UK migratory birds ‘in freefall’ over climate change–BBC
By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
Could this headline be any more fraudulent?
British bird lovers will see a very different pattern of species as the climate warms, according to scientists.
They say climate change is bad news for birds, but locally we will see "winners and losers".
Migrants seldom seen on British shores, such as black-winged stilts and bee-eaters, are delighting bird watchers.
But populations of cuckoos are "in freefall" as UK wildlife struggles to cope with multiple pressures.
In nature-depleted Britain, almost half of all bird species are in decline due to a host of pressures – from the loss of meadows, hedgerows and other natural land to climate change and the use of pesticides.
The number of wild birds in Britain has fallen by 73 million since 1970, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, which studies birds in the British Isles.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66858850
The above graph has no relevance whatsoever to the issue of migratory birds. And since most of the decline occurred in the 1970s & 80s, it clearly has nothing to do with climate change either. As the article itself admits, bird populations have been declining for decades because of things like loss of habitat and pesticides. You do not need to invoke the climate bogeyman at all, particularly since there is zero evidence that climate has made any difference at all.
As for this supposed “freefall”, all the BBC can point to are cuckoos and willow warblers.
The Woodland Trust make clear that, while willow warbler populations have been dropping in southern England, they have been increasing in the north.
As willow warblers like open woodland and eat mainly insects, it is highly likely that changes to habitat are the cause of these shifting patterns.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/willow-warbler/
The BBC’s claim that “Climate change is one of the biggest pressures that all species are facing, but particularly migratory species, because they have to worry about the climate conditions not only where they’re breeding, but also where they’re wintering and the areas that they’re travelling through to get here, which can be thousands of kilometres”, clearly is not supported by the ability of the bird to thrive in Scotland.
As for the cuckoo, this is what the Woodland have to say:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/06/21/cuckoos-in-decline-must-be-climate-change/
Apart from these two birds, the BBC offer no other evidence to back up their headline, that UK migratory birds are ‘in freefall’ over climate change.
Most other migratory birds are doing fine, or at least as well as British species.
It may be that a few uncommon birds decline, but others also appear to be on the increase.
For the BBC to imply that there is some sort of catastrophe going on is simply fraudulent.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Two warm summers here in SW France. We have a plentiful supply of cuckoos in our trees. Perhaps they prefer warm weather?
I live in western France {Deux-Sevres/Charente border}. This year I only heard one cuckoo, in early May. Usually they start coming over in early April and continue for 2 – 3 weeks. We always (until this year) have had a resident bird.
Perhaps they preferred, this year, to stay south.
The weather was cold and wet at the end of April and into May in SW France this spring, as proved by the amount of French folks driving South through the Pyrenees. There were plenty of cuckoos in Northern Spain at that time.
Not ‘arf! The little devils travel as much as 60,000 miles during a cycle. Sub Saharan Africa their destination so they DO like it ‘ot mum! Who has informed us of this? Only the BBC! https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-30254364
Wind turbines are a major cause of the death of raptors. Just ask the RSPB why it has a wind turbine.
What climate change? Virtually every place virtually every day has weather that is no different from weather 10, 20, 50 or 100 years ago. Birds don’t calculate averages over 30 years so will be completely unaware and completely unaffected by such things.
What climate change? One postulated by the wind industry. They’ll gladly mince songbirds to fill their wallets.
My thoughts exactly. Are there any reliable figures for bird deaths caused by wind turbines?
It’s that graph starting in 1970 that gives the game away. We’ve seen time and again that dodgy statistics always start in 1970, the point that is generally accepted as being the turning point from the last cold period.
Or 1979 when satellite coverage got going.
Absolute rubbish
Nothing to do with all the bird mincers they have been putting up.
Pity they don’t go back to and before 1963 when that cold winter killed an estimated 75% of bother Europe’s wild life
They’re knowledge of history is depressing, cold has always been the “killer” historically and geologically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1962%E2%80%931963_in_the_United_Kingdom
Northern Europe
Could the decline have anything to do with the hundreds of mincing machines our Government has caused to be erected?
In terms of garden birds the big change since 1970 has been the keeping of domestic cats. During my childhood cats were not common as pets, whereas now just about every house in our street has at least one cat. The loss of the hedgerow birds, such as sparrows, that nest in garden bushes and hedges, I am sure is almost entirely because of domestic cats.
