Blogs

The hunting marsh harrier must achieve one of the slowest flight speeds of any bird, relative to its size and power.
 
A Boeing 737 is a great deal quicker, spews out a heck of a lot more detritus than the odd poop from a passing bird of prey and is noisier too.
 
It is true that some birds – great tits are one example - have changed their songs so they can be heard above the din of traffic by partners and rivals. Others, like black-throated blue warblers in the US, use the songs of fellow birds to guide their choice of nesting sites.
 
None of these birds would learn much from the roar of a 120-seater airliner. But this is the challenge many thousands will face if a ludicrously large airport is built on Kent’s Romney Marsh.
 
The decision on Sheikh Fahad al Athel’s plans to enlarge Lydd airport to cater for 500,000 rather than 5,000 people has stalled. Shepway District Council was due to rule in January and then in April but its members slunk off for a quiet re-think when a large bill loomed if they based their decision on Lydd’s shoddy environmental assurances.
 
But a new player has entered the field with the imminent creation of an independent panel to rule on applications for new airports, bypasses, power stations and tidal barrages.
 
This government quango may come too late for the decision on Lydd but, given the time the airport has taken to fulfil its application requirements, and the number of times Shepway council has delayed, this Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) could be up and running when decision-time finally comes around.
 
There are many problems with development at Lydd. Transport links are poor – there is one road and no rail for miles; the thousands of extra flights would increase greenhouse gas emissions just as the government plans to cut them; and it lies right next to the RSPB’s Dungeness nature reserve, where plans for improvements might have to be scrapped if Lydd’s application is successful.
 
In a funny sort of way, Dungeness is one of the most vibrant reserves we have. It doesn't boast the raucous and spectacular colonies of seabirds, webcams on osprey nests, thousand-strong wader roosts or dawn invasions of pink-footed geese.
 
But it does host bird, insect and plantlife rarely found elsewhere, including the toadflax brocade moth, the medicinal leach and Britain’s largest population of the Jersey cudweed, a plant classified as critically endangered.
 
And its wide expanse of shingle stretching around Dungeness point and north towards Folkestone is unique in the UK.
 
In spring and summer, that shingle comes alive with colour. The slender stems of vipers bugloss, thrift and sea campion fare equally well in the gusty onslaught from the sea. Likewise, yellow horned poppy and sea kale thrive not just because the sea air suits them but because their end-of-the-world solitude spares them the trampling of many a careless foot.
 
For Dungeness is empty and silent bar the cries of birds and buzz of bees, the smattering of human settlements and the chug of a toy train ferrying the point’s sparse collection of tourists.
 
That would all change if the Sheikh’s aviation plaything were allowed to become anything more. It would be a wilderness lost, a one in a million place desecrated without justification or reparation.
 
One of the major consequences of building a big new Lydd airport could be to scupper hopes for Dungeness. That could mean scrapping plans to extend the reserve east to incorporate little used quarry pits. It could also end hopes of creating an aquatic passage along which eels and their young could reach and return from breeding grounds at sea.
 
Young eels are amongst the favourite foods of the bittern, a rare and elusive heron that seeks sanctuary at Dungeness in winter but has yet to nest. Full grown eels are plentiful in the reserve’s deep pools but are now too large for the bittern’s dinner plate. Their younger, smaller relatives are the perfect fit.
 
Dungeness this year is doing better than ever. There are 50 pairs of nesting Cetti’s warbler compared to just one in 2003. A rare colony of tree sparrows has set up home at the reserve and there are eight pairs of bearded tits, a higher number than ever before.
 
The gulls and terns have moved on to other breeding sites but will be back in their thousands in winter. The marsh harriers look set to stay though. A pair nested for the first time in 2007 and two pairs have done so this year.
 
John Healey, the Minister for Local Government, tells Times readers today that the planning legislation creating the IPC will increase public and parliamentary scrutiny of development decisions despite the removal of ministerial responsibility.
 
Kent doesn’t need another airport no matter what speed permission can be bulldozed through. If we are serious about tackling climate change, and about keeping just a few special places safe from environmental ruin, it is the marsh harrier not the Boeing jet that should rule the skies of Romney Marsh.

Read more about Dungeness here

And here for the threats posed by a new Lydd airport

John Healey's letter is here

The Dutch are spending millions of Euros creating new areas of woodland, wetland and heathland to help wildlife move to new sites as climate change alters existing habitats.
 
Bridges, overpasses and underpasses, planted to resemble natural habitats, are also being built in Switzerland, Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe linking old and new sites and providing safe passage for animals over or under new transport routes.
 
The RSPB believes that UK governments should also be funding schemes to help wildlife adapt to climate change and new developments. The need for new sites is behind our plan to transform Wallasea Island in Essex into a huge wetland to help declining birds like redshank, lapwing and curlew and other wildlife including otters, saltwater fish and plants.
 
