Interestingly my problem with sparrowhawks versus doves took place in open countryside ..there is no intensive farming for several miles. We have open fields and hedges but there are very few small birds about .The surrounding land is grazed by cattle and horses no pesticides and no fertilisers are used so I have wondered at the absence of the smaller birds. Anyone have any ideas ? Sorry to hear about your fish fishy...its a continuous battle to be one step ahead of all these potential disasters isn't it ?
From a research point of view declines in small birds usually point towards loss of habitat butterfly6.
One study looked into the numbers of magpies thinking it may have caused songbird decline. It was found that populations of prey species are not determined by the number of predators, it was food and nesting sites that were being lost that was causing the problems.
I know for example the decline in sparrows has been linked with the modern change to plastic fascia/soffit boards now used around roofs - so loss of nesting sites.
Even grazing cattle in livestock farming areas can prevent much insect life getting a chance to develop if every inch of the land is used, so that is a food source for small birds ticked off the list.
Where do you live Gemma? Travel a bit more and you will find there is lots and lots of habitat for birds around.
Sparrows are very numerous where I live. Red Kites over-fly the house every day. The hedges are crammed with small birds in season. Apart from the 'wrecks' caused by the weather last winter the sea bird populations in West Wales are on the up.
I could go on. Do not believe everything the RSPB says. The farmers are not
as guilty as you imagine. Many are working their butts off to help wildlife as well as putting food on your table.
You speak wisely Gemma. A once common farmland bird, the Corn Bunting, has all but disappeared in my county of Northamptonshire. Around seven or eight years ago, there were three sites in the county where Corn Buntings were known to be breeding,one of which was on rough, uncultivated land not half a mile from my house. This quite large area has inadequate access for traffic, the only factor that has prevented this land from being 'developed'.
The grass grows long there, cut only once every two years by a local farmer. I see many species of grass growing, not to mention cow parsely,thistles,ragwort etc. Those fields are alive with grasshoppers and Skylarks fill the air with their beautiful song. Sadly I can see these fields being built on one day. After all, humans view land that is uncultivated or not built on as wasteland, with the emphasis on 'waste'.
Yet bordering these fields are cultivated crops. Wheat, barley etc. But all you will find in those cultivated fields is a single plant species. Either wheat or barley. Not a single dandelion or nettle grows there. As far as wildlife is concerned, it may as well be concreted over because it is as barren as the surface of the moon.
Sparrowhawks a big problem? I find that assertion quite laughable when the true destroyer of songbirds is none other than the species that is so quick to point the finger. We see it everywhere that any form of wildlife has the audacity to impact on our own self-interests. Pike in trout fisheries? Wipe them out because they eat all the trout. Seals in the sea? Wipe them out because they eat all the fish. Otters in our rivers? Ditto. Cormorants in our gravel pits? Ditto. On and on it goes.
Absolutely Fishy65, Skylarks were very common where I grew up in Suffolk back in the '70s, I can't honestly remember the last time I saw one locally but they are anything but common around here now.
Weishonion, I'm an ecological consultant living in rural Essex, I'm more likely to advise the RSPB rather than believe everything they say
Today's reliance on petrochemicals to produce food on a large scale in the UK is neither economical, sustainable or good for the environment. How can the loss of miles of hedgerows, ponds abandoned and left to succession, meadows lost due to changes towards intensive arable farming not have reduced native wildlife to a critical state?
I'm just old enough to have been born in a time when wildlife was common, now I have to go specifically look for it, many species are restricted to tiny remnant populations, hanging by a thread. I can walk for miles from my house and see nothing but open arable fields, practically devoid of wildlife, with ease though.
The hard working local farmer (who actually doesn't put food on my table at all, what he produces all goes to animal feed) did a wonderful job of destroying a well established hedge this year, so he could drive a quadbike around the field more easily rather than take the time to walk round it. More an act of vandalism than the act of someone not guilty. However I have to say I do believe farmers are victims of the economic situation themselves, more reason to boycott the supermarkets I think
Please take some time to come to West Wales then; you will see so much wildlife and mixed farming. Take a look at the Pembrokeshire Birdblog in the interim.
Crops that go to animal feed do put food on the table, and milk in the fridge, obviously; maybe you only eat vegetables but most people eat meat. And some of us only eat home-produced meat, and then not from supermarkets.
