HOMES FOR BIRDS
Kestrel chicks in a nest box - Copyright Ben Macdonald 2013
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Our countryside is increasingly hostile to species which choose to nest in, or excavate, cavities, whether the starling on your house or the willow tit seeking for rotten branches. Redressing this balance is crucial for our birds. Working with a wide range of people including naturalist Nick Gates, we're working to give homes to birds.
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With just under 200 nest boxes, from Herefordshire orchards to Lowestoft docklands, we're targeting a range of declining species with two key aims - to provide nesting sites and allow easier study. The scheme encompasses over 30 species, including boxes for Kingfishers (top) - and we're learning every year.
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BIRDS & INSECTS
Spotted Flycatcher at our Malvern study site - Copyright Nicholas Gates 2015
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From house sparrows to spotted flycatchers and cuckoos, many birds that shared our lives commonly just decades ago are now facing a countryside increasingly starved of insect food. I've taken on a range of study species in recent years, mostly our vanishing insectivores.
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Most of my field time is now spent at a site in the Malverns, in Herefordshire, where declines in insect-eating birds appear to be much slower than elsewhere in the UK. Findings from our study, now in its sixth year, will feature in 'Orchard' - released in 2020.
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THE BTO NEST RECORDS SCHEME
Golden Plover nest in Lancashire - Copyright Ben Macdonald 2013
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Few forms of bird study offer such scientific, fascinating insight into the lives of birds as by observing their family lives first-hand. Without knowing how many eggs a bird lays, or how many chicks it fledges, we are powerless to understand - let alone prevent - the continuing decline of our birds. Furthermore, you get a really privileged insight into wild birds' lives - it's fun and vital, citizen science at its best.
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Thanks to the work of the Nest Records Scheme at the British Trust for Ornithology, nest recording is on the rise. As a recorder and BTO Mentor, I find and monitor declining bird nests - under schedule one licence where required. By filling these gaps, the combined efforts of thousands of amateur naturalists help provide the BTO and RSPB with data useable for conservation and management.
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BIRDING OVERSEAS
Scops Owl ringed in Saharan Morocco - Copyright Raul Caal 2010
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The Western Palearctic region incorporates Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. I've enjoyed watching birds in the region from Shetland seabirds to Houbara Bustards in Morocco, learning much about conservation and the landscape in these countries on the way.
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The trip reports below offer a lot of detail and GPS points for seeing amazing birds, how to operate in these countries and what to be aware of. They divide into specialists birding trips for the Western Palearctic, but also notes from other countries such as Malaysia.
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