Tree Sparrow decline reasons? some thoughts

[darrenm]

Have been reading recent reports on Tree Sparrow decline in Nottinghamshire and the UK and these are pointing fingers mostly at habitat destruction and modern hedgrow management practices leading to a lack of winter food and shelter but i wonder if this is the complete picture?.

Tree Sparrow populations seem to be doing fairly well on a lot of our Wetland Nature Reserves in the country and wonder if this is down not just to very good feeding regimes in place on these sites but also because these sites are very rich in insect life during the breeding period and when the chicks hatch, which sadly a lot of our agricultural land no longer is.

Both Tree Sparrow and House Sparrow feed their young on a diet of insects and the decline in a lot of insect populations in the UK seems to mirror the decline of these bird populations. At one time within living memory if you took a rural car journey in late spring to mid summer your car windscreen would be black with insect bodies at the end of it but this in most areas seems to be a thing of the past.

Wonder if looking at the whole life cycle of a species is the answer rather than just seeing habitat destruction has being the key factor?

Wonder if the Tree Sparrow and a lot of our farmland bird species declines are through a combination of habitat destruction, land management and a continious reliance upon pesticides and herbicides which also greatly affect insect populations.

Anyway just a few random thoughts....what are yours?

[Adam Cheeseman]

[quote=darrenm;734791]Wonder if the Tree Sparrow and a lot of our farmland bird species declines are through a combination of habitat destruction, land management and a continious reliance upon pesticides and herbicides which also greatly affect insect populations.QUOTE]

I think that is a fair summary of the problems facing farmland birds. Changes in agricultural practises are also a contributory factor, in that there is continuous cropping of land resulting in much less spilt corn around what fallow fields there are. A rarity in themselves nowadays.

Cheers,

Adam

[darrenm]

Also added to this is the planting of earlier cerel crops, the lack of winter stubble in a lot of areas (and when it is left it is often sprayed with herbicides and fungicides to get the land ready for the next crop) and the general lack of natural food at most times of the year and not just the hard winter months for these species and they must all be having a very negative affect long term.

Setaside land didnt work to any great affect in stemming the decline of a lot of these species due to the land being sprayed on a regular basis to get rid of unwanted non profit making agricultural 'weeds' which are difficult to remove by machines or by hand and a lot of these 'weeds' are the natural food plants of both insects and birds. Uncultivated fieldstrips and areas left without crops need to be maintained and managed and not just left to get choked in rank vegitation and they would perhaps be better planted with native wild plants and areas of bare earth rather than sunflowers or other non native species and these again have little food for native insect species at the larvel stages and only of value in flight stages for nectar.

It looks more like a combination of factors all stacked against Farmland Bird species including the Tree Sparrow on agricultural land which are not present on a lot of our Nature Reserves. Many of these factors could be addressed if the will was there and we thought about the real long term cost of cheap food products.

Ok we may not be able to turn the clock back fully but we could start to bring a lot of these species back from the poor state they are in generally at the moment. I want to see good numbers of Lapwing, Grey Partridge, Corn Bunting, Skylark, Yellowhammer, Linnet along with Tree Sparrow thriving in a landscape where they belong and i am not alone but i feel it needs study of the whole life cycle of the species and interdependance of species with plants and insects and some real long term lasting management programmes brought in for all.

I am not knocking farmers who have a living to make but making a plea for some real joined up thought all round and some long lasting management programmes that can be brought in to make our countryside better all round.

Rant over. or maybe not

[darrenm]

Nature Reserves also run the risk of just being temp refuges and many of the Farmland species will continue to decline on a wider scale without any new management plans that work all round on a wider scale and without a very healthy breeding population on a wider scale they are then prone to being lost for good or at best just becoming relict populations.

[Gill Catton]

It is underway - have a look at campaign for the farmed environment and Fenland Farmland bird project, southwest farmland bird initiative (many more farmland bird projects coming on-line) and RSPB's Hope Farm trials.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by darrenm

Have been reading recent reports on Tree Sparrow decline in Nottinghamshire and the UK and these are pointing fingers mostly at habitat destruction and modern hedgrow management practices leading to a lack of winter food and shelter but i wonder if this is the complete picture?.

