On 17 January 2014, all over the Netherlands, water birds were counted. By now, about 80% of the results are in the computer database. That means about 4.5 million birds. Some important areas, like the Scheldt delta in Zeeland province, IJsselmeer lake and Lauwersmeer, are still missing; so, figures are provisional.
About 30% more great egrets were counted compared to 1914. Grey herons rose 50%, as there are plenty of rodents.
There are 57% more moorhens than last year, after years when things did not go well for this species.
Bitterns, elusive heron-like birds once extinct in the UK, have had a record year in England with the highest number of individuals recorded since the 1800s, thanks to support from an EU conservation programme. Government figures recently showed many threatened species are still declining, but this story demonstrates that it is possible to bring back species from the brink.
Funding from the European Union’s LIFE-Nature programme, which supports environmental and nature conservation projects, has allowed a partnership of organisations including the RSPB to successfully create and restore wetland habitats for bitterns and other wildlife.
… The main ‘special conservation measure’ available is designation and appropriate management of the key breeding and wintering sites as Special Protection Areas (SPAs). For example, the North Norfolk coast is part of a network of bittern SPAs in the UK, five for breeding birds and ten for wintering birds. SPA status means that a site has robust protection from potentially damaging land-use change.
Male bitterns have a unique way of declaring their territories, pumping air through their throats to produce a loud “booming” sound. This reverberates across the marshland for several miles, earning the bittern old country nicknames like “miredrum”. The shy, well-camouflaged birds are extremely difficult to find so bittern numbers are calculated by the numbers of booming males heard among the reeds. Each year an army of volunteers, landowners and nature reserve staff spends many hours tracking down the birds while they are booming. In 1997, at the start of the EU LIFE bittern project, they found 11 booming males at seven sites. In 2014, there were 140 “boomers” across 61 sites. 14 of these sites are current or former gravel pits, brick pits or open coal mines, demonstrating the important role restored quarries and similar sites can play in securing the long term future of bitterns and other wildlife.
RSPB Minsmere was the stronghold for this bird for many years. But with the effects of climate change such as loss of freshwater coastal wetlands in mind, conservationists realised that it would be better if a number of suitable habitats were available in areas that were safe from sea level rise, and spread across the country, to ensure the bittern’s future. A second set of funding from EU LIFE-Nature from 2002 to 2006 allowed the RSPB and others to create more than 300 hectares of new reedbed, around the same size area as the City of London. In addition, 350 hectares of reedbed were restored, and nearly 40 km of ditches were restored or created across 19 sites. Now if a particular bittern population is struggling, there will always be birds from other locations to boost their numbers. This year, the highest number of bitterns were at RSPB Ham Wall, inland marsh habitat in Somerset, where 20 birds were booming from the reeds. Somerset now has England’s largest bittern population.
Further good news is that action for bitterns has also benefited other reedbed species such as water voles, great white egrets and rare small dotted footman moths. Functioning reedbeds also provide free services for people, including water filtration and flood mitigation.
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RSPB scientist Simon Wotton said: “I’ve been working with bitterns for 10 years and it is wonderful to see how they have responded to the habitats we have restored for them. They’re amazing birds to watch so it is incredibly rewarding to see their numbers growing.”
Simon Clarke, Somerset National Nature Reserves Manager at Natural England said: ‘The Avalon Marshes in Somerset, including Natural England’s Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve, now supports a thriving population with around 45 booming male bitterns and at least 20 recorded nests, whereas only seven years ago there were none. This impressive network of reedbeds and marshes has also supported breeding little bitterns and great white egrets in recent years, showing just what can be achieved through large scale habitat restoration in a short space of time.”
Meniaia, Z., Samraoui, F., Alfarhan, A. H., & Samraoui, B. (2014). Nest-site selection, breeding success and brood parasitism in the common moorhen Gallinula chloropus in Algeria. Zoology and Ecology 24: 305–313. doi:10.1080/21658005.2014.959281 PDF in ResearchGate.net
Between 2010 and 2012, we studied the breeding ecology of the common moorhenGallinula chloropus at Lake Tonga, north-east Algeria. Nests were low lying (mean ± SD = 13.64 ± 5.07 cm) and located in tall, dense stands of Scirpus lacustris (72%). The egg-laying period was relatively short, between mid-April and the end of June, peaking in the first half of May. The mean overall clutch size ± SD was 7.03 ± 2.52 (N = 58 clutches) with a slight seasonal downward trend. Rates of successful clutches increased with egg-laying date and water depth mainly due to the seasonal decrease in nest predation and nest flooding. Nest predation, in contrast to…
Since being fitted with a satellite tag by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) four years ago, Chris, a Cuckoo named after naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham, has travelled over 60,000 miles – the equivalent of flying twice round the world. And in his journeys he’s taken in 22 different countries!
