Ireland's Birds doing worse than ever before

Pie Man

Deleted User wrote: »

But Grey Wagtail have gone from amber to red listed. Last few winters haven't been noticeably bad. Generally the smaller the bird, the harder hit in cold winters. Goldcrests and Wrens numbers collapsed after 1962/3. Grey Wagtails are easy to spot, the flash of yellow, extraordinary tail, no surprise people spot them regularly, but these surveys are properly scientific. Along with flowering plants, birds are the best studied wildlife in Ireland. I think when the alarm is raised, we should pay heed.

I take part in survey work on Dippers, we monitor winter roosts and nests at breeding time (By Licence), by consequence we monitor grey wags as well as they both breed on fast flowing rivers.
Grey wags roost alone sometimes on exposed branches, wrens roost in groups in old nests, holes in walls etc.
In 2018 the bad weather in March hit Grey Wags hard locally. The number of breeding pairs were scarce, but they had a good breeding season. 2019 the breeding pairs were well up from year before.

I'm no expert on the matter by any means and I cant comment on the status of grey wags nationally, but on average threw the years I've been doing this the numbers locally are stable.

Birdnuts

kildare lad wrote: »

While many of our waterways are in bad conditions , the canals near me aren't . There's far more cormorants coming inland in recent years to stretches of water that they've never been on before , and our waterways can't take that predation. Cormorants aren't the only animal that relies on fish in the canal , you've otters, herons , grebes , kingfishers , pike, perch and crayfish. Most of the spawning fish have been eaten in the last two years. And when all the other birds and otters breed , they're gonna struggle to feed their young as there's a major lack of fish in the canal .

I have certainly noticed a rise in Cormorants using inland waters - I suspect it might be a response to the ever increasing damage industrial fishing fleets are doing to the seas all around this island.


PS: Young cormorants appear to be on the menu for Sea-Eagles on Lough Derg. Hopefully when these eagles become more established it can bring enhanced balance to the riparian food chain

Birdnuts

jackboy wrote: »

Even the Green Party have turned their backs on the environment and habitats in favour of waffling about carbon taxes and cycle lanes. 90% of individuals who would have been interested in protecting the environment and habitats are now gone down that rabbit hole too. Protecting habitats and birds is not fashionable at the moment. Things are very bleak for the near future at least.

I strongly agree with this - most of the ones I have encountered are pretty clueless on Natural Heritage issues. The growing scandal surrounding BNM's plans for bog restoration being a case in point as it now appears that despite being handed 100m euros by Eamon Ryans Department to "rehabilitate carbon rich peatland" , it appears most of these bogs will be for ever sterilized under giant industrial wind farms. At the start of the year the top peatland ecologists in the country like Trinity's Catherine Renue Wilson sounded the alarm on this and said the money should not have been handed over till plans and guarantees were in place. Ryan spent last week waffling to his pals in the Wind industry at their AGM, so it appears the huge potential of these bogs for wetland wildlife restoration, improving water quality, natural flood control etc. will never be realised despite all the government greenwash spin and PR:mad:

Birdnuts

embraer170 wrote: »

I had a recent interaction with the NPWS following the destructions of 30+ mature trees during nesting in a town near me. I got an absolute joke of a response.

NPWS is a seriously broken organisation - having interacted with them for the past 20 years the bulk of the problems appear to be at management and parent department level. We will see what comes out of the current review but IMO not much progress can made without some serious culling of deadwood right up to Sec Gen level

whisky_galore

slipperyox wrote: »

I know of a lot of farmers that get "farm cats",
semi feral cats to roam sheds and barns, but I'd imagine they'd rather go for finches and small birds than rats...

Have three, they sort of arrived here rather than I setting out to get any. One of the three is the best, if you could call it that, at hunting but turns up with mice almost all of the time. I haven't seen a single rat since they arrived, maybe it is their presence and patrolling keeps them away.

The odd house mouse gets in here but they don't last long once I see their calling cards and I've worked out where they habitually wander and put a few strategically placed traps down based on that.

I know she would nab a bird if she could so I've opened the windows in the outhouse so she can't corner one if a bird makes a go for a window to escape.
She has been neutered so she will not be in the family way.

One annoyance with the F&F forum, a typical wildlife related query would begin with "I have a problem with X animal/bird, should I put out poison or get someone to shoot it?"

kildare lad

Birdnuts wrote: »

I have certainly noticed a rise in Cormorants using inland waters - I suspect it might be a response to the ever increasing damage industrial fishing fleets are doing to the seas all around this island.


