - 1990 and only 4 tetrads during 2008 - 2011. The future does not look at all promising for this species, not only in Rutland but elsewhere in Britain.

This book represents a scholarly work for any keen ornithologist, not just for those interested in the Rutland area. It makes for very interesting reading for anyone interested in birds, recording as it does the decline in numbers of so many of our resident and migrant birds. There are lessons to be learned here in biodiversity and habitat conservation. Terry Mitcham deserves our thanks for compiling this important breeding bird atlas.

Barn Owls Under Threat

Alarming figures have been published by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) recording a 280% increase in reports of dead Barn Owls in March, at the start of the breeding season. Many had starved. According to the Barn Owl Trust this has been the worst breeding season for more than 30 years. This catastrophic fall in numbers follows a series of cold and wet springs.

1,234 breeding sites across Devon are monitored every 10 years. Of 276 sites checked so far this year, barn owls are nesting in seven and only four sites have young. West Sussex normally has up to 55 nests but only five have been found this year.

The fantastic weather in March 2012 meant that owls started breeding earlier, but then in June the rain started and didn't stop. This prevented adult birds hunting and many young birds starved. In some cases entire broods of owlets were found dead in the nest.

Jeff Baker of the BTO said: "Barn Owls can sustain one or two years of poor breeding performance, but we don't want another very cold spring, or very wet one".

It is hoped that these icons of the countryside will be able to recover.