Hampshire Mediterranean Gulls experience population boom

16/10/2018

Mediterranean Gull is experiencing a remarkably rapid population increase in Britain, with a record 1,736 pairs nesting at Langstone Harbour this year. The Hampshire reserve has enjoyed an incredible 108 per cent increase on last year's breeding population, and a truly eye-catching rise in numbers since the first pair bred on the reserve just 20 years ago.

The species first attempted to nest in Britain only 50 years ago, in 1968, when a pair raised two young on an island off Needs Ore Point, Hampshire, also in The Solent. Indeed, until 1962 Mediterranean Gull was still a British Birdsdescription species, but numbers gradually increased – solidly rather than spectacularly – until the turn of the millennium. In 2000, the year of the last breeding seabird census in Britain, the number of pairs was found to be 108, but by 2010 this had increased to over 600-700 nesting pairs nationwide, mostly on the south and south-east coasts of England.

However, during the past seven years, a phenomenal increase has taken place at Langstone Harbour, as the number of occupied nests shot up from 498 in 2012 to 1,736 in 2018. Other exceptional counts have been recorded away from breeding colonies during the past few months, with 1,374 individuals past Hemsby, Norfolk, on 15 August, 1,230 (including 420 juveniles) at Ferrybridge, Dorset, on 31 July and over 1,000 at nearby Chesil Cove, Dorset, on 28 July.

At Langstone Harbour, Mediterranraean Gulls nest among Black-headed Gull colonies, forming denser sub-colonies within them at regular points, with Sandwich Tern sub-colonies often adjacent to them. Over the past two breeding seasons, approximately 200 young have been fitted with yellow colour rings in an attempt to better understand this rapid expansion in numbers. The success of Mediterranean Gull is a dramatic one – around 60 years ago, a westward expansion began in Hungary (where it was breeding regularly by 1953), then into Germany and Belgium during the 1960s, and The Netherlands by 1970. The first recorded breeding attempt in Northern Ireland was in Antrim in 1995, and non-breeding Mediterranean Gulls are becoming increasingly frequent in the far north of Britain. 

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Bird population increases around Lake Erçek in Van

June 19 2018 00:01:00

VAN – Anadolu Agency

The number of birds in eastern Turkey’s Van lake basin have increased following heavy rains in the region, according to a biology professor. 

Atilla Durmuş, a professor at Yüzüncü Yıl University’s Department of Biology in Van, told state-run Anadolu Agency that the birds enjoy easy nourishment and breeding due to rainfall this year. 

Visitors in the region can observe around 213 bird types among hundreds of other birds in the Van lake basin, which is home to one five of wetlands in Turkey. Different bird species in the basin offer unique beauties to visitors. 

The basin, which is also one of the places preferred by scientists for their research, is home to birds like flamingoes, swans, white-headed ducks, black-winged stilts, avocets, herons, ringed plovers, wild geese and others. 

As the region is on the migratory route, various bird species can be seen in every season. Festivals are organized to promote the region to the world. 

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Delight as rare saddlebacks multiply

 By Peter de Graaf

A conservation group is "ecstatic" after discovering rare saddlebacks have been breeding in the Bay of Islands for the first time in more than a century.

Project Island Song - a community-driven project to return native wildlife to the eastern Bay of Islands - released 40 of the distinctive orange-and-black birds, also known as tieke, on Moturua and Urupukapuka islands last May.

The group's volunteers had been nervously awaiting the results of the birds' first breeding season but have now spotted several family groups with young fledglings.

Birds hatched on the island are easily recognised because, unlike the adults released last winter, they have no leg bands.

Project Island Song coordinator Richard Robbins said describing the volunteers as excited would be a massive understatement.

"We're ecstatic. They're the first tieke to breed on the island in more than 100 years, and they're the northernmost population in New Zealand."

Mr Robbins said the wet summer meant there was plenty of food for the birds, helping to ensure a good breeding season.

Tieke liked to eat small invertebrates but would also feed on nectar and berries.

The group had yet to carry out a bird count - that would take place later this month - but there had been plenty of sightings and people were hearing the tieke's distinctive call all over Urupukapuka.

Read on ...

Shifting winds, ocean currents doubled endangered Galápagos penguin population

Date:

August 3, 2015

Source:

American Geophysical Union

Summary:

Shifting winds, ocean currents doubled endangered Galápagos penguin population, new research shows. The Galápagos Islands, a chain of islands 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of mainland Ecuador, are home to the only penguins in the Northern Hemisphere. The 48-centimeter (19-inch) tall black and white Galápagos penguins landed on the endangered species list in 2000 after the population plummeted to only a few hundred individuals and are now considered the rarest penguins in the world.

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Bittern populations back from the brink of extinction in the UK

After facing near-extinction, the Bittern is back in numbers in our reedbeds

Bittern were extinct in the UK by the end of the 19th century and was absent as a breeding bird between the 1870s and 1911, when the first breeding male was recorded.

The bird returned to peak numbers in the 1950s with around 80 breeding males.

From that time the decline began again, attributable to habitat loss. By 1997 there were only 11 breeding males recorded in England.

Concern over a second UK extinction led to a concerted conservation programme which is driving the current recovery. 

Scientists count bitterns by listening for the male’s foghorn-like booming song, and this year over 150 males have been recorded in England and Wales.

During the breeding season, the bittern prefers sizeable tracts of wet reedbed – a habitat which, two decades ago, in the UK had become scarce and under managed.

Simon Wotton, an RSPB conservation scientist, comments: “In the late 1990s, the bittern was heading towards a second extinction in the UK, largely because its preferred habitat – wet reedbed – was drying out and required intensive management, restoration and habitat recreation.

