Tag: Conservation

Are Internships Skewed Away From The Poor?

You care about the environment, are utterly infatuated with natural history and decide you wish to work in the conservation sector. What next? You leave school, hopefully in possession of good grades, graduate university and are then faced with the harsh reality of just how competitive the sector really is. You work out that the only way to get ‘ahead of the competition’ so to speak, is to gain experience through volunteer work. Volunteer work that often requires commitment for long periods of time in order to gain the experience required to further your career aspirations. So, you set your sights on a volunteer internship, residential placement or similar scheme, one that would almost certainly lead to better things in the future. The only problem is, you cannot afford to sustain yourself for such a period of time absent an income. What do you do next? Well, some are then able to acquire the necessary funds from family members and thus everything remains hunky dory. For many however, this is not an option. Many cannot afford to dedicate their time for periods of four, six or eight months absent an income. When this happens, many fall into an all too familiar trap. A merry-go-round of applications and rejections citing a “lack of applicable experience“.

The above scenario is one I fear is all too familiar to young people seeking a career in the environmental field and is certainly one that resonates with me. Volunteer work is perhaps the only sure fire way to achieve a career in conservation, and rightfully so. It highlights the dedication, passion and  the willingness to work of the person in question and has the potential to greatly bolster that individuals professional skill-set. More often than not, short-term volunteer placements do not offer the necessary level of work experience and thus people are forced to look for longer internships only to realise they cannot afford them. This alone is often enough to dissuade many people from following their dreams and I know too people people stuck in the ‘inexperience rut’ due to financial restraints. These people are no less passionate than those who have made the cut, they simply come from working-class background and cannot afford to live absent an income for long periods of time. This is a topic that, as a working-class conservationist, greatly interests me. It has lead some, including Oliver Simms (@OSimmsBirding) to question the current mentality and call for NGO’s to make such placements available to everyone, not just those from upper and middle-class backgrounds. An excellent blog by Oliver on the subject can be found here, on Mark Avery’s ‘Standing Up for Nature’ site.

Before proceeding, I feel I should give a little background on myself in this regard. As I mentioned before, I do not come from a wealthy background. This has never bothered me per say but it has meant that my family cannot afford to sustain me on my career quest. I jumped through all the hoops, good grades at school, a degree in a relevant field and small stints of volunteer work here and there. Upon graduating, I found myself presented with the aforementioned scenario, lacking the “one years work experience” requested in many job applications and thus opted to save up and delve into a volunteer internship. I was, later, lucky enough to be selected for a lengthy volunteer position with a renowned NGO and stand thoroughly grateful for the opportunity. Midway through said placement however, with a glaring student overdraft and money disappearing much faster than expected, it suddenly dawned on me that I could no longer afford to live without an income. As such, I decided to leave my ranger role and moved back home. This did not go down overly well with my “employers” who had suggested I take a weekend or evening job to sustain myself for the remaining months – something that while volunteering full time, five days a week (often including weekends), in a remote area, seemed wholly unfeasible. I would like to think opting leave early did cause others to question my dedication but I fear it did. Something that I understand but equally disagree with.

Fast forward a little over a year and things are looking brighter, I have landed my first ‘real’ job within the sector and things are certainly looking up. My situation, and the experiences of many others, have however caused me to ponder the topic in greater depth. Are careers in conservation tailored towards the wealthy? – At present I stand on the middle ground, understanding the  importance of voluntary experience and its wider benefits but slowly edging towards a resounding yes.

Please do not mistake this post for a general attack on volunteer positions – I understand how important they are. As I stated previously, they are a sure fire way to “cut your teeth” in conservation, providing you with many useful skills and working wonders for networking. Dedicating prolonged periods of time, absent pay, to any job is certainly a great way to demonstrate your dedication to the cause. Likewise, I understand that conservation bodies, most of whom rely on the good will of their members, cannot afford to offer a wage to all volunteers. I am very much of the mindset that even if you come from a low-income background, like I did, if you want something badly, you will work to get it. This explains my previous comment regarding occupying “the middle ground“. This said, it would not hurt for the playing field to be leveled somewhat and I do begrudge the fact that poorer individuals must work twice as hard to achieve their goals than those who can simply ‘buy their way into conservation’.

