Britain's largest bird of prey spotted over Saltburn and Whitby for first time in 240 YEARS

Two of Britain's largest birds of prey seen soaring 'over people's back gardens'; they were last seen in England in 1780 before humans killed them off

Britain's largest bird of prey has been spotted over Saltburn and Whitby - for the first time in 240 years.

Two white-tailed eagles have been seen soaring "over people's back gardens" and across the North York Moors.

The stunning birds, with wing spans of up to two-and-a-half-metres, were last recorded in England in 1780, on the Isle of Wight - but were killed off illegally by humans.

A five-year programme by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England to restore the lost species is under way.

It's hoped the birds will start to breed in the south of England. 

But it's North Yorkshire the young eagles seem to prefer - for now.

"At this stage, young white-tailed eagles are quite nomadic, exploring and learning the landscape," says Dr Tim Mackrill, from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation.

"The GPS transmitters are a brilliant way of tracking them, sometimes as often as every minute.

Read on

Returning lost eagle species to Wales

February 18, 2019, Cardiff University

Research taking place in Wales could see the return of lost eagle species to our countryside, bringing both conservation and economic benefits.

As part of pan-European efforts to restore eagles across their historic breeding range, researchers at Cardiff University are investigating whether the modern Welsh landscape has the potential to support their reintroduction.

Once a common sight in our skies, both the Golden and White-tailed eagle were driven to extinction in Wales in the mid-1800s. Today, the total European population of both eagle species is relatively small, and numbers are in further decline in many countries, primarily due to human persecution and habitat loss.

Bringing eagles back to Wales will help to strengthen ongoing efforts to conserve this endangered species. But, while the reintroduction of eagles to Wales is not a new concept, until now there has not been a rigorous assessment of whether it may be possible.

Eagle Reintroduction Wales Project researcher, Sophie-lee Williams from Cardiff University, explained: "Wales is home to large expanses of potentially suitable eagle habitat, but, before we begin reintroducing the species, there are many questions we need to answer about the quality of habitat, and whether it can sustain eagles.

"Working closely with partners such as the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Wildlife Trust Wales, we are currently carrying out a full feasibility study which will enable us to answer some of these questions and determine whether the Welsh countryside is a suitable location for eagle reintroduction."

Reintroducing eagles to the Welsh countryside would be an achievement of international conservation importance and, as seen with similar projects elsewhere in the UK and Ireland, it could also bring significant benefits to local communities and regional economies through wildlife tourism.

The reintroduction programme of White-tailed Eagles on the west coast of Scotland attracts an extra 1.4 million visitors to the region every year, generating up to £5 million of tourist spend on the Isle of Mull, and supporting 110 jobs.

Read more at: 

A new home for Raso Lark

19/05/2018

In a bid to preserve its threatened population, the Critically Endangered Raso Lark has been reintroduced to an island from which it has been missing for centuries.

Raso Lark's range has been restricted to the small islet of Raso, Cape Verde, since humans arrived in the archipelago in the 15th century. Raso is largely a rock desert, with some sandy parts in the west, and the larks generally favour small vegetated areas along dry stream beds on level plains with volcanic soil. The tiny size of the island, plus its susceptibility to periods of drought, places Raso Lark in a precarious position. The species' population fluctuates greatly in response to climatic conditions; during wetter weather, when vegetation grows and food becomes plentiful, it can rapidly increase, with numbers in the low thousands, but drier periods have reduced its population to just a few hundred mature individuals in the space of a few years.

Prior to human colonisation, Raso Lark was believed to be more widespread, frequenting both Branco and São Vicente Islands. Evidence from subfossil bone deposits reveal that it once also existed on the islands of Santa Luzia, São Vicente and Santo Antão. There are also one or two recent records of vagrants from São Nicolau, including one at Ponta do Barril in March 2009.

With this in mind, a new project, Cape Verde conservation charity Biosfera 1, in association with the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA) and other organisations, has launched an ambitious reintroduction programme on Santa Luzia.

Since 15 April, a total of 37 Raso Larks were translocated from Raso to Santa Luiza, where they have been successfully released. Each individual lark has been fitted with a small radio tag so that it can be tracked, allowing researchers to establish which area of the island they favour and whether the birds stick together and behave naturally.

Read on  

Rutland and Kielder ospreys on the move

17/03/2018

A pair of Western Ospreys has returned to their breeding quarters at Manton Bay, Rutland Water nature reserve, at a record-breaking early date, the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust has announced.

The female, ‘Maya’, was back at the reserve on 12 March 2018, a full 10 days earlier than last year and five days earlier than the previous record. The male, ‘33(11)’, joined her three days later, seven days earlier than he arrived last year.

