Endangered birds to be released into Norfolk countryside

PUBLISHED: 14:53 31 July 2018 | UPDATED: 14:53 31 July 2018

Simon Parkin

Dozens of birds that were once a common sight in the Norfolk countryside before a steep decline put them on the endangered list are set to be released into the wild near Diss.

Earsham Wetland Centre has reared 100 grey partridge as part of its conservation work and plans to release most of them at Dickleburgh Moor where they are creating a new nature reserve.

Both nationally and in Norfolk, grey partridge, also known as the ‘English partridge’, have undergone a massive decline and are a red-listed species.

In Edwardian times there were more than a million roaming the British countryside. By the early 1990s this had dropped to 145,000, and today estimates suggest that this figure has halved again.

Ben Potterton, trustee at Earsham Wetland Centre, which opened last year in the old River Waveney Study Centre building, on the site of the former Otter Trust, said this summer’s dry weather had prompted them to rear grey partridge for their Dickleburgh site.

Continued 

Farmer attempts to bring back rare bird

27 January 2016 Last updated at 19:09 GMT

A County Down farmer is attempting to bring back a bird that has not been seen in the fields of Northern Ireland for several decades.

The grey partridge was once common, but changes in farming and its own tendency to stick up for itself in a fight, saw its numbers dwindle until it was declared extinct in Northern Ireland.

BBC News NI's Agriculture and Environment correspondent Conor Macauley reports.

Continued  and video ...

Environment Minister helps to save threatened farmland bird

ENVIRONMENT Minister Richard Benyon has received a conservation award for helping to save a threatened farmland bird.

The grey partridge, whose numbers have been declining for the past fifty years, requires an insect-rich habitat to raise chicks.

After giving 1,000 acres of his Englefield Estate in Berkshire to help the bird, Mr Benyon’s efforts have been successful as the numbers of grey partridges on the Englefield estate have increased from two to 31 pairs.

And the Englefield estate’s team have been awarded with the Cotswold Grey Partridge Trophy by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) for their efforts to save the rapidly declining bird.

The grey partridge has declined in recent years, with numbers dropping from more than one million pairs in the 1950s to less than 50,000. GWCT claims a range of year-round habitats such as insect-rich areas for chicks and cover for winter is essential for saving the birds.

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Turtle dove in danger of extinction, says RSPB

They have long been a staple of a popular Christmas song. But the turtle dove and the partridge face crisis this winter following a dramatic fall in numbers which could put the turtle dove in danger of extinction.

Over a five-year period, Britain has lost six out of 10 turtle doves, with just 14,000 pairs now left in Britain.

The RSPB has estimated that by the middle of the next decade fewer than 1000 pairs may remain, putting the bird in danger of extinction.

The grey partridge population is estimated to have fallen by 30 per cent in the same five year period to 2010. There are now around 43,000 pairs.

RSPB scientist Dr Mark Eaton described the drastic decline in bird numbers as an “unsustainable wildlife disaster”.

He said: “The turtle dove is in a great degree of danger – if this trend were to continue we could be down to fewer than 1000 pairs by the middle of the next decade, with complete extinction a real possibility.

 “Losing six out of ten of our turtle doves and three out of ten grey partridge in five years is nothing short of an unsustainable wildlife disaster.”

Turtle doves, which have often been used as emblems of love and devotion in literature, were once widespread in southern Britain but numbers have declined by more than 90 per cent since the 1970s.

Continued:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/9727382/Turtle-dove-in-danger-of-extinction-says-RSPB.html