In his blog, Oliver calls for conservation NGO’s to offer bursaries to individuals from less privileged backgrounds, awarded once the applicant has achieved the position in question. This is something I fully agree with and I would personally like to see certain organisations, particularly those with large memberships and a lot of money, step up the the plate. Equally I would be happy if a student loan style scheme was set up by the powers that be to boost peoples career prospects though, given the nature of our government, I would have more luck extracting water from fragment of volcanic rock. Some may claim, that by offering bursaries based on income, conservation bodies would only be increasing the divide between classes but to me, it seems like a jolly good idea.

One of the other things I have seen touched upon, both by Oliver and others elsewhere, is the lack of attention centered on this issue. You would think that with many people likely missing out due to a lack of funds, more of a clamor would have been raised but alas, tumbleweed. After all, conservation and raising a fuss more often than not come hand in hand, it’s practically in the job description. The only reason I can think of for this is that those who have already made it and those with the financial stability not to worry about such things simply do not care. In the future I would love to see high profile members of our community taking this on board and making a difference and likewise, would like to those involved in the ‘youth conservation movement’ speaking out a lot more. Many, it seems, are vocal in private but fall silent when the issue is raised mainstream. This has to change, only with numerous voices calling for change will the issue be heard.

Of course, there is one glaring question associated with such change. Why would NGO’s bother to splash out funding poor individuals while wealthier people are tripping over themselves to fill the gaps? Well, Oliver again pretty much hits the nail on the head in the previously mentioned blog post. Not only would it increase equality within the workforce, it would allow more overtly passionate young people to contribute to the ‘good causes’ championed by such organisations. These people are equally capable, equally dedicated and who knows, if given the chance could develop into the next ‘big names’ speaking out to protect our wildlife. A win win situation if ever there was one is it not?

The Decline of the Yellowhammer in the UK

Last week I posted an article regarding the woeful decline of one of my favourite garden birds: the Willow Tit. This seemed to go down rather well and many of you claimed to have learnt a thing or two from it. As such, I thought I would cover another species with an equally solemn story, the Yellowhammer. Another firm favourite of mine and a species that never fails to brighten up a country stroll whenever it is encountered. Indeed, the sight of a male Yellowhammer, radiant in the summer sun is perhaps one of the finest sights in nature. Their characteristic “a little bit of bread and no cheese” song still, thankfully, the soundtrack to many a trip here in the North of England. This is not the case all over however and this brilliant bunting at present finds itself plummeting towards an abyss alongside many other familiar bird species.

The Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) showcases a unique trend among British farmland birds. The population of this passerine was, in fact, stable until the late 1980’s until the present decline began, a decline which, with the exception of Scotland has continued ever since.  With only 792,000 occupied Yellowhammer territories now present in the UK, this species has declined by 50% in only twenty-five years. Now finding itself “red-listed” by the RSPB, highlighting its status as an endangered species within the UK. Scouring the web, data regarding the decline of this charismatic species within England/Wales appears scarce though data from North Ireland where the species has undergone similar declines is rather abundant. Here an estimated 30,000 individuals in 1991 dropped to only 10,000 in 1997 before plummeting to an all-time low of only 5000 birds today. A worrying trend if ever there was one and one that likely replicates their decline across the Irish Sea. Like the Willow Tit, there are numerous theories explaining this overtly negative trend.

