Following action by The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and RSPCA the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) decided to reclassify Polyisobutelene (PIB), under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), making it illegal to discharge any amount into the sea.
The IMO is stopping ships from discharging PIB at sea after birds covered in the sticky substance were washed up on the Channel coastline. Over 4,000 seabirds washed ashore, dead or dying between February and May, after there were two separate spills. The substance which has been likened to PVA glue in consistency, coats the birds feathers, rendering them unable to fly or maintain core body temperature.
The tragedy, the largest marine pollution incident of its kind in the region since Torrey Canyon, shocked thousands of people. At a meeting of the IMO’s working group on the Evaluation of Safety and Pollution Hazards of Chemicals (ESPH), it was decided to change the classification of high viscosity PIBs and prohibit any discharge at sea from 2014. This will also apply to new “highly-reactive” forms of PIB, which are currently being transported un-assessed.
The recommendation to do this had been made by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on behalf of the UK Government, following vigorous campaigning by wildlife charities and the public.
This was a decision which was expected to take years and the efforts of all those who lobbied so hard in the Channel Islands should not be forgotten.
Thanks go out to GSPCA, JSPCA, Durrell, La Société Guernesiaise, La Société Jersiaise and the National Trust for Jersey who joined the AWT campaign and all of their Facebook and Twitter followers! The Birds On The Edge report can be read here.
Today’s decision is a real step forward, safeguarding our seas and sealife for future generations.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that our already declining bird populations, threatened by widescale habitat and climate changes, are put under further pressure through the actions of humans. Scientists with Environment Canada have found that human-related activities destroy roughly 269 million birds and 2 million bird nests in Canada each year. Most human-related bird deaths (about 99%) are caused by impacts of feral and pet cats, and collisions with buildings, vehicles, and electricity transmission and distribution lines.
Over the last four years, 20 Canadian scientists conducted extensive analyses that enabled them to release the first-ever estimates of annual direct bird mortality from human-related sources. The results have just been published in a special issue of Avian Conservation and Ecology.
“Because birds are excellent indicators of biodiversity, the newly-released articles from Environment Canada highlight areas where broader biodiversity may be impacted”, said Dr George Finney, President of Bird Studies Canada. “These results provide a crucial first step toward understanding the relative importance of bird mortality factors, and will inform future research directions, conservation actions, and policy decisions.”
Cats appear to kill as many birds as all other sources combined. Feral and pet cats are believed to kill more than 100 million birds per year in Canada. An estimated 60% of those are killed by feral cats. Bird species that nest or feed on or near the ground are especially vulnerable to cat predation.
“We are deeply troubled by the disquieting research published today on the number of birds killed every year in Canada due to human-related activities”, said Ian Davidson, Executive Director of Nature Canada. “Fortunately, there are concrete and sensible ways that people and governments can prevent the needless death of birds, especially now during the migratory season.”
Collisions with electricity transmission and distribution lines have been identified as the second-largest human-caused source of bird mortality in Canada. Between 10-41 million birds per year are killed by collisions with transmission lines; between 160,000 and 800,000 birds are electrocuted by distribution lines; and about 400,000 nests are destroyed annually due to vegetation clearing under powerlines.
Collisions with residential and commercial buildings are the third-highest of the human-related sectors, killing an estimated 16-42 million birds each year – mostly at houses. Following bird-friendly building guidelines can help individuals and building managers reduce the risk to birds. Using commercial products, special glass, or homemade solutions to make windows more visible to birds can reduce daytime collisions. Night-time window collisions can be reduced by leaving lights off in low-rise and high-rise buildings.
An estimated 13.8 million birds are killed annually by colliding with vehicles on Canada’s primary and secondary roads.
There are about 10 billion birds in Canada. The estimated total of 269 million bird deaths per year caused by human-related factors constitutes less than 5% of the overall population. Bird deaths from other causes (such as natural predation, disease, severe weather, or habitat loss) are not reflected in the estimates.
Whilst Canada is undoubtedly a very large country we can still see that the Channel Islands will contribute annually to the global, and un-estimated, man-made, and avoidable, toll of wild birds. We are increasingly beginning to realise how important our islands are too for migratory birds just passing through. How many each year fail to reach their destination through some man-made structure in their path that they don’t see? Or from the house cats and feral cats that are found everywhere in Jersey except on our offshore reefs – and even there birds aren’t safe from man-made problems! And, when thinking of feral cats, is it any wonder why we have so few lizards in some places!
