How much would you miss birdsong? More than just a tweet

The Messenger, promotional poster

Last Sunday RSPB Liverpool screened the stunning and thought provoking film ‘The Messenger’ by SongbirdSOS productions.

RSPB Information stands outside Screen 3

Fifty four people attended our event and judging by the post screening reaction it had obviously achieved its aim.

The film is visually stunning and took us to far flung places such as Indonesia, Canada and France. This film was hard hitting and we couldn’t help be moved by  the issues it raised; at times maddening and upsetting such as the French man illegally  catching and eating ortolan buntings, the Indonesian bird markets, and the hundreds of migrating birds flying into high raise windows. Towards the end of the film we were treated to the sight of an expanding circle of 2,100 dead birds laid out on a museum floor, a strong image bringing tears to your eyes.

(https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pattern-made-2100-dead-birds-180958379/

 

But this film wasn’t just made to shock, it showed some amazing people, monitoring birds and fighting back, from the man who turns out Manhattan’s 911 memorial lights (http://www.audubon.org/news/making-911-memorial-lights-bird-safe), and the CABS activists combating the  illegal killing or trapping of European birds   (https://www.facebook.com/CABS2011/photos/a.427967460550946.119080.325254527488907/926741860673501/)

But there was a glimmer of hope for the future, as we observed Canadian children at the Royal Ontario museum tip toeing around and asking questions about all the dead birds on the floor? We must nurture their interest and educate our future generations.

 

After the film an informal discussion gave the audience a chance to let off steam, empathise and ask what you we can do to help birds.

Audience discussion on Indonesia. Ged Gorman

Maureen wins a the first raffle prize

Here’s a link to watch the Q & A session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l3nseUNH8I&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Some initial suggestions:

1. Install ultra violet window alert stencils at home and at work – available at various UK bird food supplier websites.

 

2. Campaign, sign the petitions, write letters, fundraise and if you can afford it donate…. Support the RSPB Love Nature,    RSPB Operation Turtle Dove   or   RSPB            Birds without Borders and BirdLife International

 

3. Buy bird-friendly coffee - Bird & Wild Coffee  Partnered with RSPB to give 6% of all sales to RSPB to help protect our birds, wildlife and nature in the UK, whilst protecting migrating birds at coffee origins

4. Cats - Put a bell on your cat's quick release mechanism collar and keep your cat indoors when birds are most vulnerable: at least an hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise, especially during March-July and December-January, and also after bad weather, such as rain or a cold spell, to allow birds to come out and feed.

Raffle - lots of Bird &Wild Coffee prizes

 

It is hoped that our group will be able to bring this film to our members at an indoor event screening in the near future and more importantly be able to contribute in some way to help tackle the issues this film raises.

 

Here’s a link to watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/LjQtRr4CKc

 

DVD shop:   http://themessengerdoc.bigcartel.com/product/dvd  

Every DVD comes with a FREE bag of bird friendly-coffee from Bird& wild plus a promo code for future purchases. Bird & wild is on a mission to help protect migrating birds. Every bag of Bird & Wild coffee sold helps the RSPB, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Centre and the Fair-trade Foundation.

 

Here’s a link to the Bird & Wild shop:  https://birdandwild.co.uk/

A warning from the past: in 1957 Mao Tse-tung’s set about a campaign against tree sparrows that were eating the nation’s grain, subsequently hundreds of millions of sparrows were killed.  Achieving this aim contributed to a catastrophic ecological disaster which led to 30 million people dying of starvation.  We ignore this lesson at our peril, whether it is birds, bees, other wildlife or the planet’s natural resources. 

The Messsenger promotional poster

Laura

RSPB Liverpool

New report reveals scale of declines of UK migratory birds wintering in Africa

Turtle dove - Andy Hay

The migration of millions of birds across the face of the planet is one of nature’s greatest annual events. Every spring some species move north, while every autumn those same species move south, very often linking continents.

Although these migration patterns are as regular as the seasons, monitoring is revealing that, for some species, fewer birds are making the journey each season as the populations of these birds, including species nesting in the UK, are declining rapidly.

The latest in the annual series of State of the UK’s Birds report (published today, Thursday 16 October, 2014) includes a migratory birds section, including trends for 29 migrant species which nest in the UK in summer and spend the winter around the Mediterranean, or in Africa south of the Sahara Desert.  For the first time the recent population trends for these migratory species have been combined into an indicator revealing some marked differences between species that winter in different areas.

