Hopes raised for endangered hen harriers with bumper breeding season

Dozens of hen harrier chicks have been successfully reared in England this year in what has been a “record” breeding season for the threatened bird.

There were a total of 15 nests, with 15 successful breeding pairs and 47 chicks, outdoing the previous recorded best for England in 2006 of 46 birds, government conservation agency Natural England said.

Tony Juniper, the agency’s chairman welcomed the “better breeding season” but warned hen harrier numbers were still far from where they should be, with the birds of prey victims of illegal persecution.

Over the last two years, 81 chicks have been raised to fledging, outstripping the total for the previous five years combined, the figures show.

Chicks have also hatched in a wider variety of areas this year, including in Northumberland, Yorkshire Dales, Nidderdale, Derbyshire and Lancashire.

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Best breeding season for decades almost doubles rare orange-fronted parakeet numbers

Jul 17 2019

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage talks about the success of the breeding of kākāriki karaka/orange-fronted parakeet.

The beech mast has been blamed for an explosion of predators but finally it has brought some good news – a sharp rise in the number of New Zealand's rarest mainland forest bird, the orange-fronted parakeet/kākāriki karaka.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said at Peacock Springs Wildlife Park in Christchurch on Wednesday morning that 151 chicks had been born in the wild so far this season.

That potentially doubled the current population to about 300.

"This year's epic breeding provides a much-needed boost to the kākāriki karaka population. It is great news that this year there are more than three times the number of nests compared to previous years," Sage said.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) works with Ngāi Tahu in leading orange-fronted parakeet recovery, including providing predator control in their mainland habitats, running captive breeding programmes and maintaining pest-free island populations.

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A record year for Denbighshire's terns ... but will the picture be so rosy after Brexit?

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Cymru reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and lists some upcoming birding events

By

Andrew Forgrave Rural Affairs Editor

23:40, 17 SEP 2018

Supporters of Wales’ only nesting colony of Little Terns are celebrating another successful breeding season under the watch of wardens from Denbighshire County Council .

Despite 89 nests being lost to Storm Hector’s metre-high tidal surge in June, a record 171 pairs reared 192 young on the beach at Gronant .

Wardens saved 27 nests from the waves by moving nests up the beach, and numbers were boosted by influx of birds whose nests failed in Ireland, Cumbria and the Isle of Man.

Every year since 2014 each pair has fledged a chick, enough to grow the population, making Gronant the second biggest Little Tern colony in Britain & Ireland.

Wardens have witnessed some chicks refusing food, an indication of good supplies of small fish offshore.

Read on  

Early indicators suggest successful Bewick's Swan breeding season

03/09/2018

High cygnet numbers suggest that Bewick's Swan has enjoyed a bumper breeding season in Russia. In total, 24 cygnets and 10 family parties were recorded by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) during an annual trip to the Russian Arctic, where the birds nest in remote tundra. This news is potentially a positive development for the Critically Endangered species, after just one cygnet was recorded during last year’s expedition, on the back of a dire breeding season.

This year, the team tagged 60 Bewick's Swans, 10 of which had been ringed before. The WWT makes the 3,218-km trip every year in order to ring the swans, many of which winter on British soil. These populations, west of the Taimyr Peninsula, migrate via the White Sea, Baltic Sea and the Elbe estuary to wintering grounds in Denmark and The Netherlands, as well as Britain.

WWT Conservation Scientist Kane Brides was delighted with the trip's findings, commenting: "This is a definite indication of a better breeding season than last year, when spring was late and the birds didn't have as much of a window to breed. Thankfully the weather was OK this year, allowing the swans to get on. In the next four weeks the Bewick's will begin leaving the Arctic to begin their epic journey through Europe. We hope this snapshot means there will be more cygnets in tow with their families."

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Black-tailed Godwits enjoy successful nesting season

25/08/2018

Despite difficult weather earlier this year, Black-tailed Godwits in East Anglia have managed to have bumper breeding season, the RSPB has announced. A total of 18 chicks were raised in the wild, with a further 38 released by Project Godwit after being hatched in a special rearing facility. Furthermore, godwits bred at a nest site not previously used since 2012.

Project Godwit, which combines the expertise of teams from the RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), confirmed the successful season, during which the weather proved particularly challenging. When the birds returned to the East Anglian Fens in March, spring flooding had covered most of the areas in which they normally nest. This resulted in eggs being laid in muddy fields and becoming stuck, requiring intervention from Project Godwit workers.

The eggs were collected and raised in bird-rearing facilities, and incubated at Welney WWT. A total of 38 chicks were later released at Welney and the Nene Washes, joining the wild flocks, which included 18 successfully fledged youngsters. In addition, nine of the Black-tailed Godwits which were released as youngsters last year returned to the Fens.