Reasons for the Decline

The Yellowhammer is by definition a farmland bird though for breeding it favours hedges and herbaceous field margins. In recent times however many hedgerows have been removed (Boatman et al, 1992) and many of the remaining ones have been degraded through decades of mismanagement. It, therefore, stands to reason that this has resulted in a loss of suitable nest sites for Yellowhammers and could well have removed a crucial food source for chicks, one that would usually sustain the species before the maturation of cereal crops in the summer. Habitat loss is not isolated to breeding habitat however and the removal of edge habitats used for foraging may also have played a role in the Yellowhammers decline. Like hedgerows, such habitats harbour a wealth of seeds and insects, thus denying the species a crucial food source when removed. Similarly, it has been suggested that a decrease in late summer cereal crops and a subsequent increase in grass-dominated fields may also be limiting the food source of this species (Clark et al). The gradual decrease in the prevalence of winter stubble has also had a similar effect, denying the species yet another crucial food source during one of the most naturally demanding times of the year. Something highlighted by the BTO here:

” Reductions in winter seed food availability as a result of agricultural intensification (for example, the loss of winter stubbles and a reduction in weed densities) are widely believed to have contributed to the population decline. Gillings et al. (2005)have identified better population performance in areas with extensive winter stubble, presumably because overwinter survival is relatively high.”

Habitat loss is not the only factor affecting our Yellowhammers however, it is also claimed that changes in the way we manage our farmland have had a negative impact. Again on the topic of dwindling food supplies, the way in which grain is collected has become much more efficient in recent years. This has resulted in less “spillage” and therefore less grain left on the ground as it comes to winter. An intensification in the use of pesticides to remove weeds and insects is also thought to have had a similar effect while “bird-proofing” of grain stores may also have played a role in the decline.

Other factors reported to be influencing the status of the Yellowhammer include the following:

  • Woodland planting along fringe habitats – Again decreasing breeding habitat for a species predominantly found in open areas.
  • Increased depredation from corvids and domestic/feral cats – both of which have increased in recent years.
  • Urbanisation and a reduction in the use of bruised barley in animal feed.

As you can see, at present, the Yellowhammer finds itself besieged from all sides. Changes in farming practice, habitat loss and human error combining to threaten this iconic farmland bird. Though the decline in Scotland appears to have halted, elsewhere the picture is less positive and the Yellowhammer continues on its downward spiral. Could the Yellowhammer join the Corn Bunting and Willow Tit into localised extinction across parts of Britain? Only time will tell though a few glimmers of hope do exist, among these; the RSPB’s fabulous ‘Yellowhammer Recovery Project’ aiming to stabilize the population of these birds in Northern Ireland. See here for more information on the scheme.

Image Credit: Andreas Trepte, Alan Vernon

Guest Blog: Influences – Natalie Welden

My next “influences” blog post comes from the lovely Natalie Welden (@NatalieACWelden), someone I was lucky enough to meet for the first time on a twitch in Aberdeenshire last year. Natalie is a research associate at SEI York, an OPAL community scientist and a dedicated academic, currently studying the effects of micro-plastics on the marine environment. Here she touches upon her influences and why she ended up in her current position. Enjoy and if you would like to contribute to this series of guest blogs do drop me a message.

When I was little we had a rubbish T.V, it was small, and black and white, and I’m probably letting on too much about my age. Thankfully we had a very big picture window and a pond in the garden; both of which were much more interesting. When the weather was nice I would haunt the garden, turning over the compost heap or searching for the hedgehogs that snuffled under the buddleia. Frogs were my gate way to a new world, and I would lie on my stomach for hours and peer into their cool, deep homes.

On the weekends my mum and dad volunteered as canoeing instructors. When I wasn’t in a boat I would hang over the bank, my face as close to the water as possible, looking for minnows and damselfly larvae; or I would climb the large sycamore tree just outside the campsite. Later I graduated to a pink fishing rod and could sit for hours staring at a float. My cousins and I used a boat filled with water as a paddling pool; and this doubled as a keep-net for my catch. On a good day the sight of a little blonde girl with a quarter length fishing rod and a fibreglass boat full of perch would drive the local anglers to distraction.
I remember the first time I saw a peregrine falcon. My family and I had been on a camping holiday in Wales. I don’t remember much, on one of the evenings we had walked in the woods in search of calling tawny owls, it was the trip home that proved momentous. We paused on the drive home for a walk around Symond’s Yat. We wandered through wooded slopes (if I’m remembering correctly) to the viewpoint, and there I met birders. RSPB birders, monitoring the nest to protect it from thieves.

