News and comment

Compiled by Adrian Pitches Opinions expressed in this feature are not necessarily those of British Great breed in Britain The reintroductions bandwagon Karen Waters, who first spotted ; at about six weeks old they rolls on: the first Great Otis them (the mother is ‘Custard’… are imported into the UK and, after tarda chicks to hatch in Britain Custard Bustard). a period of quarantine, released since 1832 have been sighted on The RSPB has recently joined onto Salisbury Plain. Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. David the project group. Dr Mark Avery, The first known nest from this Waters, founder and Director of the RSPB Conservation Director, said: project was in 2007, and there was Great Bustard Group, said: ‘This is a ‘This fantastic news marks another at least one further nest in 2008. tremendous step forward for the chapter in the struggle to bring However, the eggs from these Great Bustard Reintroduction back England’s lost wildlife. The clutches were found to be infertile, Project, the wildlife of the UK, Great Bustard is the only most likely owing to the young age Great Bustards and for me. It has nesting in the UK that is facing of the males. It is widely considered been a hard struggle to get this far. I global extinction. Establishing a that male Great Bustards become am exhausted and nearly broke, but new population here should ensure fertile at an age of four or five years, to see Great Bustards breeding after a brighter future for this Globally so 2009 is the earliest that eggs were an absence of 177 years is brilliant.’ Threatened bird, which continues expected to hatch. David Waters (The former policeman has to decline across parts of Europe.’ added: ‘The Great Bustard is a bird reportedly ploughed £100,000 into The Great Bustard Group that matures slowly, so it has been a the project.) www.greatbustard.com was formed long wait to get this far, but this The news of successful breeding in 1998. The reintroduction began could not be speeded up. A small was released in the first week of in 2004 with annual releases of UK population of about 18 birds June. Two chicks were seen between six and 32 birds each has been built up, but it is only following a female bustard and autumn. Several of the birds have when this population begins to being fed. A day later, another wandered well beyond the produce its own young and female was seen feeding a chick. Salisbury Plain release site (on becomes self-sustaining that the Viewers of the BBC Springwatch MoD land) and at least two have project can be judged as successful. series saw the first video footage of been found dead in . Chicks The indications are extremely the young birds, which had been for the project are reared from eggs positive.’ named ‘Rhubarb’ and ‘Crumble’ by harvested from nests in southern

The last Cuckoo? While the reintroductions of in big trouble are migrants from conserve this group of . We charismatic ‘megabirds’ continue sub-Saharan Africa is ringing loud lack even basic information about apace, the decline of our formerly alarm bells about threats to these when birds arrive, the they common summer migrants bird populations on their wintering use and how they move around escalates and their disappearance grounds and en route to and from Africa. from the British countryside has Eurasia. The BTO has responded Among proposed projects to be now become a distinct possibility. with its Out of Africa appeal for funded by the appeal is one in As we learnt last month in the latest £365,000 to fund research into the which the BTO will work with Birds of Conservation Concern causes of catastrophic declines in RSPB and BirdLife partners in West report (Brit. Birds 102: 296–341), summer migrant populations (Pied Africa to evaluate when ‘our’ the Common Cuckoo Cuculus Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca and migrants arrive in their wintering canorus, whose song is the Wood Warblers are down by more grounds, what habitats the species definitive sound of summer, has than 60%, Spotted Flycatchers use and how they move about now joined the Red list of species Muscicapa striata by 59% and through the autumn, winter and in dire trouble. New additions to Common Swifts Apus apus by spring. North–south transects, the list include Wood Warbler 41%). As the BTO candidly admits, from the Sahara to the coast, will be Phylloscopus sibilatrix and Tree our knowledge of the ecology of identified and studied over the next Pipit Anthus trivialis, taking to 21 migrants on their wintering three years. the number of summer migrants grounds is extremely poor and For anyone stirred by the plight on the Red list of 52 species. severely hampers our ability to of our summer migrants, Michael That almost half of the species explain these declines and to McCarthy’s Say Goodbye to the