The birds are part of the Rutland Osprey Project, a reintroduction programme that started in 1996, bringing ospreys from Scotland to England. Prior to that the species hadn’t bred in England for 150 years and Rutland remains one of the few places in the country where ospreys nest.

The pair is already occupying a nest, which can be viewed live at www.ospreys.org.uk/webcam.

A spokesperson for the project commented: “We can now confirm the earliest-ever return of our male and female ospreys from Africa, to Manton Bay, Rutland. Both birds have come back early this year, arriving five days ahead of the previous record. This is a very exciting time and we hope that the pair, who have already been mating, will have another successful breeding season here at Rutland Water.”

Continued 

Release planned for native bird species extinct in wild

Updated 6:16 pm, Saturday, August 27, 2016

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A dozen birds native to Hawaii will be released in November to end over a decade of extinction in the wild for the species.

The corvid is part of the crow family and will be reintroduced at a natural area reserve aviary, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2bOs2LC).

State and federal wildlife officials along with the San Diego Zoo have planned more releases over a five-year period.

First-year costs will be $800,000 and decrease by about half after that. The zoo and federal and state dollars fund the program.

"It's been such a long-term and large-scale conservation effort," said project coordinator Jackie Gaudioso-Levita. "We are extremely excited to see and hear 'alala in the wild."

The 12 birds are going to an aviary to ease the transition from captivity.

Predators and disease killed 21 of 27 corvids that were raised in captivity and then released in the 1990s.

San Diego Zoo experts are giving chicks in this latest group lessons in hiding from predators.

The release was postponed to November from mid-September.

"It's to make sure that every aspect of the project is completely ready to go," Gaudioso-Levita said.

Public outreach for the project has been ongoing.

Read on  

Reintroducing the Black-fronted Piping-guan in Brazil

By Alice Reisfeld, SAVE Brasil, 14 Aug 2016

A routine check-up in 2010 revealed that only one Black-fronted Piping-guan was left in the mountain range of Sierra do Mar, São Paulo. Wasting no time, the team of SAVE Brasil built a huge enclosure camouflaged in the Atlantic Forest to start a reintroduction programme. Six years later, the situation is being reverted: the birds are adapting and the locals are making sure their homes stay intact.

The Black-fronted Piping-guan Pipile jacutinga is a globally threatened species endemic to the Atlantic Forest of South America. As a consequence of poaching and habitat loss, this species is now locally extinct in big part of its original distribution, such as the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Bahia. Originally, it was found from South Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, Northern Argentina and Paraguay.

There are many programmes that have been successful in breeding this species in captivity, representing an opportunity for its reintroduction and population reinforcement.  Considering the significant threat that the Black-fronted Piping-guan has been suffering throughout the years with substantial population declines, SAVE Brasil (BirdLife Partner)initiated its program “Conservation of Game Birds in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Reintroduction and Monitoring of the Black-fronted Piping-guan” in 2010.

The project aims to implement a reintroduction and monitoring programme for Black-fronted Piping-guans, increasing the species’ population through captive management and release of individuals, thus raising the species conservation status. 

Projeto Jacutinga began in 2010 when a census was conducted in Serra do Mar, in the state of São Paulo, focusing on two bird families: Cracidae (chachalacas, guans and curassows) and Tinamidae (tinamous and nothuras). Along 160 km of transects covered during 1 year, only one single Black-fronted Piping-guan individual was recorded. This was worrying, as this bird has an important ecological role, since it swallows whole fruits and disperses seeds that can help the re-growth of forests. 

Continued  

Extinct birds arrive at Surrey animal park

The Great Bustard (the heaviest flying animal alive today) was once very much part of the British wildlife but sadly this spectacular bird was hunted to extinction in this country by the 1840's.

When close to hatching, the eggs were checked three times a day, and as soon one started to hatch it was moved to a special unit with high humidity.

Continued

Kites 'on the edge of extinction' now back in the skies

Apr 08, 2014 14:24

By Lorcan Lovett

Hungry hunter which swooped in on squirrel is now prevalent thanks to Bucks reintroduction programme

Red kites are now a familiar sight in our skies because of a revival programme, as one astonished reader found out.

Lynn Baldwin from Chalfont St Peter was riding in a car's passenger seat when she saw the bird of prey snatch a squirrel from a tree in Bull Lane.

As the hunter flew away with its catch, Mrs Baldwin, of Layters Close, grabbed her camera at the front of the car and snapped the scene on Saturday, April 5.