They would have had to be determined burglars, because the nest was very high up what was – to my pre-teen eyes – a sheer insurmountable cliff. The adult birds were far too high for my binoculars (which were bought using Esso fuel tokens). It was frustrating, but then came my first magical moment. One of the locals stepped back from his eyepiece and lowered his tripod to my height, re-sighting so I could get a good view of the incubating bird. As I watched there was a change-over, one bird coming into land and the other dropping away like a stone to skim over the treeline. I can’t say if it was the catalyst for me – I had always been surrounded by wildlife – but this was a gift, a sudden closing of the gap between my world and that of the bird.

My next great epiphany came whilst studying ecology at Derby University, for about six months before I applied I wanted to be a forensic psychologist but thankfully I came to my senses in time. During my studies I continued to look to the water; for my dissertation I spent a summer paddling between outfalls on the River Trent. During the day I sampled invertebrates to test the impact of power station effluent, in the evenings I camped on the river bank with whichever friends were acting as field buddy that week.

One afternoon we watched a dragonfly larvae emerge as a full grown adult whilst resting on my drying canoeing kit. It sat pumping fluid into its wings to inflate them, before sitting in the weak sun to harden. It started to rain heavily, and before running inside I moved the shorts the soft, new dragonfly was resting on to dry ground under a bench. A simple act and one I have regretted ever since. When we came out from the shelter of the port-a-cabin the dragonfly was being swarmed by ants. The scene was gruesome and I will spare you the details, but the winged insect did not survive. I was distraught, but I learned a valuable lesson; even the most well-meaning interference can do immeasurable harm.

It was two years later that I had my greatest revelation, one that would set the tone of my weekends for years to come. As an MSc student, I went to stay at the obs. at Spurn. I already watched birds, and could identify the usual suspects, but I wasn’t a birder. I was there to monitor patterns of visitor access, tallying visitor numbers and interviewing as many people as I could. But there were birds, so many birds. And the keenness of the local birders to share this world was just as apparent as it had been with my first peregrine. I would sit at the gate and chat to the birders as they arrived or at seawatch in the evenings with a curry, enjoying the passage of terns. I would alternately join in with the twitches, feeling the buzz of the people around me, or remain entirely unmoved, once sleeping soundly through a the appearance of a citrine wagtail. The weeks I was there were a sensory overload of dull wave sound, calling sandwich terns, the smell of shoreline and sea buckthorn, and the constantly changing weather.

After I completed my master’s the new experiences rolled think and fast; the summer spent monitoring marine mammals in Cardigan Bay, moving to the Isle of Cumbrae to start my PhD, the time assisting on the field courses on Mull, my first white tailed eagle, my first self-found bird, and the evening spent alone with a beer and a pine martin. Alongside this were the people. Old friends that I had known for years suddenly revealed their own interest in birding, and I reconnected with them for trips and twitches. The stream of students, one of which would always show the inquisitiveness of a real nature lover. Or simply the people I meet whilst out and about birding.

Every new project allowed me to pick up a few like-minded people to add to my circle, and by surrounding myself with keen conservationists and a constant stream of natural phenomenon I have grown to understand why I was shown my first peregrine. There is a desire to communicate that comes along with the spectacle, an instinctive need to share the moment with others. In a time when so many people live in a world detached from nature, the work of an inspired naturalist can engage people with environmental issues over many hundreds of miles. Just look at the programmes of Sir David, the books of Rachel Carson, or the consistent ire of George Monbiot! They represent the world in a manner that inspires and motivates in equal measure; gently pressing essence of the most prescient Pratchett-ism, “Even if it’s not your fault, it’s your responsibility.”