Species, such as whinchat, nightingale, tree pipit and spotted flycatcher, which winter in the humid zone of Africa – stretching across the continent from southern Senegal to Nigeria and beyond - show the most dramatic declines: the indicator for this group of species has dropped by just over 70 per cent since the late 1980s. This contrasts with species, such as sand martin, whitethroat and sedge warbler, wintering in the arid zone (just below the Sahara desert). These species have fluctuated considerably since 1970, but show a less than 20 per cent decline overall.

Nightingale - Andy Hay

One of the most dramatic declines is that of the turtle dove with a decline of 88 per cent since 1995. The following species have also declined over the same period: wood warbler, 66 per cent; pied flycatcher, 53 per cent; spotted flycatcher, 49 per cent; cuckoo, 49 per cent; nightingale, 43 per cent; and yellow wagtail, 43 per cent.

Concern about migratory bird species is growing and future editions of the State of the UK’s Birds report will contain a regular update to the migratory birds indicator. To understand the changing status of the UK’s migratory birds, researchers need to understand more about what’s driving these declines. Evidence is currently being gathered from a variety of sources including tracking studies and on-the-ground surveys.

Martin Harper, RSPB Conservation Director, said: “West Africa is the winter home for many species bird species that breed in the UK. But many of these birds that cross continents are in rapid decline. Their nomadic lifestyle, requiring sites and resources spread over vast distances across the globe makes identifying and understanding the causes of decline extremely complex. The problems may be in the UK or in West Africa, or indeed on migration in between the two.”

David Noble, Principal Ecologist at BTO said: "We can accurately monitor the patterns of decline in these once-familiar summer breeders thanks to several decades of careful observations by an army of volunteer birdwatchers. More recently, tracking devices have shed light on migratory routes and key wintering areas. To take appropriate action, further study is needed to determine the pressures faced in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as breeding here in the UK.”

Colette Hall, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Species Monitoring Officer said: “The length of many bird migrations – often thousands of miles – makes it very difficult to pinpoint where and what is causing populations to fall. So the more information we can get all along the migration routes – on land use changes, new infrastructure etc - the better we can target protection measures. It’s important that we help build up the capacity of local bird organisations and volunteers across the world to provide vital information through their own long-term monitoring.”

Alan Law, Director of Biodiversity Delivery at Natural England said: “It is self-evident that effective conservation of a migratory species requires appropriate measures to be in place at each step of the migratory cycle.  For some species, there is growing evidence of pressure on breeding success here in England. Our focus therefore is to ensure that well-managed habitats are available in this country so that migratory species can breed here successfully; this work involves close collaboration with land managers both on designated conservation sites and across the wider farmed countryside”.

David Stroud, Senior Ornithologist with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, said: “Migratory birds depend on conservation actions in all the countries they move through in the course of their annual cycle.  The UK is working with these countries to help improve the condition of their critical habitats through its participation in multi-lateral environmental agreements such as the Biodiversity Convention and the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.”

The State of the UK’s Birds report also covers the UK’s Overseas Territories. The latest evidence reveals mixed fortunes for two important albatross populations in the UK’s Overseas Territories. Seventy per cent of the world’s black-browed albatrosses nest in the Falkland Islands. A population increase here has allowed researchers to downgrade the extinction threat of this species from Endangered to Near Threatened. Sadly, the fortunes of the grey-headed albatross have deteriorated as declines have been reported in nesting colonies on South Georgia, which hosts half the world’s population.

Cuckoo at Lunt meadows- L Bimson

The State of the UK’s Birds report is published by a partnership of eight organisations: RSPB; British Trust for Ornithology; Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust;  Natural Resources Wales; Natural England; Northern Ireland Environment Agency; Scottish Natural Heritage; and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

ends

For further information and to arrange an interview, please contact:

Chris Collett, Communications Manager, 0191 233 4317, 07885 834889

Paul Stancliffe, BTO Media Manager: 01842 750050 / 07585440910; email - paul.stancliffe@bto.org

Mark Simpson, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust press officer: 01453 891138 /  07825 890590

Joint Nature Conservation Committee Press office: tel: 01733 866839, email: communications@jncc.gov.uk

Ellen Softley, Natural England press office: 0300 060 0213/ 07990 804795 ellen.softley@naturalengland.org.uk