RSPB should be congratulated

The Carrion crow is sometimes controlled on RSPB reserves

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s conservation director has published on his blog the number of “vertebrates killed on RSPB reserves by us and our contractors during 2012/13”.

He goes on to say “As I have written previously, vertebrate control on RSPB reserves is only considered where the following four criteria are met”:

• That the seriousness of the problem has been established;
• That non-lethal measures have been assessed and found not to be practicable;
• That killing is an effective way of addressing the problem;
• That killing will not have an adverse impact on the conservation status of the target or other non-target species.

There are four main situations where the above criteria are met. These are to:

• Increase breeding productivity of ground-nesting birds (mainly waders), principally by controlling foxes;
• Reduce numbers of deer where they are having a detrimental impact on the vegetation, especially by overgrazing the ground flora in woodlands and preventing tree regeneration.  Often deer management is undertaken to prevent damage or aid recovery of nationally important wildlife sites;
• Protect nesting seabirds;
• Benefit water voles by killing non-native mink.

Martin has also recently addressed the National Gamekeepers Organisation AGM, stating afterwards that “the debate was actually healthy and friendly. It is only through talking that we get to understand each other a bit better and that is a prerequisite to any collaboration”.

Before the AGM Lindsay Waddell, the Chairman of the National Gamekeepers' Organisation, said: "It is a great pleasure to have Mr Harper as our guest at the AGM. I'd like to extend to him a warm welcome. I am greatly looking forward to hearing his address on the RSPB's position regarding shooting and conservation and its stance on the environmental work done by gamekeepers across England and Wales."

Lindsay added: "Make no mistake, Mr Harper's landmark speech will break new ground for us. It will be the first time the RSPB has engaged directly with the NGO's membership at a national level. I hope for a constructive discussion on how game management and the RSPB can work more harmoniously for the good of our countryside and its wildlife."

As I have often said on this blog, I am a great believer in “Jaw, jaw rather than war, war” when dealing with a range of difficult subjects that arise when managing a complex countryside, and that a sensible debate, with all sides being prepared to listen and discuss these issues, has to be the way forward.

So I congratulate Martin. I'm quite sure that behind the scenes he will have taken some stick for talking at the NGO’s AGM and for openly admitting that predator control takes place on RSPB reserves, by publishing numbers of Crows, Foxes and Deer that have been culled. He has been refreshingly brave in clearly stating the RSPB’s position.

If we are to continue to be allowed to have legally targeted predator control and to stamp out the illegal persecution of, in particular Raptors, we must all work together.  By “ducking” issues that scientific studies highlight, just because they are considered a little unsavoury and may prove to be unpopular with the population as a whole, is not the answer. 

We must all be brave too.

To read in full what Martin has said,

Go to:      http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2014/04/16/managing-predation.aspx

Can we really no longer share our homes with the birds?

House martins - such delightful birds

A local birder that I know, checks out the numbers of House Martins nesting in the small Hampshire town of Ringwood each year, concentrating on the area around the market square and high street, and last year he reckoned there were around 200 nests tucked away under various eaves. This year however he was dismayed to find that most of the nests below a certain height (Ladder height) had gone, leaving behind only the very highest nests and as a result the numbers of House martins flying around seemed to have dropped substantially.

Obviously nesting birds directly situated above a shop entrance is not ideal as quite a lot of guano collects in a mound below the nest, but to go around knocking the whole lot down seems a real shame.

On the other side of the coin, I have a friend who lives in Suffolk who always runs the hose on some soil during hot weather so that "his" House martins have an ideal source of damp mud for building nests under the eaves of his house!

   

I remember a few years ago giving a vicar – who will remain nameless – a short sharp lecture on why it was so wonderful to have Swallows nesting in the porch of the church and that netting the roof space to stop them doing so was hardly in the spirit of his religion, I reckoned!

Has our environment really become so sterilised that we can’t live with a little bird poo, in order to have skies filled with darting Swallows and Martins?

