Alaska Wind Farm - added 23rd February
Purbeck
District Council have recently received a revised planning application
for the Alaska Wind Farm, located at East Stoke, to the north-west
of Wareham. The number of turbines has been reduced from six to
four and the boundary of the development modified to reduce the
impact on the adjacent Dorset Heathlands Ramsar site and Special
Protection Area. The Dorset Bird Club still has concerns relating
to the predicted mortality rate of Common Buzzards and we are currently
formulating our response, which has to be submitted to Purbeck DC
by 9th March. For details of the development, see: http://www.purbeck.gov.uk/planning/proposed_windfarm.aspx.
The Documents
and Plans section gives you access to the supporting documentation
including the Environmental Statement which describes the development,
and the impacts on ecological resources including birds. The relevant
Chapter is 7.
The Purbeck
DC planning website has the facility for you to comment on the proposals.
Stanpit
Marsh Dog Control Order - added 2nd February
Christchurch
Borough Council have recently approved the five-year Stanpit Marsh
Management Plan. The Plan contains the following important objectives:
· Increased wardening;
· Increased signage to highlight sensitive areas;
· Grazing management to benefit habitat for breeding waders;
· On-going breeding bird surveys;
· Ditch clearance on Priory Marsh; and
· Improvements in dog control within the Nature Reserve itself.
The last point has given rise to a further Public Consultation relating
specifically to keeping dogs on leads on the Nature Reserve itself.
The Council are proposing to establish The Dogs on Leads (Stanpit
Marsh Nature Reserve) Order 2010.
The Christchurch
Harbour Ornithological Group (CHOG) and the Dorset Bird Club believe
that the proposed Order is the final vital element of the Stanpit
Marsh Management Plan. At present, birds on Stanpit Marsh are significantly
disturbed by dogs. The Order will provide total clarity with respect
to the control of dogs on the Nature Reserve. We believe that the
resultant significant reduction in disturbance will greatly enhance
the Nature Reserve for feeding, roosting and nesting birds. A list
of species for which Stanpit Marsh is important, and their status,
is given below.
It is important
that the Order is approved, and we urge you to support it. Please
respond to the Public Consultation form which is available at: http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media/pdf/c/3/ResponseformA4.pdf
Important
Bird Species at Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch Harbour
| Species
|
Period
|
Status |
| Brent
Goose |
Winter
|
Amber
List |
| Wigeon |
Winter
|
Amber
List |
| Teal |
Winter
|
Amber
List |
| Little
Egret |
Winter |
Amber
List |
| Black-tailed
Godwit |
Winter |
Red
List |
| Redshank |
Winter
|
Amber
List |
| Lapwing
|
Winter
|
Amber
List |
| Bar-tailed
Godwit |
Passage |
Amber
List |
| Knot |
Passage
|
Amber
List |
| Ringed
Plover |
Passage |
Amber
List |
| Dunlin |
Passage
|
Amber
List |
| Whimbrel |
Passage
|
Amber
List |
| Yellow
Wagtail |
Passage
|
Amber
List |
| Shelduck |
Breeding |
Amber
List |
| Skylark |
Breeding |
Red
List |
| Meadow
Pipit |
Breeding |
Amber
List |
| Water
Rail |
Breeding |
Amber
List |
| Dartford
Warbler |
Breeding
|
Protected
under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act; Amber
List |
Dorset
Arable Project -
added 30th January 2010
How Farmers, Volunteers and Conservationists
are Working to Keep Our Arable Farmland Full of Wildlife
An exciting
partnership project aimed at reversing declines in arable wildlife
is now underway across areas of South West England. Under the umbrella
of the ‘South West Farmland Bird Initiative’ there are
four projects targeting Dorset, the Cotswolds, North Wiltshire and
South Wiltshire. These areas are recognised as being nationally
important for farmland birds and other wildlife found within the
wider countryside. Each project is led by a different partner organization,
the Dorset project is the ‘Dorset Arable Project’ and
is run by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG).
The project
concentrates on 6 species of farmland bird (the ‘Arable 6’)
and hotspots for arable plants. The ’Arable 6’ are the
Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Turtle Dove, Yellow Wagtail, Tree Sparrow
and Corn Bunting. They are arable farmland specialists and have
suffered some of the most severe declines of any of our farmland
birds over the last 40 years. Providing habitat for these birds
will also have major benefits for other farmland species like the
Skylark, Yellowhammer and Brown Hare, and in many cases, also provide
conditions that will help rare arable plants.