Can things get worse for turtle doves in northern Europe (for example, if you can’t shoot them at home, shoot them on holiday)? Possibly, for the first time anyone knows, none nested in Jersey this year when only 20 years ago they were common in places and their purring was a well-known summer sound. To understand what may be behind this region-wide decline, all aspects of the species’ ecology are being investigated, including the effects of disease. See updates on this beautiful bird through Operation Turtle Dove.
Very little is known about some of the potential problems facing turtle doves on their breeding grounds in Europe, their wintering grounds in Africa and their migration routes. But could disease be an additional problem for this fast-declining bird?
Scientists from the University of Leeds, along with the RSPB, have been working on this and recently published a paper
Columbidae (doves and pigeons) appear to be more susceptible to some diseases than other species, and being gregarious, the transmission of disease can easily spread from one bird to another. Trichomoniasis is a disease commonly found in Columbidae and is caused by the Trichomonas gallinae parasite. It is known to be a problem for the endangered Mauritius pink pigeon for example, where it can result in high mortality in young pigeons in the nest. It has recently been found in greenfinches, passed on via infected garden bird feeders, and led to a 35% decline in greenfinch numbers within a year in the UK (see BOTE reports here and here).
The joint study aimed to establish whether the parasite was present in wild turtle doves, as well as in three other related species – collared doves, woodpigeons and stock doves. It also aimed to understand the disease better and find out whether the parasite found in doves and pigeons is the same strain as that killing greenfinches.
The team found the parasite present in all four pigeon and dove species, but turtle doves and collared doves were the most likely to carry the parasite with 86% being infected. This was the first time that the parasite has been confirmed in turtle doves in the UK. Unlike the other Columbidae studied, turtle doves rely on seed food all year and they are a migratory species. Increased agricultural efficiency has reduced the availability of arable weed seeds during the period when turtle doves migrate back to Europe from Africa and it is possible that this food stress makes them more susceptible to disease.
On farms where supplementary food was put out for game birds, more of the doves and pigeons were found to have the parasite. This suggests that in a similar way to the disease being passed between greenfinches on garden feeders, the parasite can be passed between wild birds on farms. This is likely to be due to a food source, whether supplementary feeding or accidental spillages, attracting a lot of birds to the same place, meaning it is easier for the parasite to pass between birds of different species. Of the birds that were shown to have the parasite, hardly any were showing clinical signs of the disease, such as saliva round the beak, so it is unclear what effect, if any, this parasite is actually having.
Four strains of this parasite were identified, but more work is needed to find out whether any of these are identical to the strain killing greenfinches. Overall, as well as providing the first evidence of the extent of infection in turtle doves in the UK, this work also highlights the need to understand the effects and implications of Trichomonas parasites on the host bird.
In order to closely monitor the choughs we need to be able to see as well as possible what they are up to. If, as seems to be the current trend, they chose to live in the quarry then it makes sense to be able to see into this potentially hazardous (to the team, not the birds) and, naturally, secured site. On Wednesday (11th September) the choughs’ kind, and proud, hosts, Ronez (Aggregate Industries), gave us permission to access their viewing platform high above the southern rim of the quarry. For this privilege we will need to don high visibility jackets, helmets and protective glasses. We also undertook appropriate safety training.
On our first visit to the platform, we quickly spotted the four birds on grassy wide ledges directly below us. Everyone at the quarry has taken their chough visitors to heart and have ensured that they are recognised and their safety looked out for. We are particularly thankful to Kirsten Du Heaume, Yvonne le Cornu and Robin Jenkins for their support and interest in the birds.
Shortly after the last update, our two choughs, the Ronez 2, chose to go back to the plan and re-joined the flock in the aviary none the worse for their sojourn in the quarry. After the pair settled, we returned to the plan for slowly releasing the choughs. On the afternoon of 6th September we opened the hatches again. This release started off promising: all the choughs left the aviary within the first three minutes. Green and Mauve (the Ronez 2 pair) were the first to leave as expected and went onto the first target board outside the aviary. The rest quickly followed.
So much for plans
We watched nervously as a flock of crows appeared heading to Mourier Valley. I think the choughs were vocalising before flying up, but all I remember was seeing the crows detour to the aviary and all the choughs take to the sky. There was lots of circling and calling (mostly the choughs). There was no aggression just mutual intrigue. As the crows lost interest and the choughs headed towards Mourier Valley I decided to call them back. It would have meant they only had 15 minutes outside but that was better than losing the group.