Guest Blog: Influences – Alexandra Pearce

My next “influences” guest post comes from the fabulous Alexandra Pearce (@PearceAlex1). Alex is an environmental writer working both in communications and as part of the team at The Seal Sanctuary. Alex really is a gifted writer, currently running a series of very interesting blog posts for Conservation Jobs and is someone I have been familiar with through blogging circles for quite some time. Enjoy. – If you feel inspired to tell your story please do drop me an email.

When I was younger, I would occasionally feel jealous of friends who seemed to travel to the outer reaches of the world. They would head into the classroom after the school holidays with deep tans, photos of themselves bathing in warm seas and glamorous tales of mysterious places I knew nothing about. My holidays were nothing like this. They consisted of midges, anoraks and castle ruins. We never ventured outside of the UK when I was young and you could certainly never call anything we did glamorous.

It might sound boring in comparison, but my upbringing was incredible; outings were exciting and holidays filled with exploration and it is those moments which shaped my entire future.

A lot of our time together as a family involved getting outside and into nature and I have the most wonderful memories of these experiences; collecting shells from the beach and accidentally taking home a tiny crab which I tried to keep alive in the bath; pulling up in the car somewhere that always ‘had to have a view’ in order to eat our sandwiches; building dams out of fallen branches and stones to hop across rivers; devising a book which would contain pressed leaves which would help the world with identification; trying to rescue dead jellyfish stranded on the beach; spending hours staring into the large pond in my parents garden, hunting for newts and dragonfly larvae…to us, the outside world was one big playground and the games were made through imagination.

One of my most prized possessions when I was young was a Michelin ‘Eye Spy’ Nature book; a little spotters guide and checklist. I poured over the photographs, only dreaming what it would be like to spot a fox, tick off a stag beetle from my list or figure out which cloud I was looking at. I loved animals and was fascinated with the sea; its vastness and the activity beneath the waves left me totally enchanted and all of this wonderment came through the trips we took as a family and the books my parents kept in the house. I couldn’t imagine actually seeing any of these natural wonders with my own eyes.

This excitement over the natural world has stayed with me and  has influenced my life in so many ways. My love of the sea led me to study Marine Science and take up diving. My love of animals saw me work a zoo keeper for years and take an interest in education. And the realisation that it was wildlife that truly enthralled me led me to trying to educate through words and communication. Although these days I could tick off a large majority of the things in my little Eye Spy book and I have seen things I never thought I would, my tick list has simply gotten longer as I have gotten older and that little girl, getting over excited at the sight of any wildlife, is definitely still in there (except these days her hands are firmly placed around a camera instead of a round the pages of a tiny guide). The things we did as children also help our family retain our bond; we still stare into that same pond counting newts, my brothers were told off only a few years ago in Spain for creating a dam on a beach and clambering up rocks is just a standard day out for us all.  

The truth is many children simply don’t get outside enough to experience the natural world as much as they should these days and are often given technology as a substitute. But I implore parents to get their kids outside as often as possible, because when I think of my childhood it’s not the toys I remember, but the day my brother and I swung bags filled with water at each other in the sea, the shells my mother and I found and tried to imagine the creatures that once lived in them and the fossils our family spotted together in the rocks at Lyme Regis. These are the moments that inspire children and shape them into the adults who could be the difference between harming our world and saving it.

Orca “Marine Mammal Surveyor” Training Day

Yesterday I had the pleasure to partake in a cetacean identification course hosted by Orca, a fantastic charity dedicated to researching whales, dolphins and porpoises in British waters and further afield. All in all, the day was a roaring success; engaging presentations from Orca staff and a friendly atmosphere making for a great few hours. Having now completed the course; I am delighted to say that I am now officially able to volunteer aboard Orca associated vessels and hopefully, with a little luck, will be out surveying marine mammals in the North Sea before long! Hurray!

