Wednesday 26 October 2016

Environmental Audit Committee - " after Brexit " - a few observations

This select committee session was a very different affair from the session on 18th October relating to Grouse shooting.  The chair - Mary Creagh ( remembered for opposing the sell-off of publicly owned woodlands ) - was excellent, unlike the chair of the earlier session.

Therese Coffey ( remembered for advocating the woodland sell-off ) was questioned in her capacity as a DEFRA minister on how the government would protect the environment post Brexit.
She volunteered a proactive approach towards recycling of waste and achieving clean air - but not much else.  She spoke of leaving the environment in 'a better state'  -  but by whose judgement ?

Caroline Lucas and Zac Goldsmith were among the MPs who asked questions and specifically mentioned The Birds and Habitats Directive.  Their questions were largely fobbed off by Dr Coffey who cited the impending Autumn Statement as a reason to obfuscate.  Dr Coffey was not keen to talk about the Birds and Habitats Directive.

The appointment of Dr Coffey to her present role was welcomed by the Countryside Alliance.  She supports shooting ( of wildlife ) as does her colleague Andrea Leadsom, as did her predecessors in DEFRA, Rory Stewart and Liz Truss.

It was a very unedifying performance by the minister.

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Some local birds

The evocative sound of Pinkfeet coming through the still air this morning and then the sight of skein after skein as they crossed the Solway into Cumbria against a clear blue sky with only the last remnants of the early mist -




Numbers of Barnacle Geese are building on the Solway.  A group bathed on the Wampool near Anthorn where it meanders its way into Moricambe Bay -


On the mudflats small groups of waders fed as the tide receded.  Lapwing, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Curlew and a mobile flock of about 30 Dunlin which were accompanied by a rather late juvenile Little Stint -


A little higher up the Wampool a small group of female Goosanders lingered -



Yesterday morning on the Geltsdale Reserve the east wind brought drizzle and a low cloud base.  But very distantly some female Black Grouse fed in a treetop -


The Border Forests often produce few birds but the rewards can sometimes be good.  A single Crossbill was better than nothing -


... and an immature male Merlin perched for a while in the failing light -








Thursday 20 October 2016

Re: previous post - contrast the independent birding press !

Two publications stand out in their promotion of fighting wildlife crime and raptor persecution in particular.

British Birds magazine has run editorials and the News and comment, compiled by Adrian Pitches regularly gives prominence to these issues and provides links to promote petitions such as the current petition to Ban Driven Grouse Shooting.  Well done !!

Birdwatch Magazine has had similar editorial input.  It hosts a column - The Political Birder.  This is Mark Avery - always good and gives suggestions like writing to MPs and supporting particular petitions.  Well done !!

And all this from magazines with no particular conservation or political remit !

More small steps for the RSPB and Cumbria Wildlife Trust

Further communication this week in an attempt to encourage the conservation bodies to promote the Parliamentary debate on Grouse Shooting....

The RSPB campaigns manager told me she completely understood why I was disappointed in the RSPB's failure to encourage members to write to their MPs about this.  Not sure where that leaves us.

The Cumbria WT have yesterday tweeted and posted on Facebook to ask members to write to MPs - this is good but rather 'buried' - not quite hitting the headlines !  They have had 'robust' discussion with the Moorland Association about raptor persecution  -  this is good !

The oral evidence session yesterday in preparation for the debate was a mixed bag.  Jeff Knott spoke well but he was 'off message' with regard to the the central tenet of the petition  -  how did that happen ?  Promoting licensing of Grouse Shooting seems a strange stance to take after the RSPB did not support the petition for that. Jeff Knott blogged about the session and suggested writing to MPs in advance of the debate - good but it needed some 'digging' to find it.   Mark Avery was good but given a rough time by the MPs, one of whom is former Countryside Alliance director !!
The Countryside Alliance and Moorland Association provided 'evidence' for the other side.  This was insubstantial, anecdotal and of questionable validity.  The MPs gave them a pretty soft ride.







Homage to a Cumbrian first

Allonby in West Cumbria is probably not famous for many things.  It is famous though for having hosted the first recorded British ( and indeed Western European ) Isabelline Wheatear.


The bird was first observed at Aigle Gill Farm on 11th November 1887 by the tenants Thomas and Richard Mann.  It was in a field that they were sowing with corn.  Most bizarrely Rev. H.A.MacPherson and Mr.Senhouse had only six days earlier visited the farmers and asked them to look for 'doubtful wheatears'.  So when they saw this pale coloured bird they did what Victorian naturalists always did - they shot it.  The corpse was sent to Rev. MacPherson and a chain of events was set off involving the luminaries of the day - he showed the specimen to Howard Saunders who was as it happened was just writing about the chats for his 'British Birds' and was able to correctly identify the bird.  It was also examined by Henry Seebohm ( Birds of Siberia and Seebohm's Wheatear ) and illustrations subsequently prepared by George Lodge.  The specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London the following month.
There are no subsequent Cumbrian records.


And so it was that when an Isabelline Wheatear appeared at Easington East Yorkshire this week, I decided to vist.
This bird also was in a newly sown field.


The black alula shows well although the white fore supercillium is muddied by the bird feeding in damp brown earth.



The pale underwing and broad black tail band shows well.



Again the tail pattern and alula show.




