World's oldest-known bird lays another egg

11/12/2018

Having raised at least 30 youngsters previously, a 68-year-old Laysan Albatross is nesting once again. The female, fondly known as Wisdom, is thought to have laid as many as 35 eggs in her lifetime at Midway Atoll National Wildlife refuge, a tiny island 1,931 km northwest of Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean.

Wisdom has led to scientists re-evaluating the age to which albatrosses are expected to live. Her current partner has been with her since 2006, though his age is unknown. During her lifetime, it's estimated that Wisdom has travelled an astonishing 4,828,032 km.

The chick she produced in 2001 was last year seen just a few feet away from her on the Atoll and Kelly Goodale, US Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge (USFWS) Biologist, said: "Midway Atoll's habitat doesn't just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses.

"If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home she is likely surrounded by what were once her chick and potentially their chicks. What a family reunion!"

USFWS data shows that nearly 70 per cent of the world's Laysan Albatrosses and almost 40 per cent of Black-footed Albatrosses rely on the reserve. In total, approximately three million birds breed on the island – 1.2 million of them being albatrosses – demonstrating the immense international importance of the site.

Widsom was first ringed in 1956. Incredibly, she was then rediscovered in 2002 by the same biologist who ringed her some 46 years previous, while surveying an area he hadn't visited before. In 2006 she was seen again and from that point, after her age was recognised, she began to be monitored regularly.

Source  

Greenland White-fronted Goose gets hunting reprieve

05/12/2018

The UK and Welsh governments have decided to remove Greenland White-fronted Goose from the list of legal quarry during the open season.

The decision, which has been welcomed by conservation charities such as the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), will ensure that the declining subspecies can no longer be hunted across England and Wales.

Greenland White-fronted Goose breeds in the coastal fringe of west Greenland and winters exclusively in Britain and Ireland, with the largest numbers found in Co Wexford and on Islay, Argyll. The rest of the population is mainly concentrated at regular wintering haunts across western Scotland and north-western and western Ireland. Annual counts show that the population wintering in Britain and Ireland has dropped by a third in the last decade, with only around 20,000 expected this winter, and consequently it is of the highest conservation concern among the UK's geese, being afforded Red status.

Wales and England were the only countries left on the goose's migration route that still allowed them to be hunted – a ban is already in place in Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and all of Ireland.

Continued  

Captive breeding programmes will help save our wild birds

Projects to breed falcons in captivity were first launched by Sheikh Zayed more than 40 years ago

In the past, the conservation community and devotees of falconry viewed one another with a degree of suspicion at best and at worst, open hostility. But there have been important steps made recently in a growing collaboration between the two groups. Earlier this year, I attended a conference in Abu Dhabi called Summit for the Flyways, which brought together both conservation organisations such as BirdLife International and the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and bodies related to falconry, including the Abu Dhabi-based International Fund for Houbara Conservation. The meeting, supported by the UN-affiliated Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species and the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, examined threats to migratory birds moving between Africa, Europe and Asia and discussed initiatives to reduce those threats.

The conflict between the two camps has been fading as both have recognised that there is scope to work together and that the two passions are not mutually exclusive. After all, there can be no long-term future for falconry if the survival of wild falcons and their favoured prey, the houbara, is in danger. At the same time, the conservation of the habitats in which these species live has a beneficial effect on all other creatures that live there. There are both shared interests and potential conflicts of interest and the identification of a happy medium is, surely, the way forward.

As a boy growing in the English countryside, I developed a profound interest in the environment and the wildlife around me. With a father who was a top horticultural writer and a mother who taught biology, that was, perhaps, not surprising. For years, I used to shoot as well, deriving satisfaction not so much from the quarry as from the gradually honed ability to observe wildlife around me. I no longer shoot but I’ve never found it difficult to combine passion for the environment with support for some forms of country sports, field sports or blood sports, whatever you might call them.

Read more  

Manipur: Critically endangered bird sighted for the 1st time in 92 years!

by TNT BUREAU - 1 week ago in

IMPHAL, Dec 9, 2018

A critically endangered migratory bird – the yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola) that feeds on grains – was sighted for the first time after 92 years in Manipur last month, RK Birjit Singh, the wildlife warden of Bishnupur district, said.

