James Walsh
Is there a north-south divide in birding? Asks James Walsh, aka The Mancunian Birder
investigates a northsouth divide in birdwatching and wonders if some birders are missing out.
As I write, the rather familiar refrain of Eric Spears Lancashire Blues can be heard in the background on the television, introducing a repeat of Classic Coronation Street. Probably not a lot of people know, but the ‘Corrie’ theme tune was actually a southern man’s musical interpretation of northern life. It has become the soundtrack to the tea-time of millions of Britons, as they sit down to watch a mainstream, stereotypical view of life in the Salford/manchester area.
Now, what has this got to do with birding (apart from Hilda Ogden’s flying Mallards on the wall), I hear you ask?
Recently, a singing male Black Redstart took up territory on the new Coronation Street set on Salford Quays, one of my local patches, around the same time that I hosted the inaugural Salford Docklands Bird Cruise and took the Urban Birder, David Lindo, around the site, onboard The Irwell Pride for a BBC Programme called Urban Jungle. This imagery sets the scene for this article,
Coronation Street is a cultural symbol of the Industrial North, smog, pollution and Lowryesque figures traipsing to industrialised jobs, whereas the birds and birding activity in the same area is a prime example of ‘grey to green’, nature reclaiming former industrial areas, such as docklands, and the potential of new, green industry such as ecotourism.
North-south divide in birding?
To start to explore the question “is there a north-south divide in birding?” I first looked at the location of the headquarters of a number of UK birding/conservation organisations and magazines, and I wasn’t hugely surprised to see that all were based in the south of England.
UK conservation/birding organisations
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Sandy, Beds; British Trust for Ornithology (BOU), Thetford, Norfolk; Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), Slimbridge, Gloucestershire; Rare Bird Alert, Norwich, Norfolk; Bird Watching Magazine,
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire; BBC Wildlife Magazine, Bristol; UK400 Club, Buckinghamshire; Birdline, Cley, Norfolk.
At Birdnet, back in the 1990s, we attempted to redress the north-south birding divide. Our office was in Derbyshire – and many northern birders flocked to the organisation, but we at Birdnet were always the ‘underdogs’ on the wider birding scene.
I took a look at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the UK’S largest nature conservation charity, in detail.
In 1989, I joined Magnus Magnusson, chairman of the RSPB at the time, for the 100-year anniversary celebrations, we placed a time capsule in the ground at Fletcher Moss, Didsbury, in Manchester, the site where the society began. Personally, I feel that the RSPB has lost touch with its Mancunian roots, there is just the one RSPB reserve in Greater Manchester – Dovestones – and the city centre Peregrines are promoted with a stall. However, I wonder what founder Emily Williamson would make of the modern-day RSPB, perhaps proud of the size and scale, but perhaps disappointed with the ‘southern-centric’ culture? How much money is spent on conservation in the north compared with the south?
I spoke with Mike Clarke, RSPB CEO, at the Conservative Party Conference in 2013 at the ‘State of Nature’ event, about the serious threat of fracking to the environment of the north, but I have not been impressed with the reaction – sometimes organisations such as this seem too entrenched in corporate culture!
I’m sure Emily Williamson would lament the species decline, habitat loss and pollution happening upon the watch of organisations such as the RSPB: do they need to give more power to the elbow of the north?
Wildlife presenters
Then I looked at the wildlife personalities and found that David Attenborough, Chris Packham, David Lindo, Kate Humble, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughesgames are from the ‘south of England’, and that there are just a few presenters representing other areas of the British Isles such as Lindsey Chapman (Yorkshire), Iolo Williams (Wales), Gordon Buchanan (Scotland) and Mike Dilger (Midlands). Where are the north-west wildlife celebrities? Are there any opportunities being given? Do we have to tick a box on an equal opportunities form to get more northern wildlife presenters? Despite the BBC moving to my local patch of Salford Quays at the beginning of the decade (building Mediacity:uk upon prime habitat for Little Ringed Plover,
Ringed Plover, Sky Lark and Lapwing in the process), and David Attenborough launching a wildlife film-making course at the University of Salford, there do not seem to be increased wildlife presenting opportunities for local people or talented students from the local universities.
The so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’
Next, I looked at wider society, and the obvious recent example to write about is the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, a Government project that was supposed to be the politicians redressing the north-south divide; but many saw it as an attempted power-grab to re-industralise the north and send us back to the 1920s in terms of pollution and workers’ rights.
It might go down as one of the worst Government projects in history. Two of the original architects, former Prime Minister David Cameron and former Chancellor, George Osborne, are no longer in power, and several ‘Northern Powerhouse’ ministers have also walked out of the office – that recently, rather ironically, moved from Sheffield to London – whistling to themselves as they went?! Lord Howell of Guildford infamously uttered a howler calling us “the desolate north” and this phrase was then ironically emblazoned upon a thousand protest banners and placards.