Excited flapping aside, a few people have asked me to sum up just what the day entailed and the opportunities that come hand in hand with attending. As such, I thought I would post a brief summary here.  Following the obligatory introductions from the Orca staff and a motivational video courtesy of the great Chris Packham, the first part of the course was spent familiarizing ourselves with the species likely encountered from Orca vessels. Among these; familiar species such as Minke Whale and Harbour Porpoise and much more exotic creatures such as Cuvier’s Beaked Whale – a species I now long to see in the wild, they’re beautiful! This identification session was nothing short of enthralling; stressing the fact that ID should never be made based on one factor alone, rather a combination of numerous ones. We learnt about the shape of dorsal fins, the height of various species “blow” and various other factors such as colouration and behaviour. All of this was followed by no end of interesting stories and intriguing facts courtesy of Orca staff. For example; did you know that the characteristic scars of Risso’s Dolphins may well be inflicted as a means of identifying that animal as part of a specific pod? Sort of tribal tattoos for Dolphins, amazing!

Next came an indepth look at Orca surveying methodology, all of which seemed complicated at first but quickly became clear as we took part in a mock survey. Here, in groups of three, we alternated roles between starboard surveyor, port surveyor and scribe. The latter role involving immediate recording of everything from GPS location and the angle of the animal to direction of travel and behavior. I actually found the methodology very similar to some bird surveys; the codes allocated to each species similar to the species codes issued by the BTO. The surveys themselves involve line transects on a number of set routes including Newcastle/Amsterdam and Portsmouth/Santander and seem thoroughly exciting! These take place from the bridge of the vessels in question, something which obviously involves a certain level of maturity and manners so not to disturb the ships crew. Though I doubt this would ever be a problem for those truly interested in this kind of work.

So, what next? Well based on a conversation with a lovely Orca rep things seem relatively straight forward. We wait a few weeks until the opportunities come up and apply to take part. You will then be allocated a team with a number of experienced surveyors who will be more than happy to offer advice and ensure the experience is a positive one. Once you have taken part in a localized survey or two it becomes possible to “build your Orca portfolio”, increased experience leading to more exciting survey opportunities and, in the future, the chance to take part in month long surveys to fantastic locations around the globe. Simple!

The skills to be gained from such surveys seem too numerous to count. Obviously taking part will better your ID skills associated with many species but may also present opportunities to engage with the public and enthuse others as to the majesty of cetaceans. All of this comes on top of the obvious sense of gratification gained from contributing to Orca’s vast data bank. Who knows, maybe the data you help collect could be used to set up marine conservation zones in the future? The possibilities are endless! I would advise anyone to take part, you really will not regret it. Please note; you also have to sign up as an Orca member but this is relatively cheap and can be done on the day of the surveys.

Guest Blog: Inspiration by Gus Routledge

For the first in installment in what will hopefully be a long and prosperous series of guest blogs Gus Routledge (@PinkfootedGus) talks about his inspiration, motivation and how he ended up where he is today. Gus is a birder and botanist currently studying on a countryside management course and is someone I have been familiar with on social media for a long time. The below piece is rather good in my opinion and showcases many parallels to my own life and no doubt those of many other young naturalists . Enjoy and if you feel inspired to share your story feel free to drop me a message.

Being my age and as into conservation and the countryside as I am is widely known as being slightly unusual. In fact I think a lot of the stuff I do is regarded as slightly unusual: going out at midnight to look for a Pine Marten that is going to be very difficult to look for, hiking up into the uplands at New Year in order to see if there are any flowering plants, collecting moss at the side of the road, you get the picture.

This passion has clearly had to have come from somewhere. Where to start though… Well, as ever, I think the beginning is probably best. When I was wee my parents used to take me on walks in the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh. I’d feed the ducks, enjoy walking along logs, hide in bushes, and sit in the daffodils. There’s a video of me in Mallorca on holiday, when I was just a toddler, observing the ants and watching them go down their wee hole, carrying crumbs and such down it. In fact, now that I think about it, I was doing exactly the same thing last year when we were in Mallorca. This is why I think it’s important that children are exposed to nature. Even if they aren’t as inspired as I am, it will hopefully make them more aware of the natural world as adults, and therefore they will perhaps be more ready to protect it.

