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| A Cirl Bunting (RSPB image) |
Historically, Cirl (pronounced “Sirl”) buntings were not
only present in many parts of southern Britain, but were actually quite common
in a number of places. I have recently been looking through an old Winchester College bird club book, which describes them in 1954 as “several near Micheldever,
whilst pairs can also be found breeding around the villages of Morstead,
Twyford and Brambridge”.
But shortly after this, it soon started to go badly wrong for the “Village
Bunting” as the Cirl was often called, because there were very few records received
following this account. Before long they were not only lost from Hampshire, but
also from most of their former range, so that by the late 1980s they could only
be found as a small and vulnerable population of 118 pairs in South Devon.
So, step up the RSPB who in 1988 began to research Cirl
bunting ecology and the reasons behind the decline. By the early 1990s and with
a much better understanding of what made a Cirl Bunting tick, they started to
target the new Government Stewardship scheme at halting the decline of this
lovely little bird. They also created a Cirl bunting special project within the
scheme, which in particular encouraged farmers to leave spring barley “weedy” stubbles
over-winter, which was now known to be really important to this birds ability to over-winter successfully.
But the real breakthrough in my opinion, came when in about
1993 the RSPB employed Cath Jeffs as the Cirl bunting project officer, with the
specific remit to work alongside farmers and encourage and advise them on how
to manage for this great little bird. A couple of years later funding also came into the project from English Nature (the old name for Natural England). It was around this time that Cath invited me
down to speak to farmers and I have been keenly interested in the project ever
since.
What a difference Caths arrival made! It clearly demonstrated that good, practical advice, especially when coupled with bucket
loads of enthusiasm, can deliver big time! Between 1992 and 2003, the Cirl bunting
population increased by 146 per cent on land that was within the targeted Stewardship
scheme! By 2009, another survey estimated the Cirl bunting population to be 862 pairs,
another fantastic increase of 24% since 2003.
Remember that all of this success has been delivered by
farmers. It is they who have listened to the practical advice, understood the plight
of this little bunting and acted together on a landscape scale, by implementing
the habitats required, using the options available in the Stewardship scheme. So
don’t tell me that farmers are too busy to care or are disinterested in delivering
conservation on their farms – this project, working alongside farmers, blows
that myth (if it ever existed) right out of the water.
On the strength of this Devon project, the Cirl Bunting Reintroduction
Project - a partnership project between the RSPB, Natural England (NE), the
National Trust and Paignton Zoo, with assistance from the Zoological Society of
London – began in 2006. The aim of this project was to re-establish a
self-sustaining population of Cirl buntings on the Roseland Peninsula in south
Cornwall, by taking chicks (under license from NE) from nests in healthy
populations in south Devon, and translocating them to the site in south
Cornwall.
Has this re-introduction project worked? Well, “yes” in a word it
has! Cath has just sent me an up-date – so have a look for yourselves by going to this link:
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