The KLF once penned a tune It’s Grim Up North and I cannot deny that there are conservation situations here that can be described as ‘grim’; the management of moorlands and the treatment of our Red Grouse and Hen Harriers, HS2, the Newcastle Kittiwakes that were abandoned and dying in netting last summer just yards from the Great Exhibition Of The North; and where do I start on fracking? As I write, Michael Gove had just put a stop to fracking at a site in Surrey, while the people’s struggle for social and environmental justice in Lancashire continues, with the campaign now in its eighth year! At the University of Central Lancashire there are highly-rated ecotourism courses, but where are the local jobs to retain the post-graduate students if the Westminster government turn The Fylde into one big fracking field? Heritage and the environment seem to be more uncherished in the north, often being seen as more expendable, with less money spent, often with austerity as the excuse! On the Salford docklands we have seen heritage trashed – the last docks cranes were recently demolished, and now Pomona, a site with huge heritage and potential as a nature reserve, is being concreted over in the interests of gentrification.
These are just some of the reasons that I participated on the ‘People’s Walk For Wildlife’ on 22 September 2018.
People power
Now I do not want to sound like a bitter northerner supping a half-empty pint of real ale with a big bag of chips on my
WHERE ARE THE NORTH-WEST WILDLIFE CELEBRITIES? ARE THERE ANY OPPORTUNITIES BEING GIVEN?
shoulder, nor do I want to sound like the At Last the 1948 Show sketch, The Four Yorkshiremen (“A pair of binoculars!? You were lucky!! We had to tape a couple of milk bottles together!!... A hide?! Luxury!! We had to drag scrap metal from t’tip for 20 miles and build our own!! A twitch in a car!? You were lucky, we had to get up before we went to bed, do 12 hours on t’local patch seeing nowt but a sparrow, and then walk to the twitch in our barefeet… if we were lucky!! And you tell kids these days and they don’t believe you!”) If you really take a close look at the north of England, there are many reasons to be positive: people power is on the rise, and you can see many victorious environmental campaigns. It is encouraging to see many birders getting involved in the Hen Harrier protests, especially in the north, and let’s hope that the Skydancer campaign is another win for the people!
A new vision of the north
After seeing the plans for the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ I wrote a book painting an alternative, green vision entitled The Northern Greenhouse based on ecotourism, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.
I have witnessed nature reclaim so many former industrial sites, often with a helping hand from the conservation movement, and I felt that this needed highlighting, promoting and celebrating – Woolston Eyes SSSI in Cheshire, Brockholes Lancashire Wildlife Trust Reserve, Don Valley, Aire Valley, Thorne Moors and Dearne Valley in Yorkshire, and Saltholme RSPB Reserve on Teesside.
The potential of the north
Having spent about 30 magical years birding in the north of England, I can say for sure that there is ecotourism potential in ‘them thar hills’. I often find the general attitude to the Red Grouse perplexing. It used to be championed as an emblematic ‘endemic bird’ – other countries celebrate their unique species and have birds like this on their flag or on their money; but all the British seem to do is shoot them and celebrate shooting them at the same time! So business people want to relax and team bond in the countryside, I can understand that, but why can’t we have corporations paying decent money to shoot Red Grouse with cameras and not guns? Can we replace bloodlust with a gentler, more educational experience? Could this be a win-win situation for the environment? I believe that there needs to be a change in attitude towards this species, and to this effect, I am proposing that there is a Red Grouse Day, one day in the year where we celebrate this unique bird, a culture change from the ‘Inglorious 12th’.
It isn’t just on the moors and hills where we need culture change, although there are some signs of the grass-shoots of recovery – in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, there is a Local Nature Partnership that brings together conservation organisations and local accommodation providers to promote ecotourism, including the wildlife spectacle that is the huge winter wader flocks, bringing ‘out-of-season’ business to an area that generally relies on the summer holiday trade; there is also talk of a ‘Northern Eden Project’.
I recently hosted the Fylde Future conference in Blackpool, where a transition to a green economy, including utilising the ‘Pink-footed Pound’ (The Fylde is known internationally for wintering Icelandic Pink-footed Geese), was among the subjects discussed at the Solaris Centre.
In Greater Manchester, in March 2018, the environmental movement made it onto the big stage with a Green Summit, at Manchester Central – a venue usually known for big, corporate shindigs and pop concerts. The Green Summit announced the ambition of Greater Manchester to become a “world-leading Green City Region” Forget the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, the ‘Big Society’, volunteering and doing things on the cheap, we need huge investment in the conservation industry in the north, and unionised, fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, green jobs.
The north, yet to reach its heights, is potentially on the cusp of the next evolution, the great leap forward to a society that respects the environment… ‘The North Will Rise Again!’