Whether the calling scared them or they ignored me, I will never know, but it certainly didn’t change their flight pattern. Once over the valley they turned towards the cliffs and split up. Five were on the cliff path close to the aviary; White somehow became separated and was seen flying inland to the Sorel Point car park. In the meantime Red and Orange had made it over to the other side of Mourier Valley and could be seen probing the ground seemingly content. Green and Mauve returned to the aviary, possibly in response to whistles, or because they knew the lay of the land, and were locked in.
Then, to add to the stress, as rain appeared from the west, Red and Orange flew inland but back towards the aviary. For some reason only Red returned, resuming her previous ‘post-release’ position on top of the shed roof! The rain at this stage became too heavy and the team called a halt to the search and retreated. When the rain stopped and we returned to the aviary, Red was still on the roof and was lured in quicker than last time.
The radio-tracking gear told us that the remaining four had split up. Two by the aviary, one still in the field by the car park and one at the bike track. We were not able to see them as the light had gone by this stage.
Back at first light
Nothing had really changed when we returned at 06.00 on Saturday which, understandably, was worrying with still no choughs in sight. Our immediate concerns were for the two signals by the aviary. To save an agonising, minute by minute, account of the dawn searches, we can say that we found one chough hiding in the low hedgerow close to the aviary alive and well. Well enough to fly off towards the car park. The second bird we picked up down the east side of Sorel Point.
We found White was also hiding in a low hedge in the barley field by the car park. On location she flew off towards the bike track and carried on to the east side of the quarry. So, by 08.00, we had established that all were alive and well and in the quarry and were eventually able to see three of them feeding on a high bank, their calls carrying well on the wind. It took the best part of the day for White to join up with the other three: when they did so, they settled at the top of the quarry on the south-west corner. They roosted there on Saturday night on the bank rather than in a building and stayed in the quarry throughout Sunday.
Where’s Wally?
While we had more rain and strong winds, plus motorbike races, on Sunday the four choughs appeared to settle well in the quarry. And there they have stayed. We can follow their movements thanks to the tracking equipment and are learning to spot their distant activities through binoculars and telescopes. It’s surprising how many shadows, rabbit holes or dark rocks can suddenly look like birds from a distance. And a group of four crows live in the quarry. However, we are becoming very adept at differentiating choughs from crows when they are so far away you can often only barely tell they are birds: our own game of Where’s Wally? Luckily choughs do get up and fly around and call in a way that only choughs can.
Spotted them? If you look closely, they are right in the middle of the picture. If you use Neil’s telescope, however, they look like this!
And, as for the three in the aviary. They seem ok, eating well and responding to the whistle. Red does look a little forlorn by herself – last week she sat on the aviary roof all night rather than be separated from Orange. Now she doesn’t know where he’s gone.
On Wednesday, 26th June, we conducted our annual survey of the skylarks Alauda arvensis and meadow pipits Anthus pratensis at Jersey Airport. As ever, this is one of the hardest monitoring exercises we undertake each year. It’s also the only one where we need security clearance before even setting foot on the grass. The airport is obliged by law to manage its entire site to dissuade large birds from coming into proximity of the planes and the length of the grass throughout the area is very important. All bird-friendly plants are discouraged too but strangely both skylarks and meadow pipits seem to thrive here.
Jersey Airport is now almost the last site for breeding skylarks in the Channel Islands. None have bred at Les Landes for two years and, it appears, there are now none in St Ouen’s Bay away from the Blanche Banques where there are only a small number of birds despite protection for their nest sites. Sadly, now, even at the Airport numbers are declining although how much this is the impact of consecutive poor springs is unclear.
The skylark team this year, Tony Paintin, Hester Whitehead and Glyn Young once again covered the grassy areas of the airport either side of the runway while remaining very visible at all times and keeping in radio contact with Air Traffic Control throughout. There are very sensitive areas that the team cannot enter and we all have to withdraw to a safe point when a plane is landing, taking off or taxiing.
Skylarks are never very easy to count as some birds can stay put in the grass while others fly up and sing at us. We walk out in a line and record each lark and pipit. Whatever the failings in our technique are though, we have used the same methodology since 2006, and we are beginning to see a trend in numbers developing. This year we counted only 26 larks, our lowest figure so far.
Date
Singing males
Flushed birds
Total
Meadow pipits
15June 2006
14
22
36
5
12June 2007
12
22
34
8
5 June 2008
14
50
64
16
24June 2009
12
32
44
2
9 June 2010
12
34
46
3
27 July 2011
4
85
89
32
27June 2012
26June 2013
9
7
21
19
30
26
21
8
Once again we are indebted to the airport authorities for allowing us to count the birds and for helping with security clearance and for providing radios and high-visibility vests etc.
