Rush to see ‘bombsite bird’ turned into a wild goose chase
News of the sighting of a rare bird in the city this week caused much excitement in the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust office. But the dash to find it turned out to be fruitless, says
AS reported in the Post earlier this week, a rare bird, a male black redstart, was recently spotted in the city. Its appearance caused excitement amongst the team in the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s city centre office, and at least one colleague headed out to see if they could find the bird.
Heading out to see the robin-sized bird, even when armed with knowledge of the location, which hasn’t been publicly disclosed, good I.D skills and field craft, and a decent pair of binoculars, turned out to be a “wild goose chase”, if you’ll excuse the expression.
The bird which caused all the fuss is a member of the chat sub-family which also include robins, nightingales and stonechats.
They generally breed in mountainous areas where they seek out cliffs and crags – so you might be wondering why, other than the rarity value, the Wildlife Trust team got so excited.
The excitement is largely due to the fact that the birds have previously bred in the city, with Nottingham being one of a number of urban locations across the country that have a fascinating connection with these birds that stretches back to the 1940s.
Like many species, black redstarts are nothing if not adaptable.
After the Second World War, birds started to nest on the remains of bomb-damaged buildings.
The damaged structures replicated the birds’ favoured nesting conditions in much the same way that Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building mimics the cliff-top habitat traditionally favoured by peregrine falcons.
Their colonisation of these cities earned the black redstart the nickname as the “bombsite bird”.
Whereas the peregrines hunt pigeons and other birds for sustenance, the black redstart found the disturbed ground around the derelict and damaged buildings an ideal habitat to seek out insect food amongst the stony, weedy ground, which had similarities with the mountain scree slopes the birds were evolved to exploit.
The birds became a regular feature in many cities, including London, Liverpool, and Manchester, as well as Nottingham, but as cities regenerated the numbers have declined and breeding records are mainly now from the south of the country.
With less than 100 pairs thought to now nest in the UK, the bird carries top level protection under the Wildlife & Countryside Act and is considered a ‘Red List’ species of Conservation Concern.
Despite this, the team at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have not given up hope that they can be tempted to return.
The disturbed habitat they favour for feeding has long been a feature in our city, especially on former industrial sites that have been cleared awaiting redevelopment.
The so-called ‘brownfield’ sites are often considered as being of no value to wildlife, but in many cases they are home to a much wider range of species than a typical agricultural field.
The mix of wild flowers and garden escapees, such as buddleia, that quickly colonise the sites, plus the areas of bare earth and stoney ground can be a haven for a wide range of invertebrates and even reptiles.
When commenting on development proposals for ‘derelict’ land, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have long recommended that where development is to be permitted, developers should incorporate roof top habitat to replace the rich habitat that often develops on long established brownfield sites.
In addition to working to conserve and replicate its preferred feeding habitat, we’ve also installed a number of specially designed nesting boxes on buildings across the city centre.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has previously installed black redstart nest boxes on buildings including Castle Rock Brewery, Nottingham Trent University’s Confetti building and Capital One’s HQ.
Following the latest sighting, we now have planning survey checks at all the sites where we’ve installed nest boxes over the coming months, and will be on the lookout for more.