Yesterday was cloudy and warm(ish) but clear skies overnight with a resulting heavy frost were going to cause a big change in bird activity this morning. The fields and marsh areas in Maridalen were covered in ice and there was hardly a thrush to see. With the clear skies any viz mig was so high […]
Tag: Lapwing
Fornebu by Foot
A car in for its MOT/EU test was a good reason to give Fornebu much more attention than it normally gets. Weather wise it was perfect to be out and about but birdwise it was slow going. Spring has made its mark though and there are now quite an array of birds singing. Great and […]
Red List reveals Europe’s farmland wading birds in crisis
The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is out – and it’s sounding alarm bells for some of Europe’s most charismatic and cherished shorebirds (also known as wading birds). The list highlights sharp declines in most farmland wader species across much of Europe in recent decades. In some cases, these falls […]
Scottish Gamekeepers Association starts bird protection scheme
A new conservation project aims to help stop the decline of some of Scotland’s most vulnerable birds. The Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) will ask its members to record the numbers of birds spotted. This data will then be used to help target conservation efforts towards specific areas. The wading bird population has dropped dramatically in […]
Alarming disappearances among our familiar countryside birds
The latestState of the UK’s Birdsreport, published today, reveals many of our most familiar countryside birds are undergoing sweeping changes with some experiencing ‘plummeting population declines’, compared with the 1990s. It is now known that in some parts of the UK these birds have disappeared completely. A section of the report looks at the UK’s […]
‘Shocking’ decline of UK countryside birds revealed
Some of Britain’s most familiar countryside birds have plummeted in numbers since the 1990s, and some species have disappeared from parts of the UK, according to an authoritative annual report. Numbers of the farmland-dwelling grey partridge have halved since 1995, while the turtle dove has declined by 95%. The yellow wagtail, which inhabits farm and […]
Review: The Bird Atlas tracks changes of Britain and Ireland’s birds
A new atlas of 1,300 maps shows the patterns of distribution, abundance and change among 296 bird species in Britain and Ireland. The Bird Atlas 2007-11 is a partnership between British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and Birdwatch Ireland and involved the work of more than 40,000 volunteers over four years. BTO used […]
UK’s wild bird population continues to decline
The number of wild birds in the UK is still falling, despite efforts to protect them by changing farming practices. Conservationists have urged the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, to use the money newly available from the EU’s common agricultural policy to step up protection measures. Since 2003, there has been a 13% decline in the […]