Wetland birds

According to the South Florida Wading Bird report, released this week, wading and diving birds built about 26,395 nests in the region, a 39 percent decline in the 10-year average. This was the third consecutive year nesting numbers have been down after a spike in 2009, which produced 77,505 nests, the highest total since the 1940s.

Die Bekassine (Gallinago gallinago), die in diesem Jahr vom NABU Deutschland aus Naturschutzgesichtspunkten in den Vordergrund gestellt wird, ist in ihrem Bestand stark gefährdet und droht in unseren Breiten als Vogelart auszusterben. In der "Roten Liste" der bedrohten Tier- und Pflanzenarten wird die Bekassine, die auch als "Meckervogel" oder "Himmelsziege" bezeichnet wird, in der höchsten Bedrohungsstufe "1" geführt. "Die "Null" bedeutet, dass eine Art nicht mehr vorhanden ist", erklärt der Vorsitzende des Duisburger Stadtverbandes des Naturschutzbundes (NABU), Jürgen Hinke, das alarmierende Ausmaß der Gefährdung dieser Vogelart. Insgesamt 70 Brutpaare wurden in Nordrhein-Westfalen noch gezählt; in der Walsumer Rheinaue konnten im vergangenen Jahr noch 40 Exemplare dieser selten gewordenen Schnepfen-Vögel beobachtet werden.

Staniel is the old English word for the kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the hovering falcon. Staniel is long forgotten now; our modern English name for the bird comes from the French crécerelle, and I was put in mind of all this recently on a weekend trip to Normandy, where I was delighted to find kestrels hovering all over the place, not least above motorway verges: on a 50-mile stretch of the A28 which runs between Alençon and Rouen, I counted 18 of them. Twenty years ago, this was also a typical sight on the M1, M4 and M6, so much so that the kestrel became nicknamed the motorway falcon; the long, undisturbed grass verges, even with heavy traffic thundering past, had turned out to be perfect hunting grounds for the voles and mice on which kestrels feed. But today it would be a rare occurrence indeed to spot 18 kestrels in 50 miles of the M1, for the bird is increasingly in trouble in Britain, with its numbers dropping by 32 per cent in the years between 1995 and 2010, and a staggering 36 per cent decline just between 2008 and 2009. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when birds of prey such as peregrine falcons and buzzards were struggling because of pesticide poisoning and persecution, kestrels were flourishing; but now the situation is reversed, and they are the most threatened of our common raptors.

Four UK wading bird species saw numbers fall to new lows last year, a survey has revealed. Lapwings, oystercatchers, snipe and curlew are all at their lowest numbers since the British Breeding Bird Survey of more than 100 bird species started in the early 1990s, the results for 2011 have shown. All four species suffered sharp drops in numbers compared with spring 2010, with populations tumbling by 40% for snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and by almost a fifth for oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) (19%) and lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) (18%). Curlew (Numenius arquata) numbers declined by 13% between 2010 and 2011.

Europe's largest wading bird, the curlew Numenius arquata, is facing extinction in Wales. The RSPB now think there could be as few as 576 pairs left. In 2006 the RSPB thought there were about 1,100 pairs left in Wales. Conservation officer Dave Elliott who works with the animals in Hiraethog, Snowdonia, the only place in Wales where they now breed, said: “The rate of decline has been about 50-80% in the last 15 year period. There may not have been any chicks fledged this year. They certainly disappeared from the uplands quicker than I have ever seen".

The latest figures from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) show that four breeding wading birds have reached their lowest levels since the survey started in the early 1990s. Volunteer birdwatchers reported particularly low numbers of lapwing, oystercatcher, snipe and curlew during the spring of 2011. These birds breed on wet grassland and upland habitats across the UK, where they rely on earthworms and other invertebrates for food. All four species saw sharp declines between 2010 and 2011, of 19 per cent for oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus, 18 per cent for lapwing Vanellus vanellus, 40 per cent for snipe Gallinago gallinago and 13 per cent for curlew Numenius arquata. The BBS produces annual population trends for over one hundred widespread bird species. Ten species have declined by more than 50 per cent since the start of the survey in 1994, including turtle dove, which has declined by a staggering 80 per cent. Since the start of the survey Britain has lost more than half of the following ten species: Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur -80%; Willow Tit Parus montanus -79%; Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix -65%; Whinchat Saxicola rubetra -57%; Grey Partridge Perdix perdix -55%; Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos -52%; Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava -50%; Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca -50%; Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata -50%; Starling Sturnus vulgaris -50%.