TV and radio towers, blamed for nearly 7 million bird deaths each year in North America are doing the most damage to species that can hardly afford the loss, according to a new study published in Biological Conservation.
In the United States and Canada, at least 97% of the birds that crash into the towers, or the guy wires that hold them up, are the tiny songbirds – mostly warblers – that are considered “birds of conservation concern”.
The latest study comes from the same researchers, members of the Los Angeles-based Urban Wildlands Group, that warned last year of the spiralling mortality of birds that are attracted to the lights, usually red, atop the towers. The lights are required by the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for any tower over 200 feet tall, and there are thousands in North America that are more than 10 times that height.
The deaths usually occur during the nocturnal migration of songbirds, especially when the cloud ceiling is low and there is fog or rain. The lights create an illuminated area around the tower and it is thought the birds become confused, switch off their night navigation and begin to spiral around the tower. Some run into the support cables, or into each other, and plunge to the ground.
Travis Longcore, from the University of Southern California and lead author of the current study, said his group wanted to look beyond the sheer numbers and focus on which types of birds were suffering the greatest loses, based chiefly on the number of deaths compared to the overall population estimate of each species.
“Many bird species are killed at towers disproportionate to their abundance,” the study says.
“This lets us look at this (the tower deaths) as a factor in the trajectory of the population”. The study indicates that towers are a very significant factor for a number of species, especially small songbirds, some of which are declining in numbers overall. The researchers found that 58% of the birds killed each year are warblers, including Swainson’s warbler Limnothlypis swainsonii, which loses 8.9% of its population each year, and the black-throated blue warbler Dendroica caerulescens loses 5.6%. It’s not just songbirds though, each year yellow rail Coturnicops noveboracensis loses about 9% of its total population because of communications towers, many of which are taller than the Empire State Building.
In addition to communications towers, however, the birds have to fend off cats and other predators, and many are killed when they crash into windows, as urban dwellers know so well. So towers are only part of the problem, but this study suggests they may be more significant than had been thought, at least for certain species.
A solution?
Some recent experiments have shown that a flashing (blinking) light attracts fewer birds than a light that remains on. The FAA recently ruled that tower operators may switch to blinking lights, and some have done so. It could be too that when a steady light is replaced by a blinking light, the birds simply leave. This is not an expensive modification but the results may be immediate.
This research is, of course, based on estimates, some of which wildly disagree with estimates from other researchers, and that may be partly because the situation varies so dramatically across the country. And just simply collecting the data is difficult. Longcore pointed out that a dead bird doesn’t hang around very long.
“Scavengers and predators and decomposers are incredibly effective,” he said. In one case an owl was spotted as it zipped through the night sky and grabbed small birds before they even hit the ground.
However, sometimes it’s easier to find how many birds have died. Scientists found that an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 birds, mostly Lapland Longspurs, were killed on Jan. 22, 1998, near a 420-foot tower in western Kansas. It happened, as is often the case, during a heavy snowstorm. See bibliography of bird kills in USA here
And the number of kills from towers still lags far behind the estimated number of deaths caused by birds hitting windows. And still, the estimates vary widely. One group of researchers, for example, estimated that the number of window-kills was somewhere between 97.6 million to 976 million annually.
Longcore said he believes that if most towers are modified, just by switching to flashing lights, many more songbirds will be around to serenade us in our gardens.
The situation with tall masts in the Channel Islands is unclear. However, there are such things such as those on the north coast of Jersey and this may be an area for future research.
Well, Wednesday afternoon (28th August) was rather exciting/stressful. We planned to open the shutters at the Sorel aviary to the outside world for 30 minutes at 1700. This first step should be considered part of the training for the birds rather than an ‘official’ release. The idea is that the birds get a few minutes outside each day with the access time lengthened slowly until the birds are left completely at liberty. While the birds may or may not choose to go out of the aviary they will be called in again after 30 minutes and shut inside again.
This soft-release process will be repeated daily until late-September when the birds may remain at liberty unless specifically called back in (they will be fed daily and watched closely for the foreseeable future whatever happens). The first opening of the hatches was not made into an event, mostly because something could have gone wrong or, much more likely, they would not actually go out at all on the first day.
Release Day 1 (28th August)
The shutters were duly opened at 1700 and we had 30 minutes of ‘freedom’ and three birds wandered outside. One chough flew round a bit but not far from aviary and came in when called. Not a bad start! The birds behaved very well and the value of training and Liz’s hard work were obvious. Target platforms have been put up outside of the aviary to give the birds their own and recognisable perching spots outside the aviary.