Monday 17 October 2016

Book Review - Cuckoo by Nick Davies


I found this book fascinating beyond all expectation.  I had watched the BBC film of Nick Davies' work on Cuckoos, listened to his Radio 4 programme and even heard him featured on the excellent Life Scientific presented by Jim Al-Khalili.  So I rather complacently thought I had heard it all.  How wrong !

The book describes Nick Davies' work on Cuckoos at Wicken Fen over a thirty year period and looks at the whole process of host nest selection, timing and the remarkably speedy laying of the egg with elegant clarity.  The mimicry of the host's egg which might seem to be a simple fact turns out to be a finely balanced 'arms race' between the Cuckoo and the host which is Reed Warbler at this Wicken Fen site.  He goes on to describe other devices of deceit used this time by the young Cuckoo in the nest.

Nick Davies' work involves devising some intricate experiments to test his ideas; these are often complex but he describes them with great simplicity.  He also weaves a good deal of humour into his account which is continually gripping and reads just like a good detective novel.

The book was enthralling from start to finish and includes a scattering of field drawings by James McCallum - a great favourite of mine.

Sunday 16 October 2016

A small step for the RSPB ...oh, and a rare bird.

Feeling frustrated by the silence of the RSPB around driven grouse shooting and the looming debate - so checked Martin Harper's ( conservation director ) blog yesterday and found that two months ago it mentioned their intention to ask supporters ( aren't all members supporters ? ) to write to their MPs about joining the debate.
Having heard nothing, I emailed Martin ( and copied in Mike Clarke, RSPB chief exec. ) asking for clarification.  Today a tweet from RSPB Skydancer briefly said - ask your MP to join the debate.  The attached link was more enthusiastic - but buried so deep !  Only those already committed would find it.

When some RSPB staff from The Lodge, along with a BBC team, visited the Geltsdale Hen Harrier nest site there was great positive feeling and a sense of joint enterprise between the RSPB Lodge staff and the team who had provided protection for the nest.

Guy Anderson (RSPB) with 'Gordon' ( a.k.a.Bonny ) the juvenile Hen Harrier.

It seems that there is a similar gulf between the workers on the ground and upper management within the Wildlife Trusts - more on that later....

It was a good chance to chat with Andrew Bomford and the rest of the BBC team about moorland management practices carried out on the Driven Grouse Moors so uncomfortably close to Geltsdale.



With the easterly winds continuing, more Siberian vagrants appeared on our shores.  About a week ago a Siberian Accentor appeared on Shetland - the first for Britain.  A few days later another appeared at Easington, East Yorkshire and fed on a mossy tarmac area, easily viewable.




Sometimes a Dunnock fed along side it.

The whole area from there towards Kilnsea and Spurn Point was alive with migrants.

Continental race Robin

Redwing

Goldcrest

Shorelark

Female Blackcap in elder.












Thursday 13 October 2016

Easterlies ... still !

With the continuing easterly airflow over the past two weeks, common and scarce migrants came flooding in.  There was never a dull moment during a walk around Holy Island - from the Straight Lonnen a Great Grey Shrike hovered over a wood in uncharacteristic style before perching in the top of a hawthorn 1km away -





Further along the Straight Lonnen a Red-breasted Flycatcher tantalised as it flitted from one side of a row of The Willows to the other -



And a Yellow-browed Warbler gave occasional glimpses in the Vicar's Garden -



At the wonderful flash at Low Newton a Baird's Sandpiper still lingered -


..... sometimes associating with about ten Dunlins and sometimes showing its varied habitat preference by wandering off into the grass.
In the light of the easterly wind direction, was this individual perhaps from NE Siberia rather than being a transatlantic vagrant ?



Among the many hundreds of gulls along the west Cumbrian coast this adult nominate race Herring Gull ( L.a.argentatus,  a.k.a. Scandinavian Herring Gull ) put in a brief appearance at Maryport -




With its bold head and neck streaking, extensive mirrors on p9 and p10 and noticeably darker grey mantle, it was a striking bird.







Friday 7 October 2016

More Island Magic...

Sometimes the experience of seeing a bird exceeds all expectations.

So it was with the White's Thrush that quite remarkably appeared on Holy Island on Wednesday this week.

It was perched low in willow trees at the end of the Straight Lonnen when I saw it.  The sun was catching the rich rufous tones of the wing coverts and highlighting the small gold coloured spots on the crown.  The bold chevrons on the breast and belly seemed to line up into elegant sinuous curves as it preened and turned.



This was a species I had no expectation of ever seeing without spending some time on Fair Isle or Shetland.  Even having traveled in various parts of  the east where they occur I had never previously managed to see one.



Even the leg colour was attractive - quite a striking pink.

It remained on Holy Island for the rest of that day but was not seen again.

The bird was named after Gilbert White because the first British record of the species was shot in Hampshire in 1828 not too far from Selborne where he famously lived.  It was named by Thomas Eyton and described in his History of the Rarer British Birds of 1836 - he was unaware that the species had already been described in Europe and earlier from India.  He noted "... in memory of the one with whom everybody is familiar by name , the late Gilbert White, author of  "The Natural History of Selborne ", a work which has and will afford many hours amusement and instruction to hundreds, and is deservedly classed among our standard books on British natural; history. "