Cranes make comeback in Britain's wetlands

By Roger HarrabinBBC environment analyst

22 April 2020

The graceful crane - the tallest bird in the UK - is making a comeback into Britain’s wetlands thanks to re-introduction and habitat restoration.

It was absent as a breeding bird for 400 years because of wetland drainage and widespread hunting.

Now, an estimated 200 of them are dispersed in Wales, Scotland, the Fens, Suffolk and Gloucestershire.

Their recovery has been glacially slow – in 2019 there’s thought to be just one more breeding pair than 2018.

But the RSPB says population modelling suggests that number will swell much faster soon, as fecundity of the surviving birds improves with age and second generation chicks reach breeding age.

Adult cranes stand at around 1.2m (4ft) and are fabled for their complex “display“ behaviour, where they perform bows, pirouettes and bobs.

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Mohua goes from rare to common in 21 years

Wednesday, 8 May 2019, 10:19 am

Press Release: Department of Conservation

8 May 2019

Mohua numbers have risen more than 30-fold and overall, native bird numbers have doubled in the 21 years since monitoring began in 1998, recently analysed Department of Conservation (DOC) results show.

DOC Principal Science Advisor Dr Colin O’Donnell says the long-term study charts the response of 13 native bird species following sustained predator control to suppress rats, stoats and possums.

“Our most recent bird count data from last spring shows seven native bird species are still increasing in numbers, four species remain stable, and two have declined.”

“For the first time in 21 years, mohua have become the most common bird counted, which is what they would have been in this valley prior to European settlement.”

“The results are exciting because year by year we’re seeing a re-balance of the valley’s birdlife and don’t know when population limits will be reached,” says Dr O’Donnell.

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Northern dotterel back from brink after protection programme

7:10 am on 22 April 2019 

The feisty northern dotterel, once one of the country's rarest birds, is no longer a threatened species.

Against all odds, the small mainland birds have thrived in coastal communities where volunteer dotterel minders trap predators and ensure the birds nests are protected in the dunes.

Conservation scientist John Dowding was instrumental in setting up the dotterel protection programme, and presented the latest research at the annual New Zealand Dotterel Forum held in Auckland last week. The research was based on a series of dotterel population census he undertook from 1989.

He said the northern dotterel population is estimated to be 2500 - double the number in the 1980s, and a target reached 15 years earlier than expected.

The bird's conservation status has improved to 'at risk and recovering' - a turnaround Dr Dowding said is a wonderful achievement.

"They're not one of our rarest birds anymore, and that's reflected in the change in the threat status we actually calling them recovering now because they've come back from a little over a thousand birds and importantly a negative population trend, they were declining," Dr Dowding said.

"It's wonderful, there's no other word for it. It's one of relatively few species on the mainland that we can point to and say look our conservation management has made a huge difference here, and it's turned a species around."

Dr Dowding said the dotterel have captured the imagination of the public, who have helped protect the species.

"We underestimated the extent to which the community would get involved. We didn't realise that quite so many people would become passionate about these birds and help them.

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Police pick up penguins stolen from Nottingham zoo

Two missing Humboldts were found this week in Strelley Village after a tipoff

Press Association

Fri 18 Jan 2019 13.01 GMTLast modified on Fri 18 Jan 2019 16.20 GMT

Two penguins have been found by police officers two months after they were stolen.

The pair of Humboldt penguins were taken in November last year from a zoo in Nottinghamshire.

Police officers rescued them on Wednesday afternoon in Strelley Village, west Nottingham, after a tipoff, and returned them to the undisclosed zoo.

A 23-year-old-man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and theft. He has since been released under investigation.

Sgt Andrew Browning and PC Paul Toon of Nottinghamshire police worked together during the investigation.

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THE CRAKE ESCAPE

Ireland’s elusive corncrake back from brink of extinction as Government’s €230,000 battle to save bird pays off

The Corncrake Project Annual Report shows 151 calling males were recorded, up eight per cent since 2014

By Niamh Anderson

11th January 2019, 7:06 pm

Updated: 11th January 2019, 7:12 pm

IRELAND’s elusive corncrake has come back from the brink of extinction with the number of males increasing over the past four years.

Last year, the Government spent €228,054 on its battle to save the bird and their efforts are starting to pay off.

The Corncrake Project Annual Report shows 151 calling males were recorded, up eight per cent since 2014.

Donegal and its islands held 90, another 39 were recorded in Mayo, 20 in Connemara, and two in Sligo.

The small reversal came thanks to last year’s exceptionally warmer weather.

The bird, known for its rasping call, was once widespread but was decimated following the introduction of mechanised farming.

Although numbers are on the up, the decline of the corncrake is still a ‘concern’ according to the annual report, however.

Scientists estimate that 150 to 200 species of plants and animals go extinct every day, most of which go unnoticed.

But luckily some animals around the world are bouncing back with the help of some human intervention.

Read on  

Australia's 'most important bird' takes a step back from extinction

by Joe Hinchliffe

20 November 2018 — 12:01am

Australia's "most important bird" – and one whose conservation some scientists consider the most urgent of any  bird in the world – has just taken a significant step back from the brink of extinction.