I have taken this advice is taken from the RSPB’s website:

With house martins amber listed due to their population decline, it is inappropriate to prevent them nesting. While most people welcome house martins, the birds can occasionally be a problem, for instance if a nest is above a door. These conflict areas can be isolated by closing in the triangle under the eaves where the nests are built with a piece of wood, fine mesh chicken wire or parallel wires stretching from the outer edge of the soffit board to c.15cm down the wall. 

Do not deny martins access to parts of the roof where their presence does not create a problem. Never put these deterrents in position to prevent access to an active nest and only remove existing nests, if essential, during the winter months when the martins are not in residence.

  

Knocking down an active nest or preventing birds access to their eggs or young is illegal and attracts potentially high penalties.

Make silage while the sun shines!

Silage making in fine weather

This spell of fine weather across much of the country is enabling farmers to make silage in very good conditions. The process of ensilage consists of preserving green forage crops (in this case grass) under acidic conditions, effectively pickling the crop, ensuring that it remains in a succulent and appetising state.

Silage is fed to cattle and sheep during winter months and is usually preferred by livestock to hay as it is more palatable and of higher food value. Good silage is light brown in colour, has a sharp taste and only a little smell if the lactic acid content is correct. It is a very stable food source and can be kept for years if required, provided that oxygen is restricted from the material.

As many crops are growing in height now, a field that has been cut for silage offers a “new” short hunting area for some species. Mistle thrushes in particular, quickly switch to these harvested fields to hunt for worms, along with Rooks of course. As the grass starts to re-grow Brown Hare will graze the fresh new growth.

Unfortunately, Skylarks are also attracted by the short grass and often choose to nest in these fields. If the gap is 7 weeks or more before the next cut of grass, then they should successfully fledge their brood, however if growing conditions are good for grass, the gap between cuts is often less than this, with disastrous consequences.

Darwin's dilemma

What would Darwin do? 

Introduced parasites are a threat to biodiversity when hosts lack effective defences against such parasites. Several parasites have recently colonized the Galapagos Islands, threatening native bird populations, such as the parasitic nest fly Philornis downsi which has been implicated in the decline of endangered species of Darwin’s finches, in particular the mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates).

The native range of this parasite is known to be the Island of Trinidad and also Brazil, but it appears to have been introduced to the Galapagos Islands (probably firstly to Santa Cruz) with imported fruit, as the adults feed on fruit. However, the fly lays its eggs in the nests of Darwin’s finches and other land birds in the Galapagos.

Once the eggs hatch, the fly larvae feed on the blood of nestlings and were first discovered in finch nests on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997, although retrospective examination of insect collections show that the fly was actually present in the Galapagos Islands as early as 1964. Since then the parasite has spread to 12 of the 13 main Galapagos Islands and its larvae have been found in some years, in all of Darwin’s finch nests. The blood sucking larvae can cause chick mortality of up to 100% in some nests in some years. Because of this high impact, it has been given the highest risk ranking amongst introduced insects/parasites.

However scientists have been busy thinking of ways to control the pest, before Darwin’s finches run out of time and evolve no longer, becoming extinct – and all down to us, humans.

Darwin’s finches can be encouraged to ‘self-fumigate’ nests with cotton fibres that have been treated with a permethrin-based insecticide, which the birds collect to line their nests with. Nests with permethrin-treated cotton had significantly fewer parasites than control nests, and nests containing at least one gram of cotton were virtually parasite-free. Nests directly fumigated with permethrin had fewer parasites and fledged more offspring than nests treated with water.

Overall, 50 out of 60 nestlings (83%) fledged from experimental nests, compared to just 29 of 54 nestlings (54%) from control nests. The study shows that Darwin’s finches can control this parasite with the help of permethrin-treated cotton, and that fumigation increases fledging success. There are currently no other effective methods for controlling this parasite.

Self-fumigation may thus be a viable approach for combating this parasite in the nests of Darwin’s finches, in particular the Mangrove finch which is the most critically endangered species of Darwin’s finch, with a population of less than 100 individuals restricted to a home range of less than 1 km square, on Isabela Island. Around 60 cotton dispensers could treat this entire population and self-fumigation may be a particularly efficient approach because mangrove finches often build their nests high in mangrove trees, where they are relatively inaccessible.