The birds are usually known to be scavengers but hunt small animals when they are hungry. RSPB officer Nik Shelton congratulates Mrs Baldwin on her quick reactions.

He said: "What a fantastic picture – well done to your reader for capturing this, it looks like a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. Red kites are normally scavengers – you often see them near busy roads waiting to pick up a roadkill dinner.

Continued

Corncrakes released onto Nene Washes to boost English population

July 2013. ‘The ‘Three Tenors', a trio of male corncrakes, are performing at the RSPB's Nene Washes nature reserve in Cambridgeshire, in an initiative aimed at expanding the breeding population of this scarce UK species which is the subject of a reintroduction programme in England. 

Retired from breeding programme

The three birds, affectionately named the ‘Three Tenors' by staff at the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust (PCT), are, in the best operatic tradition, males of European origin. The birds have been retired from the current captive breeding programme which is seeking to re-establish a breeding population in England following its extinction as a regular breeding bird in the 1980s. Their voices, rather than their genes, are now being redeployed!

Corncrake re-introduction project

As a result of studies in the 1990s, it became clear that corncrakes need access to tall (20cm+) invertebrate rich vegetation throughout the  breeding season, which birds can easily walk through, and also that they are susceptible to mechanical mowing of meadows. Armed with this critical knowledge, the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, the RSPB, Natural England, and the Zoological Society of London got together to collaborate in a project to restore the corncrake as a breeding species once again in lowland England.

The site chosen for the release was the RSPB's nature reserve on the Nene Washes, near 

Peterborough, due to its size and habitat suitability. The Washes are considered to be of 

international importance for their spring assemblage of breeding waders and other birds of wet grassland and overwintering flocks of ducks and swans.

Continued

Scarlet macaws reintroduced into the jungles of Mexico

After 70 years of extinction in the area, the Scarlet macaw returns to Palenque

June 2013. After a long process teaching the birds to adapt to the wild, 20 Scarlet macaws (Ara macao cyanoptera, a subspecies endemic to Mexico) were released into the wild in jungles of Palenque; the process will be repeated three times during 2013

The release is the first of three annual releases that, it is hoped, will return the species to the Palenque area. The goal is to have a population of 250 birds living in the wild in a habitat that they once roamed.

Part of Mexico's past

For the Hispanic cultures of south-eastern Mexico, scarlet macaws were considered guardians of the trees and they often appeared in their legends paintings and sculptures. Unfortunately, today the Scarlet macaw is limited to these artistic expressions as they have virtually disappeared from their original habitat (ranging from Tamaulipas to Chiapas), due to human activity.

Extinct in 95% of Mexico

The scarlet macaw has disappeared from 95 percent of the area it occupied in Mexico, and it is estimated that there are only 250 (All have been released) across the country.

Threats

The main threats to these birds are the removal of young for sale as pets on the black market and the significant decline in tropical rain forests, their primary habitat.

The project involves the Institute of Biology, UNAM and eco parks Xcaret, Quintana Roo, and National Aluxes and Palenque, in addition to federal, state and municipal governments, and representatives of the private sector and NGOs.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mexico-macaws.html

Northern Bald ibis breeding in Spain

Reintroduction programme providing useful insights into Bald ibis ecology - Our thanks to Proyecto Eremita for this information and the images

June 2013. After the news from Syria that the Northen Bald ibis population there is now functionally extinct (Just one bird returned to Syria this year), some better news from the breeding and reintroduction project in Spain. The programme in Spain (Proyecto Eremita) has been releasing a few birds in Andalucia over the last few years; by 2012 the population had grown to more than 70 birds.

Photo credit Proyecto Eremita

The 2012 project began with a total of 73 free flying birds (37 males and 36 females). The group was divided between two feeding and resting areas. As usual, the group moved through the grasslands near the release site, which are used exclusively for farming. The second foraging area was a golf course and a fighting bull farm located 11 km away from the aviary. This is very close to the former lagoon of La Janda, an important ecological site. The majority of the birds used both areas although some individuals only moved in one area. It is important to note that the birds during this year did not receive any supplementary feeding.

More

Chester Zoo helps Bali starling release project

One of the rarest birds in the world has been released back into the wild, with help from conservationists from Chester Zoo.

Illegal poaching of the Bali starling reduced its native population to an estimated six birds in 2001.

Conservation breeding efforts on the Indonesian island have seen a small recovery to between 50 and 115.

Dr Roger Wilkinson, Chester Zoo's head of field conservation and research, said it was a "momentous moment".

He said the release of four pairs was the first time the birds had been introduced into the wild in central Bali.