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Cuckoo (John Murray, 2009 – see folklore and yet spend most of their and money into England’s review on p. 411) is a layman’s lives in Africa, lives which remain a vanishing migrants as it is into lament for the ‘spring bringers’, the mystery to modern-day scientists. reintroducing White-tailed disappearing birds like the Cuckoo Hopefully it’s not too late to learn Haliaeetus albicilla,Red Kites and the Common Nightingale what we need to know to save them. Milvus milvus and Hen Harriers Luscinia megarhynchos which If only Natural England was Circus cyaneus. feature so prominently in European ploughing as much time, energy The Bob Scott rainforest The Eric Hosking Most BB readers will know that the most threatened rainforests in the world Trust are the Atlantic rainforests of South America, of which there are now less October 2009 will mark the 100th than 7% remaining. Once stretching right along the coast of Brazil, through anniversary of the birth of Eric northern Argentina and into Paraguay, the forest is now fragmented and the Hosking, the man widely only large protected forest survives in Misiones province, northeast acknowledged as one of the great Argentina. Even that was at serious risk of fragmentation from another pioneers of natural history National Park, in Brazil. With the help of a private donor, the World Land photography, and whose work Trust, working with its partner organisation, Fundación Frontera Verde, was inspired three generations of young able to step in and fund the down payment to purchase the connecting naturalists and photographers to corridor, which was already being logged. follow in his footsteps. A couple of years ago, when I was staying at the Iguaçu Falls, I ran into The Eric Hosking Trust is now Bob and Ann Scott, who were holidaying there. Bob had been an looking for applications for its 2009 enthusiastic supporter of the World Land Trust (WLT) ever since I had bursaries. The aim of the Trust is to founded it, back in 1989, partly I suppose because of his background in sponsor ornithological research reserve management. When BB approached me and suggested a donation in through the media of writing, memory of Bob to the WLT, that meeting immediately sprang to mind and photography, painting or illus- I thought what better way to commemorate Bob’s support for the WLT than tration. Bursaries of up to £750 are buying a chunk of rainforest. awarded to suitable candidates once In consultation with provincial government departments, Fundación a year, and the closing date for Frontera Verde is working with the local and international academic applications is 30th September community, as well as with the indigenous Guaraní community, to secure a 2009. biological ‘corridor’ to link three existing Protected Areas: Esmeralda In 2008, the Trust awarded two National Park (in the core area of Yabotí Biosphere Reserve), Moconá bursaries. The first was to Rebecca National Park, and Parque do Turbo, in Brazil. The first phase of this project Stanley, on behalf of the Tees Valley is the purchase of 3,764 ha within the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve that links it Wildlife Trusts, to engage young with Moconá National Park, close to the Moconá Falls. people to design and create a large The area is known to contain at least 548 species of birds, including mural of bird-related artwork at the Brazilian Merganser Mergus octosetaceus (Critically Endangered), Harpy Portrack Marsh reserve. It is hoped Harpia harpyja and Black-fronted Piping Guan Pipile jacutinga that this artwork will inspire and (Endangered), as well as the Black-capped Piprites Piprites pileata (or Black- motivate more local people to take capped Manakin), once thought to be extinct. an active interest in the wildlife of Although a down payment has been made, the World Land Trust now the marsh. The second bursary has six months to raise the rest of the funds needed – a further $500,000 to went to Nils Navarro from Cuba, to finish paying for the land, and also modest funds to start the protection. organise a community campaign, That’s less than £50 an acre. By any stretch of the imagination it has to be supported by both artists and good value – barren farmland with none of the biological richness of the scientists, to highlight the illegal rainforests costs over £5,000 an acre in England. Please support the World trafficking of wild birds in the Land Trust, whether it’s £50 for one acre or £5,000 for 100 acres – every little village of Gibara, on the northeast helps. Everything raised through this appeal will go to create the Bob Scott coast. Sector of the rainforest, a memorial that we know Bob would appreciate. Details are available from The The easiest way to make a donation will be to go online to Eric Hosking Trust, Pages Green www.justgiving.com/bobscottrainforest but you can also call on 01986 House, Wetheringsett, Stowmarket, 774422. Suffolk IP14 5QA; tel. 01728 861113; e-mail david@hosking- (Contributed by John Burton, founder and CEO of the World Land Trust, who tours.co.uk; see also the Trust’s first met Bob at Beddington Sewage-farm in about 1958) website www.erichoskingtrust.com BB will donate £500 to the World Land Trust. Another £500 donation in memory of Bob will be made to the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, an organisation and cause very close to Bob’s heart. Eds

