Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Welcome worldly wise new species
VERY
The guardians of those top secret locations where the rarest of rare birds nest are celebrating their golden jubilee this month.
Over the past 50 years, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel has collected and safeguarded precious nesting records to bolster science and support conservation efforts.
Gathering hush-hush intelligence has been vital for charting the fluctuating fortunes of more than 180 species in the age of a biodiversity crisis and climate emergency.
Fieldwork conducted by thousands of birdwatchers chronicled the catastrophic decline of the turtle dove along with the disappearance of black terns, snowy owls and golden orioles over the decades.
On an upbeat note, the red kite has become so successful that it is no longer monitored, as has the once extremely rare Cetti’s warbler, which now has a population of 3,500 pairs.
In a review of its work, the RBBP has also compiled a list of 59 species reported as potentially breeding in the UK but without confirmation. It makes for exciting and surprising reading.
Hailing from all points of the compass, an array of wildfowl, waders, raptors and warblers from the Arctic, North America, Russia and the Mediterranean are revealed to have made it to our shores with a desire to either breed with related native species or establish territories to find potential mates.
Waxwings, rough-legged buzzards and great grey shrikes visit here each winter before returning to northern haunts to nest under the midnight sun. The report reveals some linger here long enough to hint that they may breed.
Similarly, prevailing winds regularly bring American blue-winged teals, lesser scaups and ring-necked ducks in numbers sufficient enough to establish breeding populations.
From the opposite direction, Siberian yellow-browed warblers and Pallas’s leaf warblers arrive in Britain each autumn, but increasing numbers sighted in spring could herald a new breeding strategy.
With Mediterranean cattle, little and great egrets already established in Britain over the last three decades, other southern species, such as glossy ibis, red-rumped swallows and black kites, seem destined to follow as nesters.