Many farmers are young and ambitious and they would be insulted to think of themselves as victims of the economic situation. And they sell to supermarkets. If the supermarkets sell 70 percent of what we buy, someone must supply them, or everything would have to be imported.
The countryside is in many respects artificial. Farmers planted the hedges and the recently planted trees, and dug out the ponds. We may decry their disappearance, but luckily we have the money and leisure to replace them in our gardens.
Here in Wales farmers have to get permission to remove a hedge if they are in an ecological scheme. Is there nothing like that in Essex? Sadly more damage is wrought by councils mowing verges unnecessarily because local residents complain about grass encroaching. With luck the economic situation will put a stop to that.
Well said, Welshonion. Its the same down here in Devon and Cornwall. Acres and acres of well managed farmland and hedgerows. Perhaps that is why we have all the birds, wasps bees etc.
Someone once wrote, and I cant remember who it was now, that the only true 'Greeny' was a dead one.
Once you have children you've buggered up the planet, it can only spread from there. Of course we need farms to grow crops, for feed or for us. And in big amounts, not just the odd back yard farming, it has to be. Maybe it would be better to import everything, I dont know.
If you look on google earth there are still many many acres of green land, I cant see anything but from here. So the wildlife is moving around, as long as it survives does it matter where it lives.
You will see plenty here and in Wales, by the sounds of it from WO. My friend in Scotland is always telling me of the wildlife she sees when out for walks.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Welshonion, I think probably we share more in common in how we think than not, but as is often the case with a forum post it can appear that people are taking completely opposing views. I travel to Wales reasonably often, my work is countrywide. I agree that farming and also forestry in Wales can be taken as models for good countryside management and do benefit a wide variety of wildlife.
Just going back though, you mentioned Sparrows and Red Kites. Nationwide it is estimated that the sparrow population dropped by around 70 percent between 1977 and 2008. In England it is thought to still be in decline. They are now doing much better in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but still in trouble locally.
The Red Kite was persecuted almost to the point of extinction in England by gamekeepers, it is only after a long re-introduction program that they have made a return, I'm lucky to see one from the garden, but they are about locally again.
There is something wrong out there where I am, there have been massive declines in a whole host of wildlife, not just birds and I find the link to intensive arable farming via the loss of habitats and applications of a range of chemicals a rather obvious culprit.
I also remember growing up with 'wastelands' as Fishy65 mentioned, now called 'brownfield sites' they often provided homes for a whole host of species, few exist now as every inch of land is used. My view is that one day it must be a case that farming locally will have to return to mixed livestock rather than intensive arable, the sooner the better in my opinion, in the meantime I will do all I can to help the wildlife out in dire times.
Through my work I see habitat loss due to development on a daily basis.
I certainly would consider Wales or Devon and Cornwall though as places to buy a smallholding and enjoy the wildlife I once commonly saw on my own garden in East Anglia.
I'm all in favour of children! If couples had less or no children (some countries are perilously close to being under-replacement) who is going to do all the work we require, pay tax, invent things, and do all the things we value?
I was particularly struck by a programme about population growth and the statement that the average birth rate in Bangladesh is two children per family.
As a PS, I'm not sure that vast blocks of forestry are such a good thing. They are usually devoid of wildlife and contribute to acidification of the uplands among other disadvantages.
Welshonion - those last two sentences. That's exactly what I meant. Those blocks of forestry with Norwegian Spruce planted about 2 feet apart create deserts. Nothing can live on the forest floor and precious little in the trees themselves. We are talking monocultures, the same as a sea of wheat. Neither is any use to wildlife.
I agree we need farmers to feed a growing population, population being part of the problem but I won't touch on that for fear of political incorrectness. However there is no getting away from the fact that agriculture has become so efficient that farmland species of which the Corn Bunting is but one, are disappearing fast. Once upon a time, grain was spilt...giving Corn Buntings a regular supply of food. Old barns have been replaced by steel boxes for grain storage, so the Barn Owl is deprived of nesting sites.
I would agree that Wales and the west country have seen much less impact of this kind due to pastoral farming being the predominant agriculture. Here in East Anglia the story is different, not for nothing is this part of the country called the bread basket of the UK. Fields that were once divided by hedgerows have the said hedgerow ripped out in order to create one huge field, enabling combine harvesters the size of houses to turn around. Ditches are dredged and straight as rulers, enabling rainwater to gush away in one foul swoop. This kind of landscape is hostile to wildlife, but then I suppose we need feeding so off you go birds etc.
