A new
study by BirdWatch Ireland, published in the latest issue of its annual
scientific journal, Irish Birds, has found that the number of waterbirds
wintering in Ireland has declined by 15% over the past five years. More
alarming is the comparison over a longer time period, which shows that our
wintering waterbirds have declined by almost 500,000 individuals (40%) since
the mid-1990’s, a truly shocking finding.
Ireland
is an important wintering area for migratory waterbirds (ducks, geese, swans
and wading birds, amongst others) that breed at Arctic latitudes and migrate
southwards to spend the winter on our estuaries, coastal bays, rivers and
lakes. These waterbirds are monitored through the Irish Wetland Bird Survey
(I-WeBS), which is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS)
(Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) and coordinated by
BirdWatch Ireland. Each winter, hundreds of Irish birdwatchers across the
country volunteer to count waterbirds in their local areas, together with staff
of NPWS and BirdWatch Ireland. The data collected enable regular assessment of
the numbers and trends of our wintering waterbirds. In the mid-1990’s, when the
survey began, there were over 1.2 million of these birds at wetlands around
Ireland, but analysis of data from recent years found only 760,000 – a shocking
decline of 40%.
Wading
bird species, including Knot, Dunlin, Golden Plover and Redshank, have been the
worst hit, suffering a combined loss of over 100,000 individuals (19%) over the
past five years. Wildfowl, including 14 species of duck, 3 species of swan and
4 species of geese, declined by 28,000 individuals (9%). In total, 27 species
declined by over 10% over the course of just 5 years, with only seven species
managing to increase by more than 10%.
No comments:
Post a Comment