But the UK already has any number of sites where wildlife is protected and, with a population of more than 60 million and growing, and food shortages and soaring food prices worldwide, how can we justify giving up more land to wildlife?
 
The Netherlands has a population of only 16.5 million but at 16,000 square miles, is the 25th most densely populated country in the world. The UK, which covers 94,000 square miles, is 51st in the population density league. That means we too should be able to find more land for wildlife.
 
On farmland, landowners can be paid to use measures that help certain species without it affecting crop production. At the RSPB’s Grange Farm in Cambridgeshire, crop yield is almost unchanged in ten years but the number of birds has almost doubled.
 
In urban areas like the Thames Gateway, green, wildlife-friendly expanses of land have been incorporated and are improving quality of life for residents and workers. In the south-west, maps are available highlighting to councils the best wildlife sites but also the locations with most potential for habitat creation or restoration.
 
These initiatives reflect collaboration between conservationists, planners and developers and the use of existing government advice and measures under EU law. Other authorities should take note, employ a conservation expert and put into practice the advice they receive.
 
Mark Twain once urged: ‘Buy land, they’re not making it anymore’ and it is true that they are not. But the Dutch have proved that you can accommodate people, development and wildlife without having to buy extra land either. The UK has the means to do that too.

There are rumours that Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is about to say yeay, nay or let’s keep thinking, to those demanding a badger cull in England.
 
Members of The Badger Trust are amongst those who believe his decision will be announced this week. Last week’s Farmers Weekly, a newspaper keeping its ear close to the ground on the issue, agreed.
 
Farmers are urging the government to follow the example set by the Welsh Assembly and give the go-ahead to the widespread extermination of badgers, a measure they believe will stamp out TB in their cattle.
 
Those who have taken the time to understand the science say they are wrong. Killing some badgers will frighten those surviving into moving elsewhere and taking the disease with them, if they are infected.
 
But suddenly, the issue has become less clear-cut. It emerged yesterday that Elin Jones, the Welsh Assembly’s Rural Affairs Minister, had backtracked from an announcement in April which sounded very much like the go-ahead for a cull in Wales.

In a letter to the Badger Trust, her lawyers said that Ms Jones had not authorised a cull nor identified “any area in which the culling of badgers would be appropriate.”
 
Stranger still was the NFU’s suggestion yesterday, at a hearing of Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, that a biodiversity target be set for badgers, so that farmers could be rewarded for managing their land to increase badger numbers.
 
Too much attention, the NFU argued, was being paid to farmland bird declines when there were many other species that needed help. Why not have a target for butterflies, otters and badgers the NFU said.
 
If Mr Benn sanctions a badger cull, we may well soon need a target for raising badger numbers, since they are a protected and much loved native species.
 
But if he says no, basing his decision on the science rather than the shouting, he might thank the NFU for its suggestion but instead propose some more appropriate action.
 
The best way to stamp out bovine TB is to vaccinate badgers and cattle against the disease. There are no vaccines yet but more Government money for research would hasten vaccine development.

In the meantime, rigorous testing and control of cattle movements, and fences to help separate badgers from cattle and cattle feed, would help stem this serious disease. This is what the NFU should be promoting to its members.

No sooner had Gordon Brown scraped through yesterday's Parliamentary vote on the detention of terror suspects than he faced what could be an even more significant test.

The prime minister is the only one of Europe's leaders able to stop the juggernaut that is the EU's biofuels policy but it is far from certain that he will do what ethics and common sense dictate that he should.

Brussels is determined to increase sales of biofuels in Europe aiming for 10% of transport fuel to come from biofuels by 2020. If this target becomes law, forests and grasslands will be destroyed at an unprecedented rate, rare wildlife will face extinction and the world’s greenhouse gas emissions will soar.

In yesterday's Guardian, the RSPB’s Ruth Davis wrote that the chances of biofuels cutting emissions largely depended   on Mr Brown's intervention

There have been hints that Mr Brown, his Chancellor Alistair Darling and other government ministers now realise that biofuels are not, currently, up to the job of cutting carbon emissions. Most people now also accept that biofuel manufacture is responsible for 30% of recent food price rises.

There will be beneficiaries if the 10% target is bulldozed through - the corn farmers of the US already high on Washington's subsidies, the mighty ethanol corps of Brazil and farmers elsewhere seeking the green gold from what was once set-aside land.

But millions more will suffer and while the harm of biofuels is greater than the good, there is no point in producing them.

Mr Brown has faced a succession of stern tests in his short time in charge and none will be tougher than this. He can prove his mettle and his morals if he steps in this week to halt the biofuels express.

Read Ruth Davis's article here

The Hebridean island of Canna has been declared a rat-free zone. Such was the extent of the damage to native wildlife being caused by 10,000 of these rampant rodents that experts from New Zealand were flown in to marshal the eradication effort.