Posts
Interestingly my problem with sparrowhawks versus doves took place in open countryside ..there is no intensive farming for several miles. We have open fields and hedges but there are very few small birds about .The surrounding land is grazed by cattle and horses no pesticides and no fertilisers are used so I have wondered at the absence of the smaller birds. Anyone have any ideas ? Sorry to hear about your fish fishy...its a continuous battle to be one step ahead of all these potential disasters isn't it ?
From a research point of view declines in small birds usually point towards loss of habitat butterfly6.
One study looked into the numbers of magpies thinking it may have caused songbird decline. It was found that populations of prey species are not determined by the number of predators, it was food and nesting sites that were being lost that was causing the problems.
I know for example the decline in sparrows has been linked with the modern change to plastic fascia/soffit boards now used around roofs - so loss of nesting sites.
Even grazing cattle in livestock farming areas can prevent much insect life getting a chance to develop if every inch of the land is used, so that is a food source for small birds ticked off the list.
Sparrows are very numerous where I live. Red Kites over-fly the house every day. The hedges are crammed with small birds in season. Apart from the 'wrecks' caused by the weather last winter the sea bird populations in West Wales are on the up.
I could go on. Do not believe everything the RSPB says. The farmers are not
as guilty as you imagine. Many are working their butts off to help wildlife as well as putting food on your table.
You speak wisely Gemma. A once common farmland bird, the Corn Bunting, has all but disappeared in my county of Northamptonshire. Around seven or eight years ago, there were three sites in the county where Corn Buntings were known to be breeding,one of which was on rough, uncultivated land not half a mile from my house. This quite large area has inadequate access for traffic, the only factor that has prevented this land from being 'developed'.
The grass grows long there, cut only once every two years by a local farmer. I see many species of grass growing, not to mention cow parsely,thistles,ragwort etc. Those fields are alive with grasshoppers and Skylarks fill the air with their beautiful song. Sadly I can see these fields being built on one day. After all, humans view land that is uncultivated or not built on as wasteland, with the emphasis on 'waste'.
Yet bordering these fields are cultivated crops. Wheat, barley etc. But all you will find in those cultivated fields is a single plant species. Either wheat or barley. Not a single dandelion or nettle grows there. As far as wildlife is concerned, it may as well be concreted over because it is as barren as the surface of the moon.
Sparrowhawks a big problem? I find that assertion quite laughable when the true destroyer of songbirds is none other than the species that is so quick to point the finger. We see it everywhere that any form of wildlife has the audacity to impact on our own self-interests. Pike in trout fisheries? Wipe them out because they eat all the trout. Seals in the sea? Wipe them out because they eat all the fish. Otters in our rivers? Ditto. Cormorants in our gravel pits? Ditto. On and on it goes.
Absolutely Fishy65, Skylarks were very common where I grew up in Suffolk back in the '70s, I can't honestly remember the last time I saw one locally but they are anything but common around here now.
Weishonion, I'm an ecological consultant living in rural Essex, I'm more likely to advise the RSPB rather than believe everything they say
Today's reliance on petrochemicals to produce food on a large scale in the UK is neither economical, sustainable or good for the environment. How can the loss of miles of hedgerows, ponds abandoned and left to succession, meadows lost due to changes towards intensive arable farming not have reduced native wildlife to a critical state?
I'm just old enough to have been born in a time when wildlife was common, now I have to go specifically look for it, many species are restricted to tiny remnant populations, hanging by a thread. I can walk for miles from my house and see nothing but open arable fields, practically devoid of wildlife, with ease though.
The hard working local farmer (who actually doesn't put food on my table at all, what he produces all goes to animal feed) did a wonderful job of destroying a well established hedge this year, so he could drive a quadbike around the field more easily rather than take the time to walk round it. More an act of vandalism than the act of someone not guilty. However I have to say I do believe farmers are victims of the economic situation themselves, more reason to boycott the supermarkets I think
Crops that go to animal feed do put food on the table, and milk in the fridge, obviously; maybe you only eat vegetables but most people eat meat. And some of us only eat home-produced meat, and then not from supermarkets.
