The weather has a lot to answer for.
Long-distance migratory birds such as the Sand Martin and the Grasshopper Warbler stayed away from the UK in large numbers last year as a harsh combination of cold and wet spring weather killed huge numbers on route from Africa and forced others with enough energy to fly on to sunnier climes.
According to the latest Breeding Bird Survey the number of Grasshopper Warblers visiting Britain dropped by nearly three quarters last spring, while the seasonal Sand Martin population fell by more than half. Wood Warbler and Sedge Warbler populations fell by about a fifth.
Every year millions of birds migrate to the UK in April and May to breed, many of them from as far away as Africa - a journey made considerably more difficult in the face of the wettest UK spring since records began in 1766 and an unseasonably cold snap.
In good news the Red Kite has made a remarkable comeback in recent years after a sustained period of hunting over the centuries had left the bird of prey close to extinction. But a ban on hunting and the injection of 93 new birds into the countryside in the late 1980s and early 1990s has pushed up the Red Kite population nearly seven times over since 1995. Hooray!
Source: The Independent
Long-distance migratory birds such as the Sand Martin and the Grasshopper Warbler stayed away from the UK in large numbers last year as a harsh combination of cold and wet spring weather killed huge numbers on route from Africa and forced others with enough energy to fly on to sunnier climes.
According to the latest Breeding Bird Survey the number of Grasshopper Warblers visiting Britain dropped by nearly three quarters last spring, while the seasonal Sand Martin population fell by more than half. Wood Warbler and Sedge Warbler populations fell by about a fifth.
Every year millions of birds migrate to the UK in April and May to breed, many of them from as far away as Africa - a journey made considerably more difficult in the face of the wettest UK spring since records began in 1766 and an unseasonably cold snap.
In good news the Red Kite has made a remarkable comeback in recent years after a sustained period of hunting over the centuries had left the bird of prey close to extinction. But a ban on hunting and the injection of 93 new birds into the countryside in the late 1980s and early 1990s has pushed up the Red Kite population nearly seven times over since 1995. Hooray!
Source: The Independent
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