Through the
use of the Governments agri-environment scheme Environmental Stewardship,
or voluntarily, farmers are being encouraged to adopt the measures
that will provide the three most important things farmland birds
need in order to thrive. These are known as the ‘Big 3’
and include nesting habitat along with summer and winter food. In
‘hot-spot’ areas for rare arable plants, the project is
promoting measures to encourage the germination of some of the UK’s
scarcest plants.
Why is arable
wildlife important?
Farmland birds
are a good indicator of the level of biodiversity on farms, as they
are comparatively high up the food chain. If their populations are
thriving then it indicates that the lower end of the food chain
is also in good condition. Conservation of rare arable plants is
important to help prevent extinction of some species from Dorset
and the UK. These plants also provide seed and insect rich habitat
to support the whole food chain.
Since the 1970s,
the UK populations of many of our farmland birds have been in steep
decline. In the South West, farmland bird numbers fell by 45% between
1970 and 1994, and by a further 8% between 1994 and 2004. The populations
of arable plants have fallen even more dramatically, with a decline
of 96% over the last 200 years, and they are now viewed as the rarest
group of plants in the UK.
The Big 3’
Farmland birds
usually require three things in order to thrive. These are:
Nesting Habitat: The ideal nesting habitat varies between species,
but it needs to be safe and secure and may be in the middle of a
field, in field margins, hedgerows or trees.
Summer Food:
A regular supply of insects and other invertebrates are a critical
food sources for developing chicks and adults throughout the summer.
Winter Food:
Many farmland birds rely on seeds and so an abundant source of seed
food is needed throughout the winter months into spring.
Research has
shown that if sufficient quantities of the ‘Big 3’ are
provided for farmland birds and correct management is carried out
for arable plants to germinate, these declines can be reversed.
The measures required to do this can work alongside existing farming
practices, and can be put in place either voluntarily or using funding
under Environmental Stewardship.
How the Dorset
Arable Project is helping
Within the target
area the project offers free one-to-one advice to farmers to enable
them to provide the best habitat for farmland birds and other rare
species on their land. This can be implemented through new agri-environment
schemes, or better management of existing schemes as well as adapting
farming methods and incorporating new features to improve the habitat
for birds and other species without compromising the profitability
of the farm. Provision of habitat can include fallow plots for ground
nesting birds such as lapwing, supplying food and cover by leaving
areas of crops un-harvested and planting specific wild bird seed
mixes and providing bird boxes for species such as tree sparrows
and barn owl.
The project
also provides training days for farmers, volunteer bird and plant
surveyors, agronomists, advisers and agents on survey techniques
and the best methods of farming alongside farmland birds and rare
arable plants.
How can the
Dorset Bird Club help?
Bird records
are vital for the Dorset Arable Project to enable farmers to deliver
species specific habitat creation for birds. For example where lapwings
are present it is important to provide fallow plots for nesting,
whereas corn buntings require areas of un-harvested cover crops.
Providing us with your records of farmland bird sightings is essential
to achieve targeted advice to farmers, and to make sure that the
correct habitat is put in place. In particular any sightings of
the ‘arable six’ (grey partridge, lapwing, turtle dove,
yellow wagtail, tree sparrow and corn bunting) would be very welcome.
The Project Partners
The Dorset Arable
Project is being delivered by The Farming and Wildlife Advisory
Group, a registered charity which is the UK’s leading independent
and dedicated provider of environmental and conservation advice
to farmers. Other partners involved in the South West Farmland Bird
Initiative are Natural England, DEFRA, RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology,
Dorset Flora Group, Dorset Environmental Records Centre, Dorset
AONB, Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB, Dorset Biodiversity
Partnership, Cotswold Conservation Board, North Wessex Downs AONB,
Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, National Farmers Union, Country
Landowners and Business Association, Plantlife International, The
Wildlife Trusts, National Trust and Defence Estates.
Events
We would like
to invite you to two events in January and February 2010. An indoor
evening meeting will be held on Wednesday 27th January 2010 with
a buffet supper to present to you in more detail how farmers are
providing the habitat that farmland birds need. The second event
will be a follow up farm walk on a local Dorset farm on Saturday
6th February 2010 to demonstrate how farmers are managing their
land to deliver benefits to farmland birds and other species. There
will also be a training day in December for anyone interested in
becoming a volunteer surveyor for the project.
