Blogs

It was a busy old time at the RSPB this week with newspapers, TV and radio crews all clamouring for a glimpse of the increasingly elusive cuckoo.

Unless you’ve been living in a hole in the ground – or maybe just returned from a trip to the outer solar system – you will have seen the news this week that cuckoos have been added to the Red List of the UK's most threatened bird species.

Satellite news broadcast trucks rolled onto the RSPB's headquarters at Sandy and the Barnes wetland reserve in West London. Our director of conservation Mark Avery and species monitoring expert Richard Gregory must have felt like celebrities as they rushed from one journalist to the next for interviews with everyone from Sky News and ITN to the BBC’s Newsnight as well as all the national newspapers. There’s a list of links below if you want to see how the story was covered.

It was picked up even further a field including the Boston Globe, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Times of Malta. The Independent even managed to tie the story in with the ongoing political expenses row when their cartoonist Dave Brown drew embattled MP Julie Kirkbride as a cuckoo sitting on a nest full of cash.

So why has the plight of this single species created such a major stir and captured everyone’s attention?

The cuckoo makes one of the natural world’s most instantly recognisable sounds  - any schoolboy will tell you it’s the male bird’s two note call that gives the species its name - and it's this call which for many is the traditional harbinger of spring. It also nests right across the UK - as a result it has entered the national psyche and become part of our shared heritage.

Everyone has their own personal connection with this cheeky bird – and everyone would feel the sad loss if it were to disappear.

The Times

The Guardian

The Independent

Daily Telegraph

Daily Mail

The Sun

Daily Mirror

BBC online

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

So the government has pledged some money to create more adventure playgrounds for our young people and has been accused of making a U-turn in doing so.

Given that the health and safety issues surrounding school trips and outside play often make such experiences seem like more trouble than they're worth for our teachers and youth workers you can see this point might have some legs. But many of us finally woken up to the fact that a few scratches and bruises are all part of the growing up process - we must celebrate and not deny this.

Hopefully they will soon take another step in the right direction in making sure that all children automatically have access to these sorts of outdoor learning opportunities. Many school children will have these adventure playgrounds on their doorsteps and enjoy regular trips but there are still many schoolchildren who don't have access to outdoor learning and are worse off for it.

There is no better way to learn about the environment and the role we play in protecting it than getting outside and experiencing it for ourselves. There are plenty of opportunities for young people to do this, not least the RSPB's own network of nature reserves all around the UK.

Adventure playgrounds are great for swinging, climbing and balancing and the natural world offers the chance to get your hands dirty digging, discovering, and protecting. A balance of all of these things make for a happier, healthier child and a gives nature a fighting chance in creating budding Attenborough's of the next generation.

The phones at RSPB HQ have been buzzing since Wednesday’s episode of The Archers on Radio 4.

For the minority who do not tune in religiously every night at 7 pm, the programme saw David Archer and his daughter Pip paying a visit to a barn owl nest on their farm to take pictures of the eggs.

Mrs owl takes flight as they approach and Pip shins up a ladder with her camera.

As several listeners have pointed out, this is disturbance of a bird listed on Schedule One of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, or in laymen’s terms, birds that are ‘specially protected’.  

You need a licence for that, David. That or a willingness to do six months at Her Majesty’s pleasure or to stump up the £5,000 fine.

Well, we have spoken to the Archers, or rather to the nice people who broadcast them to the nation. They assure us they are aware of the law pertaining to barn owls and that David and Pip’s position will be made clear as the plot unfolds.

So, keep listening then. All together now: dah dah dah de dah dah dah, dah de dah de dah dah...

It can work, this renewable energy stuff.

The announcement that a number of energy companies are to plough £2.2 billion into building the London Array windfarm is proof of that.

It is also proof these schemes can be built without harm to the natural environment.

At first glance a massive – and it is properly big this one – windfarm in the Thames Estuary seems like something the RSPB might oppose. It seems a fair assumption, especially when you learn the initial site surveys found it was home to a large and previously unknown population of red-throated divers.

But then you know what assumption did.

From the start, the developers worked closely with us to find a way of building their windfarm without robbing the birds of their habitat.

