They have entranced generations with the beauty of their songs and glimpses of their plumage. But today the sound of the linnet and the vision of a turtle dove are becoming increasingly rare experiences for visitors to the European countryside. Indeed, according to a survey, the chances of encountering any one of the 36 species of farmland birds in Europe - species that also include the lapwing, the skylark and the meadow pipit - are stunningly low. Devastating declines in their numbers have seen overall populations drop from 600 million to 300 million between 1980 and 2009, the study has discovered. The survey, done by the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (leaflet attached), also found that Britain has been one of the nations worst affected by losses to its farmland bird populations. In Europe the population of grey partridges has dropped from 13.4 million to 2.4 million, a loss of 82 per cent. These losses were described as shocking by the scheme's chairman, Richard Gregory. "We had got used to noting a loss of a few per cent in numbers of various species over one or two years. It was only when we added up numbers of all the different farmland bird species for each year since 1980, when we started keeping records, that we found their overall population has dropped from 600 million to 300 million, which is a calamitous loss. We have been sleepwalking into a disaster."
Source: New Zealand Herald, 1 June 2012
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=108099…
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