Listen to BBC Radio Jersey’s Tori Orchard interview with Glyn Young on the morning of the first ‘release’ (it’s also No 7 in the series of Tori’s interviews here).
Day 2 (29th August)
The ‘release’ process was repeated today when four birds ventured outside including ‘senior pair’ MV and PG. One bird, RD, failed to grasp the idea of the entrances and failed to find its way back inside and spent all night on the aviary roof before going back inside early on Friday morning.
Day 3 (30th August) – the day we discovered that choughs have minds of their own!
The senior pair (well, they are two years old) ventured rather further afield today and decided to explore nearby Ronez Quarry. There was a heart-in-mouth moment when we watched a peregrine attack the pair but they recognised the threat and, in mid-air, on the longest flight of their lives fought it off – during the attack the falcon grabbed one of the chough pair by the legs but let go pretty quickly. One chough went to ground to avoid the persistent falcon but the pair were quickly re-united and seemed unfazed. That’s the first peregrine encounter out the way, let’s hope that any more have the same outcome.
While we can observe the choughs directly, allowing us to follow their activities and check on their wellbeing, the radio transmitters allow us to track the choughs at all times. On Friday the pair moved around confidently, foraged on the ground, displayed, flew out over the sea, perched on a woodpile and generally behaved like ‘wild’ choughs. We quickly learned that the choughs and the local carrion crows just ignore each other now that they can really meet.
The radio tracking team went into action and have, over the weekend, recorded the pair’s locations following a research protocol devised in advance. Having said that, the pair have at times been very visible and have appeared over Sorel Point and around the car park. Often they call loudly.
On Friday night the now christened Ronez 2 slept inside one of the quarry’s conveyor belts! They were up early Saturday morning and have continued to put on a good show. Never once have they gone near the aviary even though we know they’ve been able to see it when flying up high. The pair have once more encountered falcons and were seen to actively mob them.
The free-flying pair seems quite happy in and around the quarry and slept again in or near the conveyor. Wild choughs regularly live in quarries, including in North Wales, the ancestral home of our birds (see video of choughs in a quarry here). There is water in Ronez Quarry, secure roost sites and, hopefully, lots of foraging opportunities and respect from the quarry owners and personnel. The pair has been seen regularly on the grass at Sorel Point. Even with the Ronez 2 out and about, we will continue the slower soft-release of the other five birds but are wary that they have temporarily lost the presence of their senior members. Well, lost them unless they go and re-join them in the quarry!
Now that there are birds out on the coast, please don’t hesitate to send in your sightings. Check here for details.
We are very grateful to the team-members who have assisted us in observing the release. Alison and Ray Hales from Paradise Park (Operation Chough) have been watching the birds with us all weekend. Mike Stentiford, the project’s staunchest supporter from when it was first imagined was there for the first opening. We must also give sincere thanks to Ronez Quarry who may get to see a lot of the choughs and of us!
On Monday we reported on the fire at Grouville Golf Course and the devastating impact it would have had on local wildlife. The focus of the report was Jersey’s only known pair of cirl buntings and what effects the fire in their breeding territory may have had. After the fire the birds were nowhere to be seen and there was justifiably a lot of concern for their wellbeing. Well, today we found out what happened to them! Almost exactly a year to the day after the first Jersey-bred cirl buntings of recent years were found, and rather late in the year again, what appears undoubtedly to be a chick was seen with its father and photographed by Mick Dryden. The female bunting was seen nearby but we don’t know yet whether other chicks were around – visit Jersey Birds for updates.
On the night of Tuesday 23rd July a fire broke out on the edge of the Royal Jersey Golf Course in Grouville. As well as threatening nearby houses and the infrastructure of the golf course, this fire destroyed important parts of the habitat of our one known pair of cirl buntings. The fire was successfully put out by the Fire Service but not before significant damage to wildlife had occurred – besides the cirl buntings there would have been green lizards and slow worms in the area. Richard Perchard’s photo of the fire damage was taken at the site of one of the buntings’ feeders, luckily Richard had moved this feeder to another spot that the fire avoided a few months ago.
The spell of hot, dry weather in Jersey always brings the threat of furze fires and disappointingly there is suggestion that this fire was the result of vandalism and may have been started by fireworks. A criminal investigation is underway in the hope of discovering the true cause of the fire and, hopefully, bringing any culprits to justice (see report here). The cirl buntings have not yet been re-sighted and we had hoped that they were nesting as last year young were seen in late July.
Now that there are birds out on the coast, please don’t hesitate to send in your sightings. Check 