416 British Birds 102 • July 2009 • 415–418 News and comment Broods for the Bird Atlas A key part of fieldwork for the Bird Atlas during the breeding season is the recording of breeding evidence. July is a good month to look out for broods of Tufted Ducks Aythya fuligula and such records are the best way of confirming breeding in a 10-km square or tetrad (2 x 2 km square). Fig. 1 shows the distribution of breeding Tufted Ducks recorded for the Atlas so far; the three sizes of dot represent possible (small), probable (medium) and confirmed (large) breeding. There are still many areas where we need to confirm breeding, especially in and Wales. Between the first (1968–72) and second (1988–91) breeding atlases there was much infilling throughout the species’ range in Britain but numbers in Ireland declined. Recent information from the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) indicates a decline in the wintering population in Northern Ireland, with the index now at its lowest ever level, so it will be interesting to see the effect on the breeding population. If you see a brood of Tufted Ducks, or observe breeding evidence for any species, please submit your records to the Bird Atlas 2007–11 project. Records can be submitted online at www.birdatlas.net or on a form from BTO (tel. 01842 750050). Fig. 1. Provisional breeding season distribution of Tufted Ducks (Contributed by Dawn Balmer, Atlas Coordinator) Aythya fuligula in Britain and Ireland in 2008–09 (April–July only).

RSPB evidence convicts Maltese bird killer Evidence from an RSPB Scotland hiding the dead body under his a highly prized quarry for hunters officer has helped to convict a shirt, before stashing it by the side to add to their collections. Tolga Maltese hunter, and an accomplice, of the road. Police, who arrived on Temuge, the head of BirdLife , for the shooting of a Lesser Spotted the scene shortly after being alerted said: ‘The conviction is fantastic Eagle Aquila pomarina on Malta in to the incident, apprehended the news. Hunters have to realise that September last year. Bob Elliot, the hunters. they cannot continue to kill RSPB’s Head of Investigations in Speaking outside the court after protected species. The islands’ Scotland, was helping the Society’s giving evidence in Valletta in June, authorities are increasingly becom- Partner – BirdLife Malta – when he Bob Elliot said: ‘The illegal killing ing frustrated with bird killers, who witnessed the incident in the of birds of prey is happening across bring shame on Malta. This frus- Buskett Forest, a protected area Europe. In the UK, we are familiar tration has been reflected in the close to the Presidential Palace. with the illegal killing of birds of thorough investigation and sen- Bob was participating in Raptor prey, such as the Hen Harrier, Red tencing of these criminals from the Camp – an international network Kite and even [Aquila islands’ enforcement authorities of observers organised by BirdLife chrysaetos], but even I have been and judiciary.’ The hunter, Philip Malta to collect data on bird staggered at the sheer scale of the Tanti, was fined €2,500 and had his migration and to report illegal slaughter in Malta, which must shooting licence withdrawn for one hunting to the police. He saw the have the highest number of year. His shotgun was also hunters stalk a roosting Lesser incidents of anywhere in Europe.’ confiscated. His accomplice, Joseph Spotted Eagle, which was then shot. Very small numbers of Lesser Camilleri, was fined €1,800 and One of the hunters was then filmed Spotted Eagles pass through Malta also had his shooting licence by the Raptor Camp observers on migration each year, making this withdrawn for one year.

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