PS: Young cormorants appear to be on the menu for Sea-Eagles on Lough Derg. Hopefully when these eagles become more established it can bring enhanced balance to the riparian food chain

Sea fishing is gone to crap due to over fishing . Unfortunately I don't there's enough sea eagles to make a dent in cormorant numbers. I think we'll start seeing a serious decline on inland fish eating birds in the next few years on waters where's there's cormorant predation

OpenYourEyes

kildare lad wrote: »

Seen a pic an hour ago on facebook of a woman "saving" a chiff chaff from her cat . And I'm thinking imagine flying all the way from africa , just to be killed by someone's pet . I don't understand people who let there cats outside being on wildlife pages ??

I saw someone recently asking to ID a dead bird. Apparently the bird must have attacked the cat first because the cat never hunts birds...

tabby aspreme

Has the increase in the buzzard population, had any impact on the numbers of other bird species.

magicbastarder

kildare lad wrote: »

Sea fishing is gone to crap due to over fishing .

i finally got around to reading 'whittled away' and it's shocking but not surprising. how much is the irish sea fishery actually worth? as in, how much would it cost to simply pay the trawlermen to stay at home instead?

adocholiday

On a more positive note I live in South Wicklow and the Red Kite population is doing really well here, seeing them further and further from Avoca now. There is a nice population of them in the woods behind my house so they're always overhead, great to see. I also have a woodpecker in my garden although haven't been able to get a picture of it. They're popping up in places around here now. Buzzards and sparrow hawks are regular here too and I've seen a few peregrines.

What's happening to our ecology is awful, but we have good people actively encouraging conservation and protecting our wildlife and I try to take the positives from that.

OpenYourEyes

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Has the increase in the buzzard population, had any impact on the numbers of other bird species.

Some people have suggested they've impacted Kestrel, but there's no evidence to support that, and Kestrel declines here started before Buzzards came back. Otherwise no. Buzzards are not the expert hunters that you might think. Pigeons, corvids, rabbits, rodents are the majority of their diet. Even with regards the Stock Dove, predator-prey dynamics suggest that they likely aren't predated much by Buzzards (because they're so rare compared to other prey).

kildare lad

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Has the increase in the buzzard population, had any impact on the numbers of other bird species.

I'd say buzzards impact on bird populations are minimal as they've a wide range of a diet , everything from worms, small mammals to roadkill , I think they're more of an opportunist hunter/scavenger rather than say a sparrowhawk who'd mainly just target birds.

kildare lad

magicbastarder wrote: »

i finally got around to reading 'whittled away' and it's shocking but not surprising. how much is the irish sea fishery actually worth? as in, how much would it cost to simply pay the trawlermen to stay at home instead?

They paid off the salmon driftnet men 30 million to stop about 15 years ago. It's hasn't really done anything to increase salmon numbers though that's due to a wide range of factors . It's the EU that give out massive quotas to foreign boats that fish our water , that's the problem . Another problem is the catching of sprat which are turned into pellets to feed farmed salmon. Many coastal birds like puffins rely on sprat as a huge part of there diet . Farmed salmon is one of the most toxic and damaging industries going . I wouldn't eat farmed salmon if you paid me .

Sure look at the fish packets battered fish they sell in shops most of its alaskan pollock as the cod stocks around europe have collapsed

malinheader

kildare lad wrote: »

They paid off the salmon driftnet men 30 million to stop about 15 years ago. It's hasn't really done anything to increase salmon numbers though that's due to a wide range of factors . It's the EU that give out massive quotas to foreign boats that fish our water , that's the problem . Another problem is the catching of sprat which are turned into pellets to feed farmed salmon. Many coastal birds like puffins rely on sprat as a huge part of there diet . Farmed salmon is one of the most toxic and damaging industries going . I wouldn't eat farmed salmon if you paid me .

Sure look at the fish packets battered fish they sell in shops most of its alaskan pollock as the cod stocks around europe have collapsed

The salmon drift netting pay off was a farce.
We all new the drift netting wasn't the major problem but the easiest targets at the Time.
Destroying nature and wildlife will go on because the big corporations and companies who are doing the damage are to rich or to much in bed with governments to make them answerable to no one.
Also saying cats are a reason for disappearance of our birds is like saying dolphin and shark are the reason for the near existence of tuna. We all know deep down what the problems are.

gozunda

adocholiday wrote: »

On a more positive note I live in South Wicklow and the Red Kite population is doing really well here, seeing them further and further from Avoca now. There is a nice population of them in the woods behind my house so they're always overhead, great to see. I also have a woodpecker in my garden although haven't been able to get a picture of it. They're popping up in places around here now. Buzzards and sparrow hawks are regular here too and I've seen a few peregrines.

What's happening to our ecology is awful, but we have good people actively encouraging conservation and protecting our wildlife and I try to take the positives from that.

