Changing fortunes of birdlife

Aug 15 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

CLIMATE change is prompting many birds in the North East to lay their eggs earlier than 40 years ago, a study out today reveals.

Laying times in the region are now around a week earlier, says the State of the UK’s Birds report produced by a coalition of conservation organisations looking at the fortunes of the UK’s bird populations.

It also reveals that the number of North East householders who feed birds is being reflected in the fact that most species which visit gardens are doing well.

But some birds which nest in open countryside and farmland are failing – due, it is thought, to loss of habitat.

The report is produced by the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology, Natural England and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, and involved more than 100 volunteers monitoring nesting territories in the North East.

Birds laying their eggs about a week earlier than they did in the mid-1960s include blue and great tits, robins, swallows and chaffinches.

But one of the big losers in the North East from 1994 to last year is the curlew, the symbol of Northumberland National Park.

Curlew are down by 32% and study co-ordinator Kate Risely said that a likely cause was loss of the grassland and boggy ground favoured by breeding birds. A similar plight afflicts the skylark in the region, with a 29% drop in numbers.

Ms Risely said it was feared that as food prices rise, less land will be given over to green farming schemes and the situation could worsen. The 42% slump in starlings in the region mirrors their massive decline nationally.

But the winners are garden-using birds. “They are increasing as more people in the North East feed the birds in their gardens and provide nest boxes and shelter with shrubs and plants,” said Ms Risely.