The Guardian reports some developers are reviewing their policies after protests from environmentalists. A grassroots uprising is forcing builders and councils to remove netting over trees and hedgerows installed to prevent birds nesting and hindering their developments.
Environmentalists have condemned the practice and say it has exploded in scale this spring. The use of netting to prevent birds nesting in hedgerows and trees allows developers to get around the law that prevents the removal and damage of birds nests, and avoid delays to development caused by the nesting season.
The BBC report fewer of the UK’s smallest birds have been spotted this year by volunteers in the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual survey run by the RSPB.
Long-tailed tits were down by 27% and wrens by 17% after being seen in large numbers in 2018. Last year’s very cold spell brought by the Beast from the East is thought to be a factor, as smaller birds would have been hardest hit by the blast.
House sparrows, meanwhile, are making a comeback after years in decline.
The Guardian reports the RSPB is urging the public to sign a petition to help change the law on the practice of bird netting in the UK.
We would like your help exploring the practice of netting trees so they can be removed for construction.
Across the UK there are reports of builders and developers using nets on trees to stop birds nesting so that they can be removed in order for building work to take place.
iNews reports that a former special forces soldier dubbed the ‘Pablo Escobar of egg theft’ hit the headlines recently after being sentenced to three years in jail for stealing £100,000 of rare bird of prey eggs.
Jeffrey Lendrum was convicted for the third time in a long and global career of egg smuggling after being stopped on his way into Heathrow from South Africa with 17 hawk, eagle and vulture eggs strapped to his chest – as well as two newly-hatched chicks.
Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/why-the-uk-is-a-target-for-bird-of-prey-egg-thieves/
Photo Credit: Woking Peregrine Project / Woking Borough Council
The Independent reports that a dearth of worms is blamed for dramatic decline in the UK song thrush population. Britain’s first farmland worm survey reveals nearly half of English fields lack key types of earthworm and may help explain a 50 per cent fall in song thrush numbers.
The citizen science project, in which farmers dug for worms in their own fields, has prompted 57 per cent of them to pledge to change their soil management practices – a move that may benefit the song thrush, for whom worms are a vital food source.
Photo by Tony Sutton under Creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
The Telegraph reported on an encounter between a wheatear and a sparrowhawk which ended in the bird of prey hitting a window. A perfectly timed photograph see the wheatear briefly landing on the knocked out hunter before flying to freedom.
Everybody who cares about wildlife will be gathering in central London on 22nd September 2018 for the first People’s Walk for Wildlife. And we know you care about wildlife because your reading this, so please join us there.
Watch this short video for one of the most passionate and yet down to earth explanations of why we have to wake up to what is happening to British wildlife and act. Chris Packham says of our wildlife population’s downward trends “those statistics about those declines become normalised. Like it’s just another part of the conversation”.
He continues “We’re in trouble, we’re in big trouble…… It’s time for us to act. I think it’s time for us to stand up and be counted, and to ask, politely, for things to be fixed”.
Please join this polite, passive walk (it’s not a demonstration or rally) and show your concern for what is happening to our wildlife – whether your interest is for birds, hedgehogs, dragonflies, ferns, trees, fungi or any other of the diverse, beautiful and essential plants and animals that keep our environment healthy.
If your interested in going and want to travel by train with other members of FNW please let me know so we can co-ordinate travel arrangements or arrange to meet in London.
10am: Gather – Reformers Tree, Hyde Park, London
12 noon: Infotainment
1pm: Walk
2pm: Finish – Richmond Terrace
The juveniles watched under the Woking Peregrine project started flying on Sunday 10th June. Unfortunately, one flew into a window. The injured juvenile female was taken for rehabilitation at Wildlife Aid (based in Leatherhead). She may be there for at least 3 weeks, possibly requiring an operation on the damaged wing. Let’s hope she recovers soon! For this and more information about the peregrines please visit www.wokingperegrines.com.
The Woking Peregrine Project was featured on That’s Surrey TV on 18th May. The four chicks are still going strong – even a sandwich tern was caught as prey by the parents. The chicks will be ringed on Tuesday to help understand where they travel as adults. They should fledge in early to mid June, so keep an eye out if you’re in Woking! Learn more at http://www.wokingperegrines.com/.
Bee-eaters eat bees, black birds are black, woodpeckers peck wood. Easy to see where those names came from. But a new book explores some of the more unusual names of birds and their origins. Puffins, hobbies, turtle doves, redstarts….. Read more in The Guardian story or buy Mrs Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names, by Stephen Moss.
