Get further with your binoculars
Bird migration season is on, which might make you grab a pair of binoculars and head to British parks and gardens. To have the best experience, highlighted are a few key benefits of the technologies packet in binoculars to help you understand which will be your next companion for the next Spring adventures.
Clear and shaper visuals from coatings:
One of the most critical factors in binocular performance is the quality of the glass coatings. Not all coatings are created equal, and the type of coating used can significantly impact image quality. Anti-reflective coatings, applied to both surfaces of the lens, minimize reflection on the lens surfaces, ensuring clear and sharp images. Multilayer coatings, which are usually 3-5 layers, are more effective in reducing reflected light, improving image contrast and increasing how bright your image is.
Avoid unnecessary movements:
A wider field of view enables you to identify animals more effortlessly without the need to move or scan your binoculars frequently. This is because a broader view covers a greater area of the landscape.
Focused output throughout:
Another issue to consider is curvature of field, which can affect image clarity and focus. This causes the periphery of the lens appears out of focus, even it is focused at the centre.
It is especially important to consider this if you prefer using wide-field-type binoculars. A field-flattener technology offers spectacular detail all the way to the edge.
Getting the right glass:
In addition to these features, the type of glass in your pair plays a vital role in reducing chromatic aberration. But what’s that? Chromatic aberration happens when different wavelengths of light are not brought to the same point, resulting in a blurry and distorted image. ED glass has a unique dispersion characteristic that, when combined with other glasses, significantly reduces chromatic aberration. Investing in a good pair of binoculars with the latest technologies can make all the difference in the clarity, sharpness, and detail of the images you see. Take your bird watching experience to the next level with a pair of binoculars that delivers the best performance, and enjoy the beauty and wonder of birds in a whole new way. The Monarch M7+ is highly recommended for being packed with all of the above, making it ideal for birdwatching.
Key things to watch for in a pair of binoculars
Wide field of view
High quality lens coating Quality glass
From page 26 protect nests from terrestrial predators using electric fences and from some aerial predators by removing look outs near nests, for example, redundant fenceposts. Once the chicks hatch, however, they are highly mobile and roam widely. In some areas, lethal predator control has been the only effective measure to reduce pressure on local Curlew populations. How we manage the high predation pressure on ground-nesting birds is a controversial and difficult task and will likely vary with location.
The dynamics of our wildlife communities are closely interwoven with the way that we manage our landscape. Any changes that we make will impact the variety of species we see. One imminent change to our landscape is the increase in forestry.
To tree or not to tree?
The Government has committed to increasing tree planting rates across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament. To achieve this, they are planning to spend £500 million of the Nature for Climate fund on tree-planting in England up to 2025. While this is undoubtably important for carbon sequestration and for woodland species that have lost huge areas of habitat, it is a real problem for Curlews and other waders. Curlews won’t nest within about 300m of wooded areas because of the increased risk of predation.
Predators roam out of woodland anywhere from a few metres to several kilometres, which means that tree cover not only removes Curlew habitat, but also extends in a halo around the trees. This is a problem exacerbated by the fact that land available for tree planting is often in small pockets rather than large, continuous areas, resulting in a greater edge effect and the smaller woodlands provide stepping stones across the country. Low agricultural value in upland England makes it very attractive to tree-planting activities, particularly in areas like Cumbria, Northumberland and Yorkshire, land which also provides strongholds for breeding Curlews. Mitigating the impacts of tree planting on ground-nesting birds will undoubtably require compromise on both sides.
A pragmatic approach is being developed in which areas of high wader density are protected from development and tree planting and could be supported by compensation from tree planting in low wader density areas. For more information on tree planting and Curlews, please see Curlew Action’s Forestry webinar at: curlewaction.org/recorded-webinars
While predation and losses to farm machinery are the two biggest drivers of Curlew decline, they are not the only threats. There are 13 million dogs in the UK, an increase of 5.4 million since 2011. Curlew are flighty and during the nesting season (March-July), if nests are disturbed, it can cause the adults to abandon the nest or alert predators to the nests’ location. We can all play our part to give ground-nesting birds the best chance of fledging chicks by avoiding nesting areas during the breeding season, or staying on paths and keeping dogs on leads. When compared with other threats that our wildlife is up against, this may seem like a small gesture, but with Curlew productivity in such a critical state, every chick is precious.
In a last ditch attempt to boost Curlew
populations, various headstarting projects are now underway across the country. Headstarting is a technique in which eggs are collected from the wild, hatched and raised in the safety of captivity and then juveniles released into the wild where populations need emergency help.
Research using GPS tags is investigating whether headstarted birds return to their release area to breed. The outcome of this research will be significant in determining the effectiveness of headstarting as a conservation tool for Curlews. If juvenile Curlews are headstarted in lowland England but are subsequently found to be breeding in Curlew strongholds, like parts of Finland or the Pennine chain, this may not be the most effective conservation measure for lowland birds.
Chick survival rates in headstarting projects are good, and it may be one of a range of techniques used to boost local Curlew populations; it should, however, only be viewed a sticking plaster. It is vital for the future of the Curlew that we address the underlying problems of low productivity rates in the wild.
Is it time to say goodbye to the Curlew?
Protecting a species like Curlew is a considerable task. The landscapes of the UK are highly managed and human demands are intensifying as population and consumption grow – the result is species decline and biodiversity loss. Striking a balance between sustainable economic activities, development and leaving space for nature is vital. Curlews are caught in the cross-fire of many of the thorny issues facing our countryside: predator control, grouse moors, open access, dog walking, farming regulations, forestry, housing developments, wind and solar farms and, barrelling towards them, the impacts of climate change. Each of these are complex and nuanced, with a variety of stakeholders and opinions.
Such are the threats Curlews already face, local extinction as a breeding bird is almost inevitable. How many Curlews can live sustainably in our modern landscapes?
Is their loss from whole areas the most likely scenario? These are genuine questions Curlew conservationists are already debating. It is a sobering thought that we have gone so far down the path of biodiversity loss that letting an iconic call, like the Curlew’s, fall silent is a genuine prospect.
My personal answer to the question of whether it is time to say goodbye is, “No, it is not!” The Curlew represent much more than one species; its decline is an illustration of what is happening to our wild places and allowing the Curlew to disappear would be a bad omen for the rest of our wildlife. They are an umbrella species, which means that measures we implement to protect Curlew will also protect a range of other wildlife that share their habitats.
The loss of a species like the Curlew, however, goes beyond the practical; they are a species that evokes strong emotion and the cultural significance of their disappearance would be huge. Patrick Laurie, author and conservationist said in a Curlew Action webinar: “I would feel silly talking the way that I do about Curlew if they didn’t awake something very emotional, a very subjective response, which goes probably far beyond any other bird. They do really stir you up and I certainly struggle to think about them level-headedly”. I’m often asked whether I think it is a problem that we favour some species over others, shouldn’t we be working to protect all species rather than just the charismatic ones?
Is species-level conservation a waste of time and money? It would be wonderful if we loved all species, equally, if we could raise the same amount of attention and funds for a ‘Save the Bufftip moth’ campaign as a ‘Save the Hedgehog’ campaign (as someone who really love moths I am saddened by the general lack of appreciation for those fascinating little guys), but to overlook the emotional side of conservation is to miss an opportunity to engage and inspire. This is not to say that species-level conservation is the only way forward, or that we should only protect the charismatic, but they have an important part to play in working towards a more biodiverse future. Perhaps protecting a captivating and much-loved species like the Curlew can be a hook to help protect our meadows, mudflats, moorlands and maybe even our moths.