Yes I've also seen a general increase in raptor numbers here over the last few years and now have a fairly strong presence of buzzards in the area.

Interesting you have a woodpecker! They are another relatively recent addition to our fauna

https://magill.ie/archive/first-woodpeckers-irish-history-spotted

On conservation- unfortunately there will always be pressure on ecology especially considering the fact that the population on the Island here has nearly doubled since the 1970s.

That said I do wonder has there been any comprehensive study on how many of the birds on that list are simply not making it Ireland in the first place.

https://wilderness-society.org/killing-fields-migratory-birds-southern-europe/

kildare lad

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

I saw someone recently asking to ID a dead bird. Apparently the bird must have attacked the cat first because the cat never hunts birds...

You think you were on a cat lovers page instead of a wildlife one with them justifying cats killing birds . I've stopped commenting as you may as well be talking to a wall as trying to tell someone to put a bell on them or keep them inside during nesting season. I had an argument with a woman who had 5 outdoor cats saying she could live with them bringing home birds as there was loads of them . Then a week later see was screaming blue murder about people poisoning buzzard in cork . You couldn't make it up

Birdnuts

kildare lad wrote: »

They paid off the salmon driftnet men 30 million to stop about 15 years ago. It's hasn't really done anything to increase salmon numbers though that's due to a wide range of factors . It's the EU that give out massive quotas to foreign boats that fish our water , that's the problem . Another problem is the catching of sprat which are turned into pellets to feed farmed salmon. Many coastal birds like puffins rely on sprat as a huge part of there diet . Farmed salmon is one of the most toxic and damaging industries going . I wouldn't eat farmed salmon if you paid me .

Sure look at the fish packets battered fish they sell in shops most of its alaskan pollock as the cod stocks around europe have collapsed

Hopefully that documentary (Seapiracy) which has got widespread exposure, has got alot more people exposed and educated to the reality of industrial fishing practices that are raping our seas

Capercaillie

gozunda wrote: »

Yes I've also seen a general increase in raptor numbers here over the last few years and now have a fairly strong presence of buzzards in the area.

Interesting you have a woodpecker! They are another relatively recent addition to our fauna

https://magill.ie/archive/first-woodpeckers-irish-history-spotted

On conservation- unfortunately there will always be pressure on ecology especially considering the fact that the population on the Island here has nearly doubled since the 1970s.

That said I do wonder has there been any comprehensive study on how many of the birds on that list are simply not making it Ireland in the first place.

https://wilderness-society.org/killing-fields-migratory-birds-southern-europe/

Intensification of agriculture since the 1970's has annihilated biodiversity.

diabhail

I have a Yellowhammer in my garden! Well I am 99% certain it is a yellowhammer. A beautiful bird.

Thelonious Monk

This sh*t doesn't help either, so many reports of this already this year

https://twitter.com/AnnMOConnor/status/1383831332497739789

purplesnack

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

This sh*t doesn't help either, so many reports of this already this year

https://twitter.com/AnnMOConnor/status/1383831332497739789

I'm just back from a walk and I passed a field where they are decimating a mature hedgerow into that despicable box shape. Right in the middle of nesting season. It's absolutely heartbreaking, especially when you feel powerless to do anything about it. Most of the hedgerows around my area are that awful box shape, which I was told recently by a farmer was to make them look 'pretty'. His word, not mine. It's infuriating

Grolschevik

magicbastarder wrote: »

new wildlife crime unit

I'd watch that show.

"You can run, but you'll never go to ground... with THE BADGER SQUAD!"

Thelonious Monk

https://mobile.twitter.com/IrishRaptorSG/status/1385639449913139203

It's just hopeless

Stihl waters

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

https://mobile.twitter.com/IrishRaptorSG/status/1385639449913139203

It's just hopeless

Horrible cnuts

SeaFields

The local council have just commenced cutting ditches on the road in my locality. All the heavy machinery arrived this morning. Are there rules around this? I assume this is not good at this time of year at all for nesting birds.k but I don't know enough on the issue.

OpenYourEyes

SeaFields wrote: »

The local council have just commenced cutting ditches on the road in my locality. All the heavy machinery arrived this morning. Are there rules around this? I assume this is not good at this time of year at all for nesting birds.k but I don't know enough on the issue.

They will say it's necessary for road safety, in which case it is legal. Needless to say there was plenty of time they could have trimmed back roadside hedgerows before birds were nesting! It's worth sending a polite email to your local county councillors to that effect.

magicbastarder

they will claim it can be done for road safety reasons (there's no off season for that). but if they are claiming that now, it begs the obvious question as to why they didn't do it a few months ago.