The result was an agreement that the scheme would be built in stages, with the first to the south of the site, well away from the divers. A close eye will be kept on the birds during and after construction to make sure they are not disturbed.

So built in stage, but built nonetheless. There should be power flowing ashore from the London Array by 2012. The turbines will produce 623 megawatts, which is a lot.

We badly need schemes like the London Array. We need them to help us move away from fossil fuels and avoid the catastrophic climate change which now threatens. We need them to show how talking early and often to conservationists can get schemes built faster and better.

Above all, we need them to show how we can have clean power and wildlife.

There has to be a world left worth saving after all.

They're noisy, smelly and bustling with activity 24/7.

Seabird cities are among the most evocative wildlife spectacles in the UK. Whether walking among clifftop colonies on the Farnes, ducking divebombing skuas on the Shetlands, or gawping at gannets on Bempton Cliffs - these are experiences you'll never forget.

Our coasts and seas not only support millions of seabirds, they're also home to playful dolphins, giant basking sharks, starfish, seahorses and seals.

You’d expect these remarkable treasures to enjoy protection at least equal to the best of our onshore wildlife. Far from it. In a deplorable demonstration of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, the UK has a paltry three marine nature reserves - Lundy, Skomer and Strangford Lough.

Thankfully we now have an unprecedented opportunity to correct this abysmal state of affairs.

And you can help us. Tomorrow we’ll be at Westminster, lobbying MPs to ensure that the forthcoming Marine Bill does the job it needs to.

You're very welcome to join us, we’d love to see you there. Come along and help us make a little bit of maritime history.

Find out more here.

Or if you can't make it in person, you can write to your MP telling him or her why our marine wildlife matters to you.

Remember, all those puffins and porpoises can't speak up for themselves.

Better still, have you seen it?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at this fun video of Prince Charles and some famous friends speaking out for rainforests.

With the help of Obama's web guru, Thomas Gensemer, plus a host of celebrity backers from the Dalai Lama to Harrison Ford, HRH's campaign is proving a surefire success across both traditional and online media.

Rainforest devastation is no laughing matter and the Prince's Rainforests Project is much more than a bit of media hype. It's a serious and credible move to inject more momentum into the fight to save one of nature's last great wonders. The counter on the campaign's homepage reminds us how frighteningly fast our remaining rainforests are disappearing - just in case you'd forgotten.

As the Prince rightly observes, 'If we lose the battle against tropical deforestation, we lose the battle against climate change.' It's hard to think of a bleaker scenario than a world shorn of its glorious rainforests, descending into climate chaos.

We're doing our bit to save rainforests in Sumatra and Gola. But protecting individual pockets of rainforest - however large - isn't enough. We need long term funding and policies that not only stop the rot, but also offer alternative resources to help rainforest communities. As part of the current climate negotiations, the RSPB and BirdLife International are pressing for a mechanism to reward developing countries that keep their forests.

However, this won't kick in until 2012 and we need money for more action now.

The prince has lain down the gauntlet by proposing an emergency funding package. The RSPB, together with its global partners in BirdLife International, is delighted to support his new initiative.

If you want to save nature's most amazing places, we urge you to do so too.

Quaffing wine by the river at Westminster with ministers and lords is a far cry from getting up at the crack of dawn to tramp around open farmland.

But the celebration which was held yesterday (Wednesday May 7) at the House of Lords was a just reward for the decade of work which has been carried out as part of the Volunteer and Farmer Alliance.

The project is not one many people are aware of, but over the past ten years RSPB volunteers from across the country have been quietly going about the business of surveying more than 4,250 farms. After they’ve welcomed the volunteers onto their land the farmers who take part in the scheme are presented with a map detailing the wildlife that lives on their doorstep.

Some of the facts and figures from the project put into perspective what has been achieved. 350,000 hectares of land - an area four times the size of Nottinghamshire - have been surveyed during which volunteers have walked the equivalent of four and a half times round the world and given 77,000 hours – or nearly nine solid years – of their free time to help out.

Environment minister Hilary Benn recognised the importance of the project in his speech to those who had gathered for the tenth anniversary reception.