Contact
Details
If you would
like more information about coming to the above events, are interested
in volunteering as a farmland bird surveyor, or would like to report
any sightings of one of the ‘arable six’ then please contact:
Ruth Wilkins, Dorset Arable Project Adviser,
FWAG, Government
Buildings, Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1PY.
Tel: 01305 251742.
Email: ruth.wilkins@fwag.org.uk
Heronry
Surveyor Required - added 15th January 2010
The BTO Heronries
Census endeavours to count all known Heronries every year and there
are at least eight in Dorset. We are missing a counter to cover
the long established colony at Clifton Wood near Sutton Bingham
reservoir in the north west of the county. The 2009 count was missed
and it would be good to maintain the records. If you live near there,
or know of someone who does, and might consider taking this on please
contact Roger Peart (01202 840372 or e-mail rhpeart@tiscali.co.uk
to find out what is involved. This is fairly urgent as a first count
could usefully be done in late February/early March.
Whooper
and Bewick's Swan Survey - added 15th January 2010
An international
Whooper & Bewick's Swan Census is taking place over the weekend
of 16th/17th January 2010. If anyone is lucky enough to find any
of these Swans, would they let me have the following: time, date,
location & number seen
On behalf of WWT Slimbridge,
John Jones e-mail: blackbirdcott@tiscali.co.uk
or phone 01747 811490
Help
the Bird Atlas in Dorset
Help
from birdwatchers is required for the Bird Atlas throughout Dorset
in both the breeding season (April-July) and the winter (November-February).
Your casual birdwatching records, together with evidence of breeding,
will help build comprehensive species lists for each 10-km square.
We also need help with Timed Tetrad Visits, especially in the west
of the county and in the Isle of Purbeck area. Further details can
be found on the Bird Atlas website www.birdatlas.net or contact
Dawn Balmer by email dawn.balmer@bto.org
Dorset
Bird Club Database
Volunteers Wanted!!
We are looking
for help to continue with the inputting of the historical bird records
held in paper form by the club. We made a great start last winter
with many of the key (‘red’ and ‘amber’) species
now logged on to the Bird Club's Database for the years 1957 to
1993 (52,000+ individual records of 75 species).
There are still
a lot of key species to input (before we even think about tackling
the ‘green’ listed ones!)
If you are interested
in helping, please contact Neil who would be happy to run you through
what is involved before you commit yourself. [Use of a computer
required.]
Neil Gartshore
Moor Edge, 2 Bere Road, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 4DD
Tel: 01929
552560 to e-mail neil@onaga54.freeserve.co.uk
Colour-ringed
Dartford Warblers
Since
2002, over seven hundred Dartford Warblers have been individually colour-ringed
on Dorset heaths ranging from Avon Country Park in the east to Grange Heath (near
Stoborough) in the west. Initially, these birds were ringed as part of a PhD project
by Giselle Murison to investigate various aspects of the population dynamics of
this species. In particular, Giselle was interested in site fidelity of adults,
the impact of disturbance during the breeding season and the extent of juvenile
dispersal. More recently, the emphasis has moved to an assessment of adult survival
rates under the BTO's "Retrap Adults for Survival" programme.Each bird
has one metal and three colour rings, with two rings on each leg (metal always
on the left leg). The following colours have been used:
Dark
Green, Pale Green, Dark Blue, Pale Blue, Red, Orange,
Yellow, Bright Pink, Purple, Black & White
Pale
pink was also used initially but was found to fade quickly and is now likely to
appear as white on any surviving birds that are seen in the field.Details of any
sightings would be gratefully received and fully acknowledged. Although only the
full combinations will enable individual birds to be identified, partial combinations
may also provide useful information. In particular, the colour on the left leg
and whether it is above or below the metal ring can establish original ringing
site or year of ringing in most cases. Please report any sightings directly to
me by email or telephone. Photographs have proved to be particularly useful in
confirming combinations.Simon Lane
to e-mail Simon at SimonLane1@aol.com
to telephone on 01794 367096
Common
Swifts in Decline
The
UK breeding population of Common Swifts (Apus apus) is in big trouble (down by
42% in the South West and more in some areas) and if action is not taken soon
it is likely to reach an unrecoverable level. The most obvious reason for the
decline is human interference in the Swifts' traditional nesting habitat, ie.