"The area was specially picked as it was well protected and had staff able to monitor the rare birds," he said.

"Quite a crowd turned out as most people local to the area had never seen a live Bali starling before."

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21656386

14 more whooping cranes to join flock in La.

Photo: Wikipedia

NEW ORLEANS — More than a dozen young whooping cranes are expected to arrive this fall in southwest Louisiana, doubling the number in a flock being reintroduced near the area where the state’s last wild flock lived in the 1930s, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says.

Twenty-six whoopers have been brought to Louisiana, but predators and disease killed nearly half of them. Whooping cranes are some of the world’s largest and rarest birds.

State wildlife biologist Carrie Salyers said the next 14 are tentatively scheduled to arrive Nov. 28.

The youngsters hatched in the spring and were raised in captivity.

They’re not expected to mix with the older birds — only one bird from a group brought in back in February 2010 has socialized with those brought in December 2011, and that appeared to be a matter of timing. The male identified as No. 4-10 had left the area. He returned on New Year’s Eve, when the second group of 16 was still being fed daily inside a 1.5-acre fence.

“At first he was not well received. Especially when they realized he was there for the ladies and the crane chow,” Salyers said.

She said the younger birds “were going, ‘No, we can’t stand having you around. We’re going to chase you around nonstop.”’ The returning male had to “grab a gulp of food” while running past it, she said.


Continued:  http://www.theeagle.com/article/20120916/BC0105/120919665/1003/BC01

More on whooping cranes (Grus americana):

http://www.savingcranes.org/whooping-crane.html

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whooping_Crane/id

Final batch of sea eagles released from secret location in Fife

Six sea eagles have taken their first flight in Scottish skies, marking the end of a successful reintroduction programme.

September 2012. Over the past six years, 85 young birds have been released from a secret location in Fife in a bid to restore the species to its former range in eastern Scotland. Each bird has been fitted with a radio and wing tags so both project staff and the public can follow their future progress.

Once a regular sight in Scotland's skies, the sea eagle was driven to extinction in the Victorian era. It only returned to the UK following a successful reintroduction to the West of Scotland, on the Island of Rum in 1975. Although the majority of the Scottish population remains on the west of the country, the species is now regularly spotted in Eastern and Central Scotland too.

The partnership, which consists of RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland, with additional financial support from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Fife and Rural Tayside LEADER 2007-2013 Programme, now hope the birds will begin to produce young on Scotland's east coast in the coming years.

Environment Minister Stewart Stevenson said: "We have been pleased to support this project over the last six years. The return of sea eagles to the skies of Scotland's east coast marks an important step in ensuring we now have a viable population of these magnificent birds. As well as fulfilling a role in our ecosystems, the birds are an important feature for our growing nature -based tourism industry."

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/fife-eagles-2012.html#cr

HOPES SOAR OF RETURNING RARE SEA EAGLE TO CUMBRIAN SKIES

Photo: Wikipedia

HOPES of returning the white-tailed sea eagle to Cumbrian skies have been strengthened after 90 per cent of people questioned said they would back a reintroduction programme.

The support was pledged during the first stage of important research into whether the giant birds of prey should be brought back to the Solway Coast.

Campaigners argue such a move would bring a multi-million pound tourist boost.

A feasibility study is now being carried out by the Centre for Wildlife Conservation at the University of Cumbria. It has just completed the first important stage – a speculative consultation to gauge opinion among the general public.

Mic Mayhew, a masters student at the university, carried out the research and discovered that almost 90 per cent of people interviewed were in favour of the reintroduction project.

He said: “We are encouraged and excited that such a broad range of people, from farmers and fisherman to city workers in Carlisle, have shown their support for the project.”

The survey focused on urban and rural locations in north Cumbria within the proposed area along the Solway coast, stretching from Carlisle in the east to Maryport in the west.

Mr Mayhew said that although only a small proportion of people objected, it was important that their concerns regarding the impact of sea eagles on farming interests and wildlife are taken into account.

The next stage of the feasibility study will look at the issues in more detail. Starting in the autumn, it will see wider consultation with local organisations who have an interest in the project.

Mr Mayhew added: “By consulting with business, farming and conservation groups, we hope to address the concerns raised by the general public. We look forward to working together to find ways of making the project work without affecting the livelihoods of farmers and landowners, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet.”

Continued: http://www.in-cumbria.com/hopes-soar-of-returning-rare-sea-eagle-to-cumbrian-skies-1.991078?referrerPath=news-archive/mediawatch

Bird information:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/whitetailedeagle/index.aspx

http://www.white-tailed-sea-eagle.co.uk/