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Baby boom for world’s rarest parrot

Kakapos are world-famous for their bizarre appearance, and their rarity. With a global population of merely 123 adults, a bumper breeding season looks set to increase their population by nearly a third

By Christina Holvey

2 August 2016

In a land renowned for unusual creatures, New Zealand’s "owl parrot" or kakapo is surely a candidate for the most outrageous. The size of a small dog but with stature of a penguin, this large, rotund bird has an owl shaped head and cat-like whiskers.

Being the heavyweight of the parrot world means the kakapo is flightless, and preferring its own nocturnal company makes it pretty antisocial too. One aspect the kakapo has in common with some of its airborne cousins is extreme longevity, with certain individuals known to live for 120 years.

Befitting a bird that is in it for the long haul they are also notoriously picky breeders, only attempting to reproduce once every three to five years and coinciding with when their favourite food, the fruit of the rimu tree, is in plentiful supply.

Read on … 

Outstandingly successful breeding year for rare Chinese Crested Tern

The Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini) is one of the rarest birds in the world, with an estimated breeding population of only 100 birds.

Assumed extinct for the past six decades, it was rediscovered 15 years ago but is Critically Endangered with a very small population and only three known breeding sites.

A BirdLife International Partnership including the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (BirdLife Partner), has recently announced that the Chinese Crested Tern has had its most successful breeding season since its rediscovery, thanks to a project to restore a breeding colony on Tiedun Dao, in the Jiushan Islands .

Also as part of this successful project, conservation groups and volunteers from mainland China, Hong Kong and the US successfully initiated the first ever tagging operation of Chinese Crested Tern and other seabirds on Jiushan Islands, where 31 birds were fitted with numbered bands on their legs so more can be learned about the species.

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Lapwing numbers boosted by RSPB nature reserves

Conservationists are thrilled that lapwings, birds which have been disappearing from the UK, have had a successful 2014 breeding season in grassland habitats managed by the RSPB.

Lapwings belong to a group of birds known as waders: typically long-legged birds which generally feed at the water’s edge or in wet grassland. The RSPB manages a number of sites in lowland England where the birds nest, including Otmoor in Oxfordshire and Rainham Marshes on the outskirts of London. The wildlife charity has also been working on Great Bells Farm on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, converting 160 hectares of poor-quality farmland into a freshwater nature reserve. In 2014, many of the RSPB’s sites were able to announce lapwing breeding successes, thanks to land management based on knowledge built up over decades across RSPB nature reserves, in lowland England.

Known as “peewits” after their distinctive call, black-and-white lapwings have a ‘red status’ in the UK, which means that the speed and nature of their decline is causing concern. These birds have been disappearing from lowland England since the middle of the 19th century. The most recent falls in numbers of lapwings is due to changes in agricultural land use. From the mid 1980s they began vanishing from south west England and parts of Wales. This year, numbers of lapwings breeding on RSPB lowland wet grassland reserves grew, with a higher number of chicks fledging, giving conservationists hope that these birds face a brighter future.

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Scotland's threatened puffins have successful breeding season

After years of poor summers, birds have had good season and pufflings are ready to take wing, say experts

Alexandra Topping

The Guardian, Sunday 13 July 2014 15.35 BST

After several poor summers for Scotland's puffins, the "clowns of the sea" are gearing up to leave the country after a good breeding season, experts have said.

Changes to habitat and food brought on by climate change have created difficult conditions for breeding puffins in recent years, but early indications show that Scotland has enjoyed a positive breeding season, according to the Scottish Seabird Centre.

With pufflings now hatched and ready to take wing, visitors to Scotland have only a few weeks left before the birds – who come to Scottish islands including May, Craigleith, Fidre and Shetland – leave Britain's northern shores in August, said the chief executive, Tom Brock.

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How Northern Ireland's endangered birds are getting the space to thrive

Many of Northern Ireland's bird species are heading for the brink – but the RSPB is celebrating after a bumper summer delivered a hugely successful breeding season.

Numbers of breeding common terns rocketed by 45% on its Northern Ireland reserves in just one year, while the threatened lapwing is up 38%.

Curlew and redshank, which are included on the 'red list' of species of conservation concern, rose by 18% and 22% respectively, while black-headed gulls are up 29%. Breeding pairs of amber-listed snipe are up 36% since summer 2012.

However, RSPB NI director Dr JamesRobinson stressed these huge gains were seen on RSPB reserves and land managed for wildlife by 300 farmers who were taking part in the EU-funded Halting Environmental Loss Project (HELP) in Glenwherry, Lough Beg and Lough Foyle – outside these areas, the picture may well be less than rosy.

The breeding successes come against a grim backdrop of sharp wildlife declines over recent decades. This year's State of Nature report revealed that 60% of UK species are showing long-term declines and one in 10 is on the brink of local extinction.

This summer's bonanza shows what can be done when the right land management practices are put in place to halt the loss of habitat that is causing many of these declines, Dr Robinson said.

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