The UK’s Cuckoo population has dropped by 72 per cent in the last 25 years. In order to find out what’s driving this decline, the BTO fitted an original five Cuckoos with state of the art tags to enable them to follow the birds as they made their way out of Britain to Africa for the winter. The tags were believed to have a lifespan of two or three years.
Of the first five, Chris is the only Cuckoo still transmitting live data, far exceeding the expectations of the scientists. He is currently in the Congo rainforest, having arrived at his favoured winter spot on 25 October.
Dr Chris Hewson, lead scientist on the project at the BTO, says, “Chris the Cuckoo is a real hero of ornithology. The tag he is carrying has helped us to understand the pressures that he and our Cuckoos face on what is a pretty hazardous migration to Africa.
“He has survived sand storms, hail storms, an exceptionally cold, wet summer, predators over the Mediterranean and in the Congo rainforest, and has crossed the Sahara Desert a whopping seven times since we started following him. We have everything crossed in the hope that he makes it back next spring.”
Chris Packham says, “Chris deserves a medal for what he has given to the understanding of bird migration; he is a truly remarkable bird.
“But even more remarkable is the way in which BTO scientists use the very latest technology to produce contemporary science and then communicate it to a wide audience. It would be so easy to lose this in scientific journals but thanks to the BTO we can all watch enthralled as Chris and all of the other satellite tagged Cuckoos make their way across the globe.
“I’m rooting for all of them and can’t wait until they begin their return journeys back to the UK next spring.”
You can follow Chris, and 15 other satellite tagged Cuckoos on the BTO’s website. If you are looking for a Christmas gift with a difference, you can sponsor one of the BTO Cuckoos for as little as £10.00 and help to inform Cuckoo conservation.
Between The Hague and Rotterdam, a grey heron on a lamppost. Not so unusual. However, on lampposts next to it: two white storks, more unusual.
A few kilometer more south: again, three white storks on lampposts.
Near Rotterdam, again a stork on a lamppost. As it is still rather early in the morning, are they waiting for higher temperatures, with better conditions for soaring, continuing their autumn migration to Africa?
This is a video about ruff mating season at Strypsche wetering on 2 May 2014.
We saw ruffs on 21 September there too. Not in mating season mood and plumage, but in autumn migration mood and plumage.
Other Strypsche wetering birds: redshanks, ruff relatives. Northern lapwings, more distant relatives. A big golden plover flock landed. Egyptian geese. Mallards. Snipe.
Four great cormorants flying overhead.
Again and again, flocks of scores of barnacle geese, maybe just arrived from the Arctic, fly, calling, to a field where hundreds congregate.
We continue to another fence: a male and a female kestrel sitting next to each other.
We arrive at another part of the Strypsche wetering. Many Canada geese. Some of them look like being injured. Probably because of hunters who can’t shoot straight.
We arrive at the sand dunes closest to the beach. A flock of common linnets. A blue tit.
On rock in the water, a great black-backed gull.
Closer to us, swimming, a big surprise: at least 37 little grebes, probably many more. Such a big flock is unusual for this species. Every now and then, some of the birds fly a short distance and land again. A great crested grebe swims along with them.
As many other bird species in Europe, the Common Quail and the Turtle Dove are being victims of a common practice that brings only concerns to the bird lovers: an uncontrolled hunting for which the laws seem not to be sensitive enough.
In Serbia, where Common Quails and Turtle Doves are considered game birds, these species are being direct victims of this excessively lax law and the threatening practices have led both species into a worrying trend of decrease. In their efforts to overcome these terrible effects, the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS – BirdLife Affiliate in Serbia) has given voice to these common concerns advocating for a legislative change. Our partner, with a strong support of other conservation organisations, has officially requested the Serbian Ministries of Agriculture and Environmental Protection for these two species to enlarge the list of protected birds in the country and abandon their status of game birds. Sadly, the efforts have fallen on deaf ears in both 2003 and 2012.
The problem, however, does not only affect the Common Quail and the Turtle Dove, but is also bringing a wide range of conservation issues, going from the massive usage of electronic devices to attract birds to an overall lack of proper management that leads into an overexploitation of many species.
In their unflagging efforts to address this issue, BPSSS supporters have recently engaged in a series of actions to help the police and the inspectors in several cases of illegal hunting. Milan Ružić, BPSSS Vice-president, said that thanks to a strong public campaign, the cases of illegal hunting are becoming increasingly reported in the Serbian media outlets, and the general awareness of the society is rising up.
Are these steps a sign that something is progresively changing for a better protection of the Common Quail and Turtle Dove populations? Certainly yes. Despite the fact that there is still a long way to go, we are in the right direction, and we hope that the efforts being made by BirdLife partners for the birds and their habitats will soon see their full blossom.
Originally posted on 