The critically endangered plains-wanderer once roamed the grasslands surrounding Melbourne.

So it is fitting that on these volcanic plains, for the first time in Victoria,  the bird has been bred in captivity.

It can be revealed that on November 4 four healthy plains-wanderer chicks hatched at the Werribee Open Range Zoo. Their names: Quagmire, Jane, Ramble and Clinton.

The plains-wanderer is found only in south-eastern Australia and is ranked No. 1 in the world on the Zoological Society of London's Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered bird list.

With fewer than 1000 mature plains-wanderers left in the wild and a population in decline, these four fluffy little bundles represent a milestone in the fight to stop the species dying out.

Read on  

Spain’s mission to save the White-headed Duck

The beautiful White-headed Duck is a compelling species. Keen birdwatchers are always eager to catch a glimpse of its distinctive blue bill or stiff tail. Its larger, eastern population in Asia is shrouded in mystery: the precise breeding and wintering grounds of tens of thousands of birds counted in Kazakhstan remains unknown. This population is also migratory, travelling long distances from Siberia to the Middle East, whereas the smaller western Mediterranean population resident in Spain, Algeria and Tunisia is more sedentary and far more closely studied. Sadly, what unites these populations is their IUCN listing as globally ‘Endangered’.

Back in the 1970s, the Spanish population of White-headed Duck was brought to the verge of extinction following the severe destruction of its wetland habitats and unsustainable hunting. A count in 1977 recorded just 22 individuals, confined to a single lagoon in Córdoba, Andalucía. Conservationists sprang into action: hunting at the lagoon site was made illegal and habitat restoration measures were implemented, including vegetation regeneration and the removal of harmful non-native species. Slowly but surely, the species began to recover, progressively spreading first to the neighbouring provinces of Sevilla and Cádiz and then on to Almería and Toledo. By 1988, more than 400 birds could be counted and today that number has rocketed up to 2,500 individuals across 13 Spanish provinces.

The spectacular recovery of the White-headed Duck in Spain is an inspiring example of what can be achieved by a well-coordinated Species Action Plan (SAP), grounded in science and supported by local authorities and community groups. But success in one country usually isn’t enough to turn things around for a whole species worldwide. That is why BirdLife has been leading the LIFE EuroSAP project with the goal of elaborating SAPs for sixteen iconic species on an international scale, spanning 65 countries and three continents. The White-headed Duck, still Endangered globally, was selected to be one of the target species, with SEO/BirdLife Spain coordinating efforts to identify threats and conservation measures to feed into an updated international SAP.

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Hawaiian Goose on its Way to Recovery

13 APR 2018

NOELLE DUERWALD

Officials have proposed that the Hawaiian Goose be downlisted from Endangered to Threatened.

The Nene, Hawai’i’s official state bird also known as the Hawaiian Goose, has recently received some good news. Due to a growing population, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed downlisting the status of the Hawaiian Goose from Endangered to Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The state bird has been considered Endangered according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature since 1967, but after 51 years, the species is no longer in immediate danger of extinction.

The Nene’s population was recorded at 30 individuals in 1960. The Nene was first protected in 1967 and has since benefited from a combined recovery effort, including captive breeding, predator control, and habitat protection. Today, more than 2,800 Nene live across all of the Hawaiian Islands. Loyal Mehrhoff, the Endangered Species Recovery Director at the Center for Biological Diversity said:

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Snowy plover making a comeback on Long Beach Peninsula

LEADBETTER POINT, Wash. — A tiny shorebird that nearly went extinct is making a comeback thanks to a $150 million habitat- restoration effort.

The Longview Daily News reports officials in Washington counted a record high 67 western snowy plovers in their last count in January. Oregon and Washington together, which are counted as a single recovery unit by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had more than 250 breeding pairs this year.

Researchers found 28 nests on the Long Beach Peninsula this year compared to 10 last year.

A biologist for the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge cautions to not plan a celebration yet, because numbers fluctuate over time.

But wildlife officials say the work to improve about 250 acres of the plovers’ habitat has also helped other species, including elk, deer, raptors and a type of flowering plant that has not been seen in this state in 60 years.

Fish and Wildlife plans to add an additional 200 acres to that amount over the next 10 years.

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Rare birds Choughs thriving again after being nearly wiped out

A rare species of bird is thriving again in the British countryside decades after it was almost entirely wiped out.

Choughs are the official bird of Cornwall and appear on its coat of arms but they vanished in from the county in the 1970s after their eggs were repeatedly targeted by poachers.

Conservationists launched a bid to re-introduce them after a single pair were spotted in 2001 and since then small colonies have emerged at managed sites at Land's End, Newquay and Cadgwith.

So far this year 17 baby choughs have been born - the best annual tally to date.

New colonies are also appearing across the UK, with sightings in Wales, the Western Isles in Scotland as well as the Isle of Man.

The total number of mating pairs is now thought to be much higher than the 435 counted back in 2002.

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