Where I live (deep in the countryside), the biggest killers of birds (particularly ground-nesting ones) are badgers and foxes, which the eco-nuts prevent from being controlled. Also we mustn’t forget avian flu (which no doubt will be blamed on climate change).
Re-introduction of Red Kites possibly?
Magpies. They have become a plague because they are protected and they constantly raid nests
I disagree strongly with this. Cats have always been very common house pets. Although they do catch birds they do not do at anything like the scale necessary to decimate bird populations.
And I disagree strongly with you, there have never been so many cats in our area as there have been for last 10 years. I have watched them kill the birds in our garden, right up to wood pidgeon sized birds.
Am I being thick? Why has the 19070 data point not have as large error marging as the latter data?
because 1970 is the starting point against which the future data are being compared, so is assumed correct (even though it is probably inaccurate). The error margins are then what the possible errors could be in the relative accuracy of future data. So if 1970 is 10, then 1980 estimate could be anything between say 8 and 9 and so on. What surprises me is that the margin doesnt get wider and wider as time moves on and the potential variance increases
3rd week May 2023, 5 days on the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. Hiked to different locations every day ( over 4 days ), weather sunny and warm; heard Cuckoos every day and several times a day, multiple locations, woods, fields close to stream, above pasture with sheep grazing. Never heard Cuckoos so early at home ( UK East Midlands ) …..evidently in decline in South Wales……not.
Paul…… waiting for an analysis and critique of Packhams climate change travesty on C4 last night. There’s a lot to critique
So we had more birds in the UK during the 70s ….when we had coal fired power stations and diesel trains & lorries running all day
Paul writes: loss of habitat and pesticides.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) should be all over these issues — and the BBC people should be aware.
A proper investigation would look at changes in habitat – – what, where, and how? And the use of chemicals, not only pesticides, but for vegetative control.
Two other pointers I found:
Feed on: insects and especially caterpillars
Brood hosts: Reed Warblers and Meadow Pipits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo#Brood_parasitism
The RSPB gave up the notion of protecting birds years ago. Beccy Speight (CEO) has successfully transformed them into an eco terrorist organisation. They (she) readily accept wind turbines but reject nuclear plants which have won awards for environmental protection.
The RSPB, mm. The government continue to annex huge tracts of land for development; it couldn’t be that our wild creatures are just running out of food and sufficient wild places in which to breed, could it? Even the Royal Society ‘reserves’ seem to be largely commercial ventures. Their erroneous idea of putting people close to the birds seems to involve intrusive access and the ubiquitous visitors centre.
There is a good trade in ‘eco’ developments which are not challenged for the sham they are. Our prized flower meadow, almost in the heart of our town, was given-over to huge commercial sheds and more of the same is promised for land bordering the adjacent motorway junction. The authorities and their familiars bang on about the future while destroying nature piece-meal. Part of the experience of humanity and the pleasure of landscape gone.
“…. migratory species …. have to worry about …”
People face a mental health crisis: birds don’t. People worry, not birds.
Not so sure about that. There’s an uncanny correspondence between those reduced numbers and the promises by every Government since way back to call a halt on migration. Could be the policy is actually working.
When I was a lad, many years ago, there were hundreds of small dairy farms & smallholdings. These farms were a haven for all kinds of birds. sparrows , swallows, swifts wagtails etc etc. These farms have long gone. Changes in farming practaces have resulted in large areas that cannot support the wildlife of 60 years ago. We have dry years and wet years, overall there has been no change in rainfall since 1900 if split into 30 year averages. It may have become slightly warmer ( better for most) but the ‘climate’ is surprisingly stable.
Download the MERLIN app. It identifies birds by sound of their calls. Free.
With reservations, Mac. It has helped me identify the local blackcap (has ambitions to sing like a blackbird but can’t quite manage it!) and I will perhaps go along with the curlew it offered me the other day (300 km from the nearest coast and no hills) because they have been known very very rarely to pass this way.
But a coot? ‘Fraid not!
