As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 18 December 2017

London and the south east is the new frontier for new bird species


5 Dec 2017 6:00 AM

London and the south east of England are on the front line of climate change in the UK, with the region’s birds already reacting to an apparent one degree rise in average summer temperatures since the 1980’s.

Most species are moving north to remain in their comfort zone, meaning some European species, like the hoopoe, little bittern and zitting cisticola are likely to become resident in the not too distant future.

My daughter thinks the zitting cisticola sounds like an unpleasant disease, but it’s a small warbler, which builds nests like cups in long grass, mostly near water. It makes a sound like the snipping of scissors. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before we get records of breeding zitting cisticola’s in wet grasslands along the Thames Estuary!

The findings are from the latest analysis of bird surveys and monitoring data called the State of the UK’s Birds (SUKB). It’s produced by a coalition of three NGOs: the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), together with the UK’s statutory nature conservation bodies: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland (DAERA), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England (NE) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). That’s enough of the acronyms (8 AMBAR*).

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