Chattenden 'nightingale-threat' plan for 5,000 homes pulled

6 September 2017

Plans to build more than 5,000 homes on a site that is home to the rare nightingale have been withdrawn.

Proposals for the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Lodge Hill, Chattenden, included housing, schools, a healthcare centre and shops.

The scheme on the former Ministry of Defence (MOD) site was opposed by many residents, Natural England, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trust.

The leader of Medway Council said he was "appalled" by the decision.

The RSPB said the site was "the most important site in the country for nightingales" and development would threaten dozens of pairs of nightingales which nest on the land.

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have withdrawn their planning application and intend to submit revised proposals for the site.

The HCA said it was committed to going ahead with a development at Lodge Hill with a new planning application expected to be submitted in 2018.

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Breckland roost at Cavenham Heath is a rare chance to see the secretive stone-curlew with RSPB and Natural England

Chris Hill

PUBLISHED: 09:09 08 September 2017 | UPDATED: 14:14 08 September 2017

They’re usually elusive, shy and unsociable – but a Breckland heath has offered a glimpse of a “secret gathering” of stone-curlews as they prepare for their annual migration.

Cavenham Heath, near Mildenhall, has become a departure lounge for these rarely-seen travellers, as they congregate to roost and feed before flying more than 1,000 miles in search of some winter warmth in northern Africa and southern Spain.

The stone-curlew is one of the UK’s rarest breeding birds. They are notoriously secretive in the breeding season and, as many nest on private or inaccessible land, there are few public places for people to go and see these unusual birds without the risk of disturbing them.

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Seabirds ingesting plastic pollution warn scientists

20 September 2017

Most of the seabirds examined for a study of the effects of marine plastic pollution had swallowed plastic.

Researchers, including scientists from North Highland College UHI's Environmental Research Institute in Thurso, investigated 34 species.

They found 74% of them had ingested plastic.

The research involved seabird colonies in northern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Greenland, Svalbard, the Faroes and Iceland.

Species with the highest levels of plastic ingestion included northern fulmar, Manx shearwater and herring gull.

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Poaching pushes waterfowl species to brink of extinction

Wed, Sep 13 2017 12:16:24 PM

By Vishal Gulati

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): Crossing national and international boundaries, millions of migratory birds descend on India to avoid the extreme winter chill in their native habitats. Many of them never return to their breeding grounds, say ornithologists.

The reason: They are exposed, largely in non-protected wetlands, to illegal killing and trade.

Scientists, mainly from Mysuru's Nature Conservation Foundation, during their fieldwork in 27 wetlands in Tamil Nadu's Kanchipuram district, estimate that at least 1,700 waterbirds, mainly large- and medium-sized, are hunted every year in each wetland. They say hunting is widespread from December to April, the peak season of winter migrants.

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This 'fire bird' is back in N.J. for the first time in almost 30 years; here's how it happened

Updated on September 16, 2017 at 9:16 AMPosted on September 16, 2017 at 9:15 AM

By Michael Sol Warren

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

CHATSWORTH -- Before June 6, 2015, bobwhite quail nests had not been spotted in New Jersey since the 1980s. The birds had essentially disappeared from the Pine Barrens, for reasons generally unknown. All signs, however, point to habitat loss.

New Jersey Audubon has been reintroducing bobwhite quail on Bill Haines' Pine Island cranberry farm in Chatsworth since April 2015. Just months after the first release of birds, originally trapped in Georgia, the nests were found.

Bobwhite quail are nicknamed "fire birds" - hence the name of the award Haines received - because they're known to thrive in forests that burn on a regular basis. Forest habitats go through various stages through time, changing as trees mature. Bobwhite quail live in "early successional" forests, which is made up of habitats like grasslands, old fields and young forests. This habitat requires disturbance, often in the form of fire, to keep from changing into more mature forest. For decades, a lack of fire in the Pine Barrens has meant that these early successional have disappeared, according to forester Bob Williams.

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Once-Plentiful Hawaii Bird Now Protected By Endangered Species Act

By Nathan Eagle    / September 19, 2017

Facing extinction due in large part to the effects of climate change, the ‘i’iwi — a scarlet honeycreeper only found in Hawaii — will receive federal protection as a threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.

Once common from mauka to makai throughout the islands, the small red bird is now found almost exclusively in high-elevation forests on Maui and the Big Island. The population on Kauai has plummeted 92 percent over the past 25 years and the bird is almost completely gone from Lanai, Oahu and Molokai.

Lost habitat and mosquitoes carrying avian diseases and malaria are to blame. The ‘i’iwi are no longer in places that mosquitoes thrive, which is why they have found refuge in koa and ohia forests above 3,600 feet.

But as the planet warms, the mosquitoes’ range increases, further constricting the space available for the ‘i’iwi.

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Why Birds Sing, Royal Festival Hall, London, review: birdsong-inspired compositions meet recordings of the real thing

Works by Messiaen, Brett Dean and Beethoven share the bill with exotic birdsong from America, Hawaii and Thailand

    

Michael Church 

On paper, the Aurora Orchestra's birdsong extravaganza sounded painfully contrived: birdsong-inspired works by Messiaen and Brett Dean, interspersed with recordings of the real thing plus written commentaries, all rounded off by Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and with Ligeti's Poème Symphonique (for a hundred metronomes) thrown in as a bonus.

In the event, the Ligeti was a cock-up, but everything else went swimmingly, from the recorded call of the Northern Cardinal at the outset, to the flute and clarinet bird-calls in the Beethoven.

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