This reminds me of the “great DTT catastrophe” where they claimed thinning bird eggs were causing fewer birds to live and all because of DDT and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Then they found, through the UK ornithological society that records of thinning bird eggs were recorded 20 years before the introduction of DDT. Then about 20 years ago the WHO announced that DDT was OK to use and actually the most effective deterrent against mosquitos that were responsible for the most deaths in the world by transmitting disease. Countries that used DDT extensively …. Western countries like the USA …. reduced mosquito born diseases to almost nothing. So for all purposes, the banning of DDT killed more people than keeping it.
Rachel Carson may have been the greatest MASS MURDERER in human history.
“Migrants seldom seen on British shores, such as black-winged stilts and bee-eaters, are delighting bird watchers.”
Black-winged stilts have been recorded as visiting Britain since c.1718 “Cornwall Near Penzance, five, shot, autumn.”
“1779 Surrey Frensham Pond, Farnham, six, five killed, late April.”
https://www.historicalrarebirds.info/cat-ac/black-winged-stilt
I’m sure the BBC Verify Team will put this right in no time.
But populations of cuckoos are “in freefall” as UK wildlife struggles to cope with multiple pressures.
When you live in cloud cuckoo land you only see cuckoos, or the lack of them. The BBC’s grip on reality is in freefall wherever climate is mentioned.
I hear as many cuckoos in the north of England and Scotland as I ever did.
Ah! But your hearing is still good, unlike the BBC which only hears what is politically correct. (I was going to say WOKE but I think they are asleep)
The decline in birds appears inversely proportional to the rise in solar farms, wind farms, and uncontrolled predatory birds (magpies) and mammals (foxes, otters). The rise of Green politics directly matches the decline in birds. Green is not good for birds.
The falling level of abundance is correlated to falling greenhouse gas emissions.
Therefore curbing greenhouse gas emissions causes loss of bird species.
I don’ t accept loss of habitat as a cause of bird decline. In fact there is more tree and bush cover now than at any time in the last 100 years. A good deal of this is due to the steady decline in countryside maintenance as country council and agricultural workers disappeared. The country village in the Chilterns where I grew up has become more and more over grown. Bird species are now common that were never seen when I was a twelve year old, though it is true that some have disappeared, whilst others, like Larks and sparrows, went into a decline and then made a big comeback. I would recommend looking at 19th and early 20th century photos of the English landscape, and you will see that there was a lot less cover for birds and animals then. Also the trend towards removing hedgerows has been over these last forty years.
This is a trend. The BBC is repeatedly using totally unqualified people to spout on science and the environment. Why are they doing this one wonders? Well I have an idea. Here we have Helen Briggs spouting/regurgitating activist twaddle in the name of science. One more pushing other people’e garbage which she is wholly incapable of critiquing.
Her “qualifications” are : A BSc is biochemistry, followed by a part time MA in creative writing. Well, the latter is certainly useful working as a science correspondent for the BBC in this time of universal deceit.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-briggs-63861841/
How any of that qualify her to spout on anything mentioned in this piece beats me.
Now onto my theory. The BBC also uses several other academically unsuitable people to push the climate con, indeed one who comes to mind is Georgina Rannard who spouts twaddle regularly for the BBC on science and climate. Her education in modern history clearly makes her perfectly “useful” to the BBC to spout on this subject. It is my view that rather than using correctly qualified people to report, the BBC deliberately uses wholly unqualified people who will frame any crap they are handed by the politburo without dissent. Someone with a real education pertinent to the issues in question is be liable to ask questions and push back….can’t have that, can we BBC!
Crap on crap and more crap, and we are forced by law to pay their salaries!
Yep. Knowledgeable staff would have more trouble lying.
“Here. Read this.”
“Okay.”
I can’t believe people are still falling for the TV licence scam. Just tell them that you no longer need a license, or are you watching TV in the garden?
It must be remembered that vast numbers of migratory birds are netted or blasted out of the sky every year as they migrate across southern Europe. It’s yet another black mark against the EU as they have failed to halt the annual carnage of birds, even Red listed species such as cuckoos. Malta and Cyprus are particularly bad, but France has nothing to boast about either. It seems to me that harping on about climate change, while ignoring the many elephants in the room, is an easy cop out for governments and activists. While everything is blamed on “climate” there’s little chance of of other projects, some suited to individual localities, being financed and enacted.
There are twice as many people as in 1970, yet the mystically brainwashed seek to ban birth control.