Britain’s birds are amongst the
best monitored animals in the world, and it just about to get even better as a
brand new bird observatory joins the nineteen others that are scattered around
our coast.
Alderney Bird Observatory becomes
the most southerly bird observatory in Britain
Alderney Bird Observatory (ABO)
received official accreditation at a recent meeting of the Bird Observatories
Council (BOC), a gathering of all of the bird observatories, making it the
twentieth in the country. Ranging from Fair Isle, Shetland, in the north to
Alderney, Channel Islands, in the south, Britain’s bird observatories have kept
an eye on the comings and goings of our birds since the first observatory
Skokholm, Wales, opened in 1933 – these unbroken observations make them amongst
the largest datasets in the world.
Many firsts for Britain have been
found and documented at Bird Observatories but it is the day-to day
observations of birds on the move that are the most important, birds making
their way in and out of Britain on their migrations from far-flung
destinations. Since the 1960s several of these have changed the timing of their
migration as a response to a changing climate. The Swallow now arrives back in
the UK on average fifteen days earlier than it did in the 60s, and the Sand
Martin over twenty days earlier, whilst for the Cuckoo the timing hasn’t really
changed. It is vital that we keep an eye out for changing patterns in the
future if we are to fully understand the pressures that many of our birds might
face and how we might help those that are showing declines.
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