Removal of the rats should save Manx shearwaters, razorbills, fulmars and puffins as well as the Canna mouse, 158 of which were removed from Canna and placed in a safehouse to guarantee their survival.

The operation is a success story for conservation. But there are other UK islands desperately in need of exactly the same attention.

On Gough Island in the South Atlantic, mice are literally eating to extinction the populations of albatrosses, petrels and other birds. The mice are also gorging their way through endemic birds on the Pitcairn and Falkland Islands and other oversees territories still forming part of the UK.

The mice on Gough achieved worldwide notoriety three years ago and again last month when the plight of Tristan albatrosses and Gough buntings was highlighted by the RSPB. In addition to the thousands of adult birds being lost to long-line fishing fleets, albatross chicks were being eaten alive by the mice, stuck in their burrows as the mice launched their nocturnal attacks.

The ground-nesting bunting was also under siege, its eggs and chicks eaten by the mice and remaining adult birds fleeing the best nesting sites so reducing their chances of reproducing.

The attacks on these birds continue although the UK government is now funding a study of mouse eradication methods.

The birds of Gough will only be saved if ministers go further and pay for an island-wide purge.

The government’s of New Zealand and Australia have done this over much larger areas and the success story of Canna shows it can be done closer to home.

Gough Island is a world heritage site and its 10 million birds make it the most important seabird colony in the world. It deserves to be treated well. There is no better time to do that than the present.

The Canna story is here

And the horror of Gough mice here

Read more on the RSPB's campaign to save albatrosses here

Could it be that one of the birds we warm to most readily is forewarning us of trouble?

The numbers of puffins on the Isle of May, five miles off the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland, has dropped by 30 per cent since 2003.

Some birds have arrived underweight, others have flown in later than usual. Others still have not turned up at all and are either not breeding this year or are presumed dead. Scientists think that too little food, or at least too little nutritious food, is to blame for the birds' failure to appear at the UK’s largest puffin breeding colony.

Puffins are amongst our most resilient seabirds because of their varied winter diet and because they dive deep for their food rather than fishing on or just below the surface of the sea like kittiwakes and Arctic terns.

Many seabirds including puffins rely on sandeels in summer, however, and sandeel numbers have plunged recently, particularly in the North Sea where sandeel fishing quotas have been substantially cut as a result.

Birds can sense when they are not fit to breed and it may well be that the shortage of sandeels in summer and changes in their more varied winter diet are leaving puffins and other seabirds unable to reproduce. A symptom of the food shortage may be the increasing numbers of nutritionally-poor pipefish being fed to puffin chicks in summer.

It is not clear why pipefish numbers have risen so steeply as sandeels have declined but we do know that the North Sea’s plankton is changing from cold-water to warm-water species as seawater heats up.

Sandeel larvae thrive on cold-water plankton and in its absence the number of sandeels will drop. Effects further up the food chain are inevitable, for larger fish like cod and for seabirds.

Evidence that seabird declines are linked to climate change is growing though we cannot yet be certain. What is sure is that global warming is adversely affecting our seas and other sealife.

We must act more quickly to slow the effects of climate change if we are to keep our best-loved wildlife and much else besides. We must also ensure that sandeel fishing quotas, which vary each year, are not increased to such an extent that they aggravate the impact of the subtle changes taking place in our seas.

Read more on the Isle of May puffins here

What if every country had her own national bird? Some already do. Ecuador has the Andean condor, the Peacock belongs to India. Our own barn swallow has been claimed by both Austria and Estonia and now, Israel has chosen the hoopoe.

The choice is an odd one. Not because this striking bird is not worthy or because it is in decline in Israel – its numbers are rising - but because it is dismissed in the Old Testament as abhorrent, unclean and not to be eaten.

Jews are still barred from consuming hoopoes yet after six months of polling, 35 per cent of the 155,000 people taking part voted to make the hoopoe their flagship species. As a result, the bird’s image will now appear on stamps, coins and clothing.

“Today, more than ever, we need green scenery, fresh air and the beautiful multi-coloured birds that flock here,” said Israel’s president Shimon Peres who sees bird watching as one of his country’s major assets.

The vote was also regarded as a ‘lesson in democracy and in bird preservation awareness’ according to Israeli newspapers.

Such lessons would be useful in the UK where, on the day the hoopoe’s election was announced, an adult peregrine died in England after being found in a spring-loaded trap.

Eight of these illegal devices have been discovered near peregrine nests in the West Midlands.

The peregrine is a fine bird, an avian torpedo only just recovering from severe population declines caused by the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. Thousands of people are enjoying privileged views of peregines and their young, today, on buildings in several UK town and city centres.

England doesn’t have a national bird. Nor does Scotland, Wales or Ireland although the UK has the robin. Maybe we won't deserve one until the illegal persecution of Britain's birds of prey comes to an end.