The same was reported by Sobhapati Samom in an article in The Assam Tribune. The bird was last sighted here last in 1926, as per British ornithologist Stuart Baker’s records. The bird locally known as Lam-Sendrang (local meaning wild sparrow) was sighted at the proposed area of Thinungei Bird Sanctuary in Bishnupur district on November 28 last, Singh told The Assam Tribune.

There were reports of sighting the species at Thongjaorok river that flows into the Loktak lake, in the first week of November last year but there was no photographic record, said Singh, who is also the State coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network.

The size of a common sparrow, the yellow-breasted bunting breeds in north-eastern Europe and across northern Asia. It spends the winter in large flocks in wetlands or tall grasslands, preferring to roost near streams that irrigate rice-fields with tall grasses in south-east Asia, India and southern China.

Continued  

Hen harriers and red grouse: Finding common ground in a persistent conflict

Date:  December 17, 2018

Source:  British Ecological Society

A conflict between those working to conserve numbers of hen harriers and those maintaining commercial shooting of red grouse in the English uplands has existed for decades with little sign of progress.

Drawing on work conducted in psychology, a new study published today in the journal People and Nature investigated the underlying values that hunters and conservationists hold that make it so hard to find shared solutions.

Ecological studies over the last 30 years have shown that hen harriers and other birds of prey are capable of reducing the number of grouse to such an extent that driven grouse shooting can become economically unviable. Consequently, hen harriers, although protected under UK legislation since 1952, are killed illegally on grouse moors.

Researchers from Bangor University and the University of Aberdeen surveyed a range of organisations that represent the interests of field sports (i.e. hunting, shooting, fishing) or nature conservation in England to assess their values and attitudes towards hen harriers, grouse shooting and potential management interventions.

Dr Freya St John from Bangor University said: "We found that people who are involved in field sports and those engaged in bird conservation hold more or less opposing views about human relationships with nature, challenging our ability to find shared solutions."

"Although there is general agreement about the evidence of the ecological relationships between hen harriers and grouse, there is much less agreement about the best approach to manage them."

Read more  

Buzzard found poisoned in Ayrshire

03/12/2018

Police Scotland has issued a warning after an illegally poisoned Common Buzzard was found on the outskirts of Mauchline, Ayrshire, on 2 November by a member of the public.. It was still alive upon discovery, although in a severely distressed state, but thankfully survived the ordeal. A toxicology report confirmed the buzzard had ingested poison.

As a result of the report verdict, Police Scotland are concerned that this illegal activity is happening in the area and have appealed to the public for any information that may lead to detecting the person responsible for this deliberate act.

PC Sam Briggs, Wildlife Crime Officer, said: "It is a serious concern that someone has targeted wildlife in this illegal and indiscriminate manner. If anything unusual is discovered I would advise not to touch it, but instead cover it if you can and contact the police, giving them the exact location."

Police are working alongside partner agencies Scottish SPCA, Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture and Agricultural Officers to fully investigate the matter. Anyone with information on the illegal use of pesticides or who may has seen something suspicious – particularly in the last month or so – is advised to call 101 and quote No: SP-20181120-2194 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

This latest episode involving Common Buzzards is one of several to have occurred during the last 12 months, with other incidents having taken place in Co Cork, Powys and North Yorkshire.

Source  

Drones deployed to track Critically Endangered Australian parrot

06/12/2018

A new study has demonstrated how the use of robotics can become a key tool in the conservation of threatened species.

Swift Parrot is one of Australia's most threatened birds and is in need of urgent help, with BirdLife International estimating a total wild population of between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals. It breeds in Tasmania, migrating to south-east Australia for the austral winter, where it can be found sporadically from New South Wales west to Adelaide.

In 2010, Loro Parque Fundación started funding crucial field research by scientists of the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University (ANU), triggered by the accelerating decline of the wild population, which has been classified as Critically Endangered since 2015.

What they discovered was alarming. They found that Swift Parrots prefer to nest in cavities with specific characteristics, and that only 5.2 per cent of available tree hollows were suitable in the Tasmanian forests. Worse still, they detected a high level of nocturnal predation on the contents of Swift Parrot nests, including adult females, by Sugar Gliders, a mammal species introduced to Tasmania from mainland Australia.

Continued