in our homes and other buildings. Modern building techniques and materials, like
plastic soffits and facias, have drastically reduced the number of holes in man-made
structures that Swifts need. Simply put, they are running out of places in the
UK where they can rear their young.Pressure needs to be applied to the local authorities,
in all areas where Swift colonies are established, to ensure adequate year round
protection of their nesting places is afforded by their planning processes. Dorset
is one such area.A monumental and costly effort would be required to identify
these locations by traditional survey methods, so a different approach is being
tried. Most will be familiar with the low level, high speed "screaming party"
displays with which Swifts announce the presence of a breeding colony. These displays
are usually around the centre of their chosen breeding territory. This behaviour
is so distinctive and impressive that it should be possible to use peoples' memories
of such displays as anecdotal evidence on which to build what is believed to be
the first national database of swift colonies in the UK.I have created a Google
Group to enable people to send in details of past and future sightings. The URL
is http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts. The site, which is very new and
still evolving, also has information about Swifts, links to other Swift sites,
and a discussion board. This is an ambitious project and as I am just an enthusiast
doing this in my free time, I would welcome any suggestions of how the site, or
the project itself, might be improved. Please have at look, using the web address
above, and join in.Efforts are in hand to contact Bird Clubs in order to request
that they pass details of the site and its aims to their members, and inviting
them to contribute. Alternative ways to publicise the site will be used to spread
the word as widely as possible. All data entered will be collated and periodically
posted to the site in spreadsheet format to which anybody will have free access.
Knowledge
of where Swifts are breeding will enable targeting of the local authorities involved.
As far as Dorset is concerned, negotiations have begun with a view to including
protection for Swift nesting places within the framework of the Biodiversity Planning
for the County. This initiative will be more likely to succeed with the co-operation
of DBC members, so I urge you , please, to join the uk-swift project; follow the
simple instructions of how to share where you have seen Swift "screaming
parties", and help make a difference. By helping to preserve Swifts nesting
places we will also be helping House Sparrows and Starlings.
Geoff
Beale
geoff.beale@bigfoot.com
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-swifts
Balearic
Shearwaters
The
Balearic Shearwater is the rarest bird in the world to visit Britain regularly.
Balearic Shearwater breeds in the Balearic Islands, where it has suffered a well-documented
population crash mainly as a consequence of predation by Black Rats and domestic
cats. After breeding, a large proportion of the population disperses westwards
out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic. There, the birds have traditionally
gathered to moult in late summer in northern and central parts of the Bay of Biscay,
where they feed close inshore on pilchards and anchovies. In the last decade or
so it seems that this moulting population has shifted northwards, with larger
numbers being recorded in the western English Channel. This change is thought
to relate to increased surface sea temperatures, which in turn are likely to be
a consequence of global warming. Sightings of the species are therefore increasing
in Britain at a time when its breeding population is declining. Balearic Shearwater
is much more of an inshore feeder than many of its relatives and we are lucky
in Dorset that Portland Bill is one of the prime sites in the UK for the species.
Seawatching in suitable conditions from Portland Bill between July and October
will normally result in sightings. The recent Lyme Bay Pelagic trip (see article
elsewhere in the Newsletter) resulted in very close views of the species.The SeaWatch
SW Project (http://www.seawatch-sw.org)
is an initiative designed to collect important information about some of the UK's
most threatened marine animals including the Balearic Shearwater. The project
is entirely volunteer-based, and is being supported by a number of major conservation
and scientific organisations, including the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton,
the RSPB and the Marine Conservation Society. Observers have been stationed at
Gwennap Head, Cornwall from mid-July to mid-October. One of the main aims of SeaWatch
SW is to provide a central point for Balearic Shearwater recording in UK waters.The
SeaWatch SW Project project is therefore urging anyone who sees a Balearic Shearwater
in the UK in 2007 to contact them with details of the sighting, or submit the
record to the Birdguides website (www.birdguides.com).
Alternatively, you can submit your records in the normal way for the Dorset Bird
Report, and we will pass them onto the SeaWatch SW Project.
BTO
Atlas
Fieldwork for the Atlas starts on 1st November. Two types
of records are requested - Roving Records aim to capture all kinds of distribution
records, from species lists for grid squares to one-off records of hard to find
species, and anything in between. Timed Tetrad Visits (TTVs) are principally concerned
with discovering the broad patterns of relative abundance. A TTV involves walking
around a tetrad, birdwatching for 1 or 2 hours and recording everything you see
and hear.
For
full details of how to get involved, see the website (http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/index.htm)
or contact the BTO Headquarters at the Nunnery Thetford, Norfolk. Dawn Balmer
or Simon Gillings will be pleased to help and to answer any queries you may have
e-mail the BTO by Clicking Here
