Rising concerns

WHILE it may excite twitchers, the shifting species raise concerns for the impact of climate change on much-loved and familiar species, both as a result of the rising temperatures forcing native species to seek cooler climes, and the impact of new arrivals on food and territories.

In a report published to coincide with COP26, the BTO warned the UK’s puffin population could plunge by up to 90 per cent by 2050 if global warming is not halted – a loss of more than one million birds. Kittiwakes, Arctic terns, Arctic skuas, and fulmars, are among the threequarters of UK seabird species said to be at risk as sea temperatures rise, disrupting food chains. And it’s not only birds that are winging their way northwards. The British Dragonfly Society says six new species of dragonflies and damselflies have arrived in Britain since the late 1990s, while a seventh has returned after being wiped out in the 1950s.

Brian Walker, BDS chairman, said: “New species sound like good news for dragonflies, but the speed at which new species are arriving and colonising should actually be taken as further warning about the danger of rapidly changing climate conditions.”

Perhaps the strongest sign that our skies are changing comes from the BTO, which recently confirmed that swallows – whose arrival from South Africa typically herald the start of spring – have started spending the winter in parts of the south of Britain and Ireland. “We haven’t got to go back too far to remember winters when it would have been impossible for swallows to survive the freezing temperatures,” said BTO’s chief executive Juliet Vickery.