Bird populations that make the great journey between northern Europe and Africa – including the nightingale and turtle dove – are drastically declining, conservationists have warned. Nearly half of the 29 summer migrants, who appear in the UK in spring to breed before returning in the autumn, show long-term population declines. The nightingale, famed for […]
Tag: Turtle Dove
UK wagtails face long-term decline
The three species of wagtail that breed in the UK are suffering long-term declines, a study has revealed. Yellow wagtails, grey wagtails and pied wagtails are all in decline, according to the annual breeding bird survey’s latest report, though conservationists say the reasons for the reductions are not clear. Yellow wagtails, farmland birds which migrate […]
Malta – Massacre on Migration (Episode 3)
Over the Easter week-end Chris Packham and the team visited two public recreational areas on Malta where families with children were camping. Unfortunately both public areas were also occupied by scores of hunters, who had complained to the police that the campers were disturbing their hunting. The police arrived at 06:30 and demonstrated sympathy for the […]
Legality of spring hunting under fire in Malta and Brussels
In Malta, the illegal killing of birds is particularly widespread and with each hunting season, many protected birds are being shot due to lack of adequate controls and monitoring. Illegal shooting is even more harmful in spring, the most sensitive time for migratory birds returning to Europe to breed. BirdLife Malta continues its fight against […]
Petition: Don’t Let Farmers Kill Off Turtle Doves!
The iconic turtle dove referenced in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is the fastest declining bird in England. Agricultural herbicides have damaged the bird’s habitat and food sources, and a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds fears that turtle doves may be lost in the next 10 years. Herbicides have destroyed […]
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 […]
La Janda News
Good news that aerial crop spraying is now limited to only a few specific controls for health and agriculture. Natural sprays are used against mosquito control in La Janda although to be honest the problem with such insects is the same in the pine forests. Most of the fertiliser spraying that takes place is showering […]
Migrating Over a Carpet of Flowers
The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me with lots of tours and finding lots of migratory birds. This year’s early rain through the month of March was extreme but all along we knew that it would be a spectacular spring and hence have been rewarded with carpets of amazing multicoloured blooms covering […]