On top of all the walks and being outdoors, my gran played a big part in getting me interested in wildlife. This was primarily through introducing me to bird watching. She gave me my first ever field guide; Collins Photoguide of Britain and Ireland. She took me to my first nature reserve; Vane Farm (now RSPB Loch Leven) where I watched my first Chaffinches feeding on the feeder; and she still encourages me to pursue my career now! I don’t think I would have quite managed to get to where I am now without the inspiration my gran provided for me, whether I was 4 years old or 18 years old.

From toddler to about my first year in senior school I always wanted to be in the countryside or managing wildlife or animals, whether this was as a vet, a farmer, a gamekeeper or a zoo keeper. For some strange reason, my interest in all things natural disappeared once I started senior school. Maybe the fact I was suddenly a teenager and such things weren’t cool, I don’t know. What I do know is that half way through fifth year I decided to watch Springwatch for old times sake and my passion was completely reignited! The only problem being that I had selected subjects in school that would help me become an engineer… Not ideal.

Towards the end of fifth year we have a work placement week. I was lucky enough to work with the Scottish Natural Heritage rangers at Loch Leven for the week, living with my gran who would give me lifts through to Kinross each day. That was probably one of the best weeks of my life. Sunny all week, doing brood counts, getting many lifers, fixing fences, digging drainage ditches, it was bliss. And that was it, I realized that was what I wanted to do.

Sixth year was really a year of setting things back to how they once were, getting back into bird watching, doing subjects that would hopefully help me get back into an outdoor career, and generally just becoming more and more enthralled in wildlife, appreciating it more since I was older and able to understand far more. Completing my John Muir Award in Holyrood Park with the help of the Historic Scotland Rangers got me outdoors every week, pushed me to learn about new things, and I got my John Muir Award at the end of it of course! Plus my biology teacher certainly helped me realise my potential to get to where I wanted to be, so where am I now?

I’m now at the Aberdeen campus of Scotland’s Rural College (used to be Scotland’s Agricultural College but not anymore!) studying Countryside Management. I actually came up here for an applicant day and one of the lecturers said something to me which pushed me over to the ecologist/ranger sort of career. After telling her that I could identify birds she told me that, “birds are good, but to really stand out to an employer you need to be capable of identifying things that others can’t.” Hence all my various tweets on mosses, flowers, trees, lichens, fungi, spiders, and still some on birds!

This course is perfect for me. We have plenty of opportunities to get some hands-on learning through field trips, voluntary work and wee experiments in class. There hasn’t been a module that I haven’t enjoyed (except IT, ugh) despite the fact they have been quite diverse, e.g. History and Archaeology, Biodiversity Conservation, Recreation and Access, and Rural Land Use in Scotland. All the lecturers are keen to push me in the right direction and the same goes for my course mates. They all have shared interests with me and it’s great being able to talk about things that interest me with people my age who are equally interested.

In fact, going back to that mention of Twitter, I’ve actually found a lot of inspiration from the people who’ve helped me online. So I have to thank you guys for that! The internet is a great tool for learning things and meeting people with the same desire to conserve the countryside and wildlife that we have in the UK and around the world (as infuriating as it may be when it doesn’t work)!

Finally, something that I couldn’t go without mentioning as a source of inspiration. As corny and cheesy and cliché as it may sound, that natural world is so huge, unexplored and unknown that it’s got to be the main thing that made me want to learn about and conserve it.