Many farmers are young and ambitious and they would be insulted to think of themselves as victims of the economic situation. And they sell to supermarkets. If the supermarkets sell 70 percent of what we buy, someone must supply them, or everything would have to be imported.
The countryside is in many respects artificial. Farmers planted the hedges and the recently planted trees, and dug out the ponds. We may decry their disappearance, but luckily we have the money and leisure to replace them in our gardens.
Here in Wales farmers have to get permission to remove a hedge if they are in an ecological scheme. Is there nothing like that in Essex? Sadly more damage is wrought by councils mowing verges unnecessarily because local residents complain about grass encroaching. With luck the economic situation will put a stop to that.
Well said, Welshonion. Its the same down here in Devon and Cornwall. Acres and acres of well managed farmland and hedgerows. Perhaps that is why we have all the birds, wasps bees etc.
Someone once wrote, and I cant remember who it was now, that the only true 'Greeny' was a dead one.
Once you have children you've buggered up the planet, it can only spread from there. Of course we need farms to grow crops, for feed or for us. And in big amounts, not just the odd back yard farming, it has to be. Maybe it would be better to import everything, I dont know.
If you look on google earth there are still many many acres of green land, I cant see anything but from here. So the wildlife is moving around, as long as it survives does it matter where it lives.
You will see plenty here and in Wales, by the sounds of it from WO. My friend in Scotland is always telling me of the wildlife she sees when out for walks.
Welshonion, I think probably we share more in common in how we think than not, but as is often the case with a forum post it can appear that people are taking completely opposing views. I travel to Wales reasonably often, my work is countrywide. I agree that farming and also forestry in Wales can be taken as models for good countryside management and do benefit a wide variety of wildlife.
Just going back though, you mentioned Sparrows and Red Kites. Nationwide it is estimated that the sparrow population dropped by around 70 percent between 1977 and 2008. In England it is thought to still be in decline. They are now doing much better in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but still in trouble locally.
The Red Kite was persecuted almost to the point of extinction in England by gamekeepers, it is only after a long re-introduction program that they have made a return, I'm lucky to see one from the garden, but they are about locally again.
There is something wrong out there where I am, there have been massive declines in a whole host of wildlife, not just birds and I find the link to intensive arable farming via the loss of habitats and applications of a range of chemicals a rather obvious culprit.
I also remember growing up with 'wastelands' as Fishy65 mentioned, now called 'brownfield sites' they often provided homes for a whole host of species, few exist now as every inch of land is used. My view is that one day it must be a case that farming locally will have to return to mixed livestock rather than intensive arable, the sooner the better in my opinion, in the meantime I will do all I can to help the wildlife out in dire times.
Through my work I see habitat loss due to development on a daily basis.
I certainly would consider Wales or Devon and Cornwall though as places to buy a smallholding and enjoy the wildlife I once commonly saw on my own garden in East Anglia.
I was particularly struck by a programme about population growth and the statement that the average birth rate in Bangladesh is two children per family.
As a PS, I'm not sure that vast blocks of forestry are such a good thing. They are usually devoid of wildlife and contribute to acidification of the uplands among other disadvantages.
Welshonion - those last two sentences. That's exactly what I meant. Those blocks of forestry with Norwegian Spruce planted about 2 feet apart create deserts. Nothing can live on the forest floor and precious little in the trees themselves. We are talking monocultures, the same as a sea of wheat. Neither is any use to wildlife.
I agree we need farmers to feed a growing population, population being part of the problem but I won't touch on that for fear of political incorrectness. However there is no getting away from the fact that agriculture has become so efficient that farmland species of which the Corn Bunting is but one, are disappearing fast. Once upon a time, grain was spilt...giving Corn Buntings a regular supply of food. Old barns have been replaced by steel boxes for grain storage, so the Barn Owl is deprived of nesting sites.
I would agree that Wales and the west country have seen much less impact of this kind due to pastoral farming being the predominant agriculture. Here in East Anglia the story is different, not for nothing is this part of the country called the bread basket of the UK. Fields that were once divided by hedgerows have the said hedgerow ripped out in order to create one huge field, enabling combine harvesters the size of houses to turn around. Ditches are dredged and straight as rulers, enabling rainwater to gush away in one foul swoop. This kind of landscape is hostile to wildlife, but then I suppose we need feeding so off you go birds etc.
Which happily....is where us gardeners come in