“Farmland birds have declined fifty per cent since 1970,” he warned. “That’s a figure we should all take notice of.”

He went on to echo RSPB chief executive Graham Wynn’s words of thanks to all the farmers have got involved with the scheme, many of whom have taken the information gathered in their surveys and used it to put in place measures on their farm to protect farmland bird habitats.

But the last word from the day must go to from the small army of volunteers who are the footsoldiers of this project, and who have helped provide information which has proved invaluable in the battle to halt farmland bird decline.

Alan King from the Coventry and Warwickshire local RSPB group has been surveying farms since the project first started.

“We’ve seen all sorts of stuff,” he says proudly. “Hobbies and buzzards, wheatears, tree sparrow and little owls and yellow wagtail occasionally over the oil seed rape.

“It’s a great way of getting to meet the farmers and they’ve all been very cooperative and usually they’ve invited us to go back whenever we want to.

“For me it gives you the opportunity to do some really meaningful birdwatching.”

Well done Alan, and all the other volunteers, and farmers, who have helped make this project such a success. Here’s to another ten years…

Support for the government's decision on a third runway at Heathrow seems to be ebbing away this week. Several business leaders, including the heads of Sainsbury's and Carphone Warehouse, laid their cards on the table and made it clear in a letter to the Times that they don't see the need for the extra runway.

They're in good company. Around a dozen local authorities and six environmental charities – including the RSPB – are currently mounting a legal challenge to the Government's decision on a third runway.

Like us, they're confident that a third runway is not the answer. They agree that other options, such as a high speed rail link to the North, need to be investigated.

It's heartening to have such respected voices speaking up for nature – albeit in terms that are more familiar in the boardroom than on the footpaths of Minsmere, or in the rainforests of Indonesia.

What's most valuable, though, is the nail this drives into the flimsy coffin of a myth that the business community needs a third runway at Heathrow in order to grow, and to thrive. In the words of these leaders – "the benefits to business are unclear and unproven". We couldn't have put it better ourselves. And, let's face it, these guys are well qualified to make pronouncements like this.

High carbon growth simply isn't the only form of growth that can help our economy recover. All the evidence shows that locking in high carbon infrastructure will substantially undermine the cuts in emissions needed across all sectors of the economy in order to avoid dangerous climate change. And, as Sir Nicholas Stern said in his review of the economics of climate change, it will be considerably cheaper to take action to curb emissions now compared to the cost of coping with dangerous climate change in the future.

Committing to development like this also seriously challenges the credibility of the Government, so hot on the heels of the Climate Act, and its target of cutting emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Just how on earth – and specifically, how on a proposed tarmac runway at Heathrow – could such a target be met?

The RSPB will continue to oppose the expansion of air travel until Government can demonstrate how this can be achieved without compromising the CO2 emission cuts that the Climate Act commits us to. And having these voices of big business crying out alongside the million voices for nature that our membership affords us makes the case even more undeniable.

Have you been down to your local river recently?

Perhaps you like to take a walk by the Wye or cycle along the Severn. Maybe you’re spending your summer boating on the Broads or angling on the Aire.

Rivers are all around us and it’s easy to take them for granted, but a new campaign is aiming to highlight the worrying decline of our waterways and the flora and fauna that rely on them.

You may have heard this week about Our Rivers, a campaign which the RSPB has launched along with the WWF, the Anglers Trust and the Association of Rivers Trusts. The idea is that you the public – yes, that’s you – can use your voice to speak up for your local river and its wildlife.

The Environment Agency is putting together its blueprint for the way it will care for the waterways of England and Wales in the future. Getting your voice heard about the issues facing your local river may seem like a daunting challenge – but that’s where Our Rivers comes in.

If you take a look at the website – www.ourrivers.org.uk - you’ll see an interactive map of the country’s rivers with lots of coloured pins in it. Clicking onto each pin will tell you the problems facing that river – from agricultural pollution on the Conwy to sediment deposits on the Itchen. And there’s a nice big space for you to get in touch and tell the Environment Agency the story from the banks of your local river.