Tree Sparrow populations seem to be doing fairly well on a lot of our Wetland Nature Reserves in the country and wonder if this is down not just to very good feeding regimes in place on these sites but also because these sites are very rich in insect life during the breeding period and when the chicks hatch, which sadly a lot of our agricultural land no longer is.

Both Tree Sparrow and House Sparrow feed their young on a diet of insects and the decline in a lot of insect populations in the UK seems to mirror the decline of these bird populations. At one time within living memory if you took a rural car journey in late spring to mid summer your car windscreen would be black with insect bodies at the end of it but this in most areas seems to be a thing of the past.

Wonder if looking at the whole life cycle of a species is the answer rather than just seeing habitat destruction has being the key factor?

Wonder if the Tree Sparrow and a lot of our farmland bird species declines are through a combination of habitat destruction, land management and a continious reliance upon pesticides and herbicides which also greatly affect insect populations.

Anyway just a few random thoughts....what are yours?

I totally agree, the destruction of ponds and degradation of drainage ditches has contributed to their decline as has lack of winter stubbles (or other adult food sources), and mismanagement of hedgerows and plantations. We find birds around here are highly dependent on ponds as a source of food for their young.

[Gill Catton]

There definately seems ot be a link between still thriving tree sparrow populations and wetland habitats - probably for the abundance of invertebrates for chicks?

[Dogghound]

Without doubt Gill. Although ditches and wet grassland can also be just as productive. Aslong as there is enough invertebrate food for the first two (vital) weeks of the nestlings life. We have some really good colonies around here 90% are close to open water or a similar habitat feature.

[darrenm]

I was a supporter from when Hope Farm was first mooted in the 90's and have been a supporter of the work done since. I am not knocking individuals or organisations but calling for something to be done now across a wider scale and trying to highlight mine and others great concerns for the state of many of our Farmland Wild Bird populations. I really hope these plans come into fruition and the species which have nosed dived in recent decades start to make a comeback.

For over a decade various projects and schemes have been put into action but these now need to applied on a much wider and greater scale. Ok i am a realist and know it costs a lot of money, time and research but more and more species have become red or amber listed during this time and now feel it is the time that everyone gets together and does something that counts on a much wider and larger scale.

I have worked in Conservation for the last five years but have been recording wild bird populations and behavior for a lot longer and contributing to various County records most of my life and like others have seen the shocking changes in the last few decades in our countryside. Mostly at the cost of producing cheaper and cheaper food for the supermarkets.

I also see that there is a major untapped work force with the youth unemployed who could give something back to a country that has helped to educate and rear them and they would be helping to maintain our countries biodiversity for future generations to marvel at and they would be learning new, old and vital skills along the way which a future employer would look on in favour. Last year i saw the new government scrap the back to work programme for the under 25's and that included those places for those who were thinking of starting a career at the bottom level in Conservation and applied to work on Nature reserves. I saw two very hard working and committed people lost in that way in the middle last year. Now it would appear the government would prfer to see them just rot and become part of another lost generation and now feel this was a major opertunity lost or does that make me out of touch.

New graduates could also help train these people and give something back while building on their own set of very employable man management skills for the future. For those that say it isnt political it is and they are in denial because Conservation cannot stand alone and it needs to enthuse a new generation to care and support it in the way many of us do in our late 30's and 40's do now.

If we cannot maintain our own biodiversity how can we expect others in other countries to do likewise and species like the Yellow Wagtail and Cuckoo stand a good chance of just becoming a folk memory.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

I totally agree, the destruction of ponds and degradation of drainage ditches has contributed to their decline as has lack of winter stubbles (or other adult food sources), and mismanagement of hedgerows and plantations. We find birds around here are highly dependent on ponds as a source of food for their young.

We've got plenty around here, but in the places where there is a mixture of habitats - seems to have to include all of : woodland edge with a lot of wettish bits which may include streams, rural housing/buildings with plenty of gaps under the tiles, hedges (field and garden), gardens, some unkempt areas and some arable. Away from the houses/farms I've only really found them where there is the conjunction of trees, hedges, rough verges and pheasant cover crops, and they aren't actually that far from the farmhouses even there. In all these areas there have been plenty of insects.