Once again we are faced with a dilemma. I wonder what Darwin himself would make of this intervention, even though I'm sure he would have been delighted at the cleverness of the idea.  Would he observe and make notes of the eventual demise of “his” finches that so helped him to prove the process of evolution and make his name, or would he step in, regarding this as a totally “unnatural” human induced problem and therefore not “real” evolution at all.

I would be most interested in your thoughts having read this piece?  

Completely avoiding bees while spraying and creating a right stink - two new exciting ideas

A smelly greenhouse helps tomatoes grow!

Avoiding bees completely when spraying Oil seed rape
would be a great improvement 

Companies are constantly looking at ways of improving the way that they apply pesticides so that they hit the target problem with minimum impact on non target organisms. So I was pleased to read of a new spraying technique in oilseed rape which could reduce the amount of pesticides that bees are exposed to and also see added benefits of better pest and disease control.

Trials carried out at the University of Hohenheim in Germany have shown that by using a dropleg device, which extends the spray nozzle down below the flower canopy, farmers are able to significantly reduce the amount of pesticides found in beehives.Rather than covering the flowers that provide food for bees, the spray is distributed lower down the plant, with a 98% reduction in spray drift.

About 90% of Oilseed rape crops are sprayed in Germany, which has led to high number of different pesticides being found in the stored pollen in beehives and some honey being rejected for human consumption. During the initial research an analysis of more than 100 beehives showed at least 10 actives were detected in each beehive, albeit at very low levels, any pesticide is of course unwanted

.

Dr Döring, the lead scientist said “Cabbage seed weevils are one of the main pest threats in Germany, but the shyness of these insects may benefit growers should they try this type of spray system. If the weevils feel something is moving within the crop, they quickly drop off the plant as a defence mechanism, falling down to the soil and so come into contact with the pesticide.“There is still a long way to go until this technology will be established on farms, but with current pressures it may be needed sooner rather than later if it proves successful,” he adds.

Another completely different project being worked on by scientists at Newcastle university, is bombarding pests with smells from many different plants, temporarily confusing them and hindering their ability to feed.

Biologists at Newcastle University have been exploring the potential of harmless plant odours as an alternative to pesticides in greenhouses.The team pumped a mixture of plant smells into a greenhouse growing tomato plants, exposing the whitefly pest to a heady aroma of cucumber, courgette, watercress, watermelon, cabbage and bean which resulted in the insects became temporarily disorientated, so that the whiteflies failed to feed at all while they were being bombarded with the different smells.

 “It’s like trying to concentrate on work while the TV’s on and the radio’s blaring out and someone’s talking to you. You can’t do it – or at least not properly or efficiently – and it’s the same for the whitefly explained Dr Colin Tosh, (What a great name!) Whitefly use their sense of smell to locate tomato plants, so by bombarding their senses with a range of different smells we create ‘sensory confusion’ and the result is that the insect becomes disorientated and are unable to feed."

Two rather clever ideas I think you will agree!

Extremadura, Spain

The Extremadura region of Spain is twice the size of Wales and abuts the Portuguese border. (Fly to Madrid and then about 200 miles in a south westerly direction on excellent roads, with little traffic) It was my first visit to this stunning area, attracted there because of the amazing array of different habitats that the region offers - all within about an hours drive of each other. The wildlife at this time of year is nothing short of spectacular, with flower filled fields stretching as far as the eye can see and birds and butterflies everywhere! 

I can't wait to go back!

I have put a few pictures up for you to get a flavour of the area.

Mountains - some still with snow on the peaks

Fresh, bubbling streams

Flower filled plains that go on and on

Cork and olive trees 

Sensational wild flower fields

More wild flowers - always with a constant hum of insect life

And now for a few birds........

Collared Pratincoles

Hoopoe

Bee-eater at nest hole

Bee-eaters were everywhere!

Spanish Imperial Eagle - a stunning bird

Griffon Vultures are helped with supplementary feeding and are doing well

Rock Bunting

Black Vulture