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Happy Feet III: Adélie penguin population actually on the rise

Date:

July 9, 2014

Source:

Stony Brook University

Summary:

The first global census of the Adélie penguin, long considered a key indicator species to monitor and understand the effects of climate change and fishing in the Southern Ocean, has revealed its population (3.79 million breeding pairs) to be 53 percent larger than previously estimated. By using high-resolution satellite imagery, researchers have applied a new method that permits regular monitoring of Adélie penguins across their entire breeding range, and by extension the health of the Southern Ocean ecosystem

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Flamingo population increases in Rajasthan: Report

TNN | Jan 20, 2014, 02.01 AM IST

The main highlight of the survey is sighting of winter migratory species northern shoveler, pied avocet, Common Redshank and black-winged stilt which is local species.

JAIPUR: It's good news for environmentalists and bird lovers, particularly in the state and the general as a whole. The Asian Waterbird Census(AWC) has counted 1,300 greater flamingos and 1,800 lesser flamingos so far in the wetlands ofGudha Jhapong and Devyani area in Sambhar Lake area. The census was completed on January 16. These birds are registered as endangered species and need protection in their sustainable habitat.

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Endangered Bird Comeback: Invasive food source has snail kite population soaring

Fort Myers, Florida (News-Press) -- One of Florida's most endangered birds is making a comeback in the most exotic of ways, feeding off an invasive critter that feeds mostly off an invasive plant.

Snail kite numbers have jumped statewide from 650 in 2007 to about 1,200 today. While that's only a fraction of the 3,400 birds found here in 1999, the rebound rate has shocked the science world. The next breeding season starts in January, and scientists aren't sure what to expect.

"We have a bird that was in dire straits that is now taking advantage of this proliferation of an exotic species that exploded," said Wiley Kitchens, a biologist and bird expert who conducts research for the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Florida.

"We were looking at almost an eminent extinction," Wiley continued. "That's where we were about four years ago - really, really concerned."

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Hope for Northern bald ibis as Moroccan population has best ever breeding year

Record season for Morocco's Northern bald ibises

September 2013. The largest fully wild population of Critically Endangered Northern Bald Ibis has had its second most successful breeding season on record, with the number of breeding pairs at its highest since surveys began in the 1980s. The colonies at Souss-Massa National Park and nearby Tamri, in south-west Morocco, fledged 148 young, bringing the total population at the end of the breeding season to 443 birds.

Two, tiny populations separated by more than 1000 miles

Once widespread in North Africa and Europe, the Northern Bald Ibis survives in two disjunct populations. Well to the east of the Moroccan birds is the semi-captive population at Birecik in Turkey, and south of that a tiny remnant population at Palmyra, Syria. There is also a newly formed population of Northen bald ibis in southern Spain recently created from captive bred birds released into Andalucia.

Wardens

Management and conservation of the Moroccan population is supervised by SEO/BirdLife (BirdLife in Spain) in conjunction with High Commission for Water and Forest and Fight against desertification and GREPOM (BirdLife in Morocco). SEO/BirdLife has hired seven wardens to protect and monitor the colonies, with funding from HSH Prince Albert II of Morocco, the Species Champion, through the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme. The wardens provide daily fresh water for the birds, and prevent disturbance. This year they succeeded in persuading a persistent group of anglers to move away from one sub-colony in the National Park, allowing the ibises to begin nesting.

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Cormorant control: it's not clear cut

BTO research into cormorant control - Inconclusive

March 2013. The UK Cormorant population has increased in size and range in recent decades, with more birds breeding and wintering inland, leading to potential conflicts with fisheries. Control measures have been introduced in response to this, with licences issued to kill up to 2,000 birds annually since the mid-2000s.

New research by the BTO has examined whether this control has been associated with changes in Cormorant numbers on Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) sites, especially on Special Protection Areas (SPAs) designated to protect particular species under the European Birds Directive.

shag

Population reduction
Although there has been a decrease in Cormorant population growth nationally since the mid-2000s, there was no evidence that killing Cormorants one winter affected numbers at local sites the following winter. However, some results indicated that Cormorant population growth was associated with higher intensity control (although this was not seen on SPAs). One explanation for this positive relationship could be that disturbance caused by control increases Cormorant dispersal, leading to apparent population growth at the site level. Alternatively, the results may reflect the fact that control measures are often reactive, with licenses granted in response to local increases in Cormorant numbers.

Due to the potential for increased Cormorant movements following control, both at larger scales and between unmonitored and monitored sites, these findings do not provide evidence as to whether control has influenced the national population trend. Further work is needed to better monitor Cormorants outside WeBS sites and to research their population dynamics, movements and behaviour. The key questions of whether Cormorant control has the desired effect of reducing predation at fisheries, and how cost effective it is compared to other measures, remain to be answered.

Full citation: Chamberlain, D.E., Austin, G.E., Newson, S.E., Johnston, A. & Burton, N.H.K. 2013. Licensed control does not reduce local CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo population size in winter. Journal of Ornithology, doi: 10.1007/s10336-013-0938-3. 

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cormorant-control.html

DNR: Kirtland's warbler a 'conservation success story' in Michigan

LANSING, MI - The population of the Kirtland’s warbler – a bird that breeds in northern Michigan – continues to bounce back.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said last week a recently released annual survey shows the bird’s population is at a record high.

Researchers and volunteers in Michigan counted 2,063 singing males during the official 2012 survey period – up from 1,805 males a year ago. That’s the largest single-year increase since 2007.

The lowest numbers were documented in both 1974 and 1987, when 167 singing males were found.

Only males sing. The DNR figures that each male has a mate with him, so the breeding population is generally considered to be twice the count of the singing males.

Michigan has made special preservation efforts to help the warbler, which is considered endangered.

Read more:  

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/kirtland_warbler_michigan.html