Network Rail endangers wildlife with scrub clearing

RSPB urges network rail to comply with bird protection laws - 1.5 million birds' nests in danger from ‘track clearing'June 2012. Network Rail, which manages an estimated 20,000 miles of railway line, has come into conflict with the RSPB, local residents and even British Transport Police over the destruction of trackside vegetation which provides a home for an estimated 1.5 million birds' nests.

"Creating wildlife habitat rather than destroying it by hiding behind health and safety would help nature to flourish and it would also go a long way towards establishing a better relationship with the estimated 20 million people who live within 500 metres of a railway line."

Although the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act protects all wild birds and their eggs and nests, Network Rail is potentially contravening the law by removing scrub and felling trees containing nests. The destruction of nests during the bird breeding season (March until August) is generally regarded as a criminal offence.

Darren Moorcroft is head of species and habitats for the RSPB. Commenting on the scale of the destruction and the impact on birds, Darren said: "Network Rail has a vital role in protecting public health and safety and we recognise this will mean removing trees occasionally. However, Network Rail also has a duty of care to local wildlife and residents. As a minimum, we expect Network Rail to comply with the law, but with such a vast estate it could do so much more.

‘Hiding behind health and safety'Mark Thomas is an investigations officer with the RSPB. He said: "In the last two months, RSPB has been informed about a number of cleared areas including high-profile incidents such at Whitstable and Islington, where members of the local community even chained themselves to rail-side trees in an attempt to protect their valuable green space and breeding birds. At Whitstable, work was postponed after a British Transport Police wildlife crime officer intervened and challenged the necessity to undertake the work during the bird breeding season."

The RSPB has written to Network Rail wanting to share good practice and it is urging Network Rail to be responsible custodians of their value wildlife corridors.

Mark Thomas added: "Network Rail has a real opportunity to improve its ways of working. It is in no one's interest for Network Rail to fall foul of the law, but this is what they currently risk doing."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/network-rail.html

Power plant threat to birds’ beach home

A BATTLE is looming over plans to turn protected sandflats into an industrial zone.

Two-thirds of the Portencross Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in North Ayrshire would be concreted over, despite it being home to a wide range of birds, including curlew, dunlin, redshank and eider duck.

North Ayrshire Council believes developing the area for power stations, a container port and renewable energy-related manufacturing could provide much-needed jobs.

But RSPB Scotland argues that the SSSI – a legal status granted to provide protection against development – must be saved and has called on the council to scrap its plans.

The proposals for industrial use are outlined in the council’s Local Development Plan (LDP). Councillors are to meet tomorrow to finalise the document, which sets out priorities for development of the area.

Portencross Coast SSSI covers 480 hectares between Portencross and Fairlie – equivalent to about 580 football pitches. Of this, 323 hectares are earmarked for industrial development in the LDP.

Aedan Smith, head of planning and development at RSPB Scotland, said: “This is a nationally important wildlife site, valuable for a range of bird species, and an SSSI.

“If the council decides to go down this unfortunate route and build on the site, it must ensure that a habitat of at least equivalent value for wildlife is provided nearby to compensate for any loss.”

The SSSI contains about three miles of sandflats at Hunterston Sands, Southannan Sands and Fairlie Sands. It was officially designated in 1971 under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 and described as having “the best mudflats for wildfowl and waders in the Clyde”.

Read more:  http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/power_plant_threat_to_birds_beach_home_1_2152805

Call to halt spread of feral cats in the US

‘This is a human-caused tragedy'November 2011: American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is calling on US mayors to stop the epidemic spread of feral cats that threaten national bird populations as well as scores of other wildlife.

Letters have been mailed to mayors of the fifty largest cities in the Unites States, urging they support responsible pet ownership and oppose Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programmes that promote the feeding of outdoor cats.

‘Cat overpopulation is a human-caused tragedy that affects the health and well-being of cats, our native wildlife, and the public,' says Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy for ABC in a letter to the mayors. ‘Numerous published, scientific studies have shown that trap, neuter, re-abandon programmes do not reduce feral cat populations and that outdoor cats, even well-fed ones, kill hundreds of millions of wild birds and other animals each year in the US, including endangered species. Birds that nest or feed on the ground are especially vulnerable to cat attacks.

'About as fair as shooting of fish in a barrel'‘The domestic cat is an extremely effective predator that has been introduced by modern man into an environment whose species have evolved few, if any natural cat defences. Non-native, well-fed, inoculated, healthy cats versus defenseless prey is about as fair in the world of nature as the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel,' he said.

Studies indicate that there are 95 million outdoor and feral cats in the United States that kill at least 532 million birds, and possibly significantly more. Given the well-documented impacts of cat predation on wildlife, ABC urges the mayors to oppose TNR programmes and the outdoor feeding of cats as a feral cat management option.

Through the Cats Indoors! campaign, ABC and its many partners encourage people to keep their cats indoors, train them to go outside on a harness and leash, or build outdoor cat enclosures. Cats should be spayed or neutered before they can produce an unwanted litter, and should never be abandoned. Abandoning cats is illegal in many areas, is extremely cruel to cats, and is harmful to birds and other wildlife.

‘TNR is not humane to the cats or the wildlife. Free-roaming cats are in constant danger of being hit by cars, contracting diseases and parasites, or being attacked by other animals or people,' said Schroeder. ‘Colonies often become dumping grounds for unwanted pets, thus continuing the inhumane cycle.'

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/feral-cat1112011.html

Deer are bad news for birds

Deer may be affecting some bird species on far larger scales than previously appreciated, new research has found. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, provides evidence that the populations of several woodland bird populations fare worse in areas that have high, rather than low, numbers of deer.

The research led by Dr Stuart Newson from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) applied new methods of analysis to large national bird and deer monitoring data. The study focused on eleven woodland bird species in lowland England and their relationships with three widespread and abundant deer species: muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). The eleven bird species depend on low dense vegetation in woodland and scrub, and are therefore potentially vulnerable to browsing by deer which tends to reduce this vegetation.

There was evidence that increases in deer have been associated with large-scale population declines for five of the eleven bird species. Of these, it was suggested that the impacts of deer are likely to have been greatest for two species of conservation concern, the amber listed Nightingale and the red listed Willow Tit. These two birds have declined by 54% and 65% respectively over the last ten years.

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