The Woeful Decline of the Willow Tit

Living in Northumberland, the charismatic Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) is still, thankfully, a firm fixture of my daily life. Indeed, at present I am lucky enough to regularly host a pair of these enchanting little birds in my garden, a privilege that people dwelling in the south of the country would no doubt kill for. Willow Tits, though a at first appearing rather drab in comparison to their much more colourful  cousins really are a pleasure to behold; timid, delicate, discreet and undoubtedly rather sweet. Their characteristic call though far from discreet readily separating them from the near identical and similarly embattled Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris). Only confirmed to exist in the UK during 1897, the Willow Tit was once a relatively widespread  figment of the British landscape, now however it finds itself “red listed” due to recent, rapid and ultimately worrying declines. As it stands, the future of this enigmatic species appears bleak though the reasons of its decline have long been the subject of much debate.

Scrutiny of Common Bird Census (CBS) and Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data has shown that the Willow Tit declined by approximately 88% between 1970 and 2006 (Eaton et al, 2008), subsequently highlighting one of the most worrying declines of all British bird species. Indeed, of all the species monitored by the BBS, the Willow Tit showcased the greatest decline; 77% between 1994 – 2007 (Risley et al, 2007).  Such findings were not isolated however with further worrying statistics brought to light by both ringing data (Perrins, 2003) and the Repeat Woodland Bird Survey, the latter recording a decline of 70% in woodland ecosystems over a similar time-frame. In addition to an overall population decline, the Willow Tit has also suffered a severe range contraction in recent years and has been lost entirely from many counties, namely in the south of England (Gibbons et al, 1993). As such, the Willow Tit now appears on the UK’s  ‘red list’ of birds of conservation concern and is now a priority species on the UK biodiversity action plan.

The reasons for the aforementioned decline, at present, remain undecided though research into the decline of the Willow Tit has thus far focused on three hypotheses; increased competition,  increased depredation and habitat change. All of which are touched upon in depth in a recent study by Lewis et al (2009) found here.

Competition

Evidence suggests that competition from Blue (Parus cyanistes) and Great Tits (Parus major) could be a major factor contributing to the decline of the Willow Tit in the UK. Willow Tits nest in cavities excavated from dead wood with the nest building process often proving to be a very noisy affair as the birds call continuously to one another throughout the process. This, coupled with the obvious visual implications and the production of visible byproducts such as wood chips, means that excavating Willow Tits are vulnerable to detection from both the species previously mentioned. Both of which can extirpate the occupants of a nest with relative ease (Maxwell, 2002) due to their superior competitive advantage. The process of constructing a nest hold is a very time consuming process and often, losing a nest site following its completion can result in complete breeding failure for the birds in question. A study carried out between 1995 and 2000 courtesy of Maxwell (2002) highlighted perfectly the potential implications of competition on nesting Willow Tits. Here 30 Willow Tit pairs occupying both natural holes and nest boxes were observed with only 10 of these pairs successfully fledging young. Of the 20 unsuccessful pairs, 18 had their nest cavity taken over by Blue Tits and a further two by Great Tits. The populations of both competitor species have recently increased in the UK with Blue Tit numbers rising by 33% and Great Tits by 91% (Eaton et al, 2008), this has lead to speculation that inter-specific competition for nest-sites may also have increased, thus contributing to the marked decline of the Willow Tit.

Predation

Once nesting gets underway, Willow Tits remain fairly vocal around the nest-site thus leaving them vulnerable to detection from predators. Many species, including non-native Grey Squirrels have the potential to impact upon nesting success though one species in-particular is cited as potential threat to vulnerable Willow Tits; the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). As their name suggests, Woodpeckers are accomplished at extracting prey from rotten wood (Wesolowski, 2002) and have been shown to easily destroy Willow Tit nests, predating both eggs and chicks. Willow Tits, unlike some of species, are single brooded. This means that if predation occurs at the chick stage, that pair are extremely unlikely to breed again for another year. In Britain, numbers of Great Spotted Woodpeckers have increased dramatically in recent years with a recent estimate by Eaton et al (2008) stating an increase of 314% between 1970 and 2006. It therefore stands to reason that Willow Tits may have suffered due to a corresponding increase in Woodpecker depredation.

Habitat Alteration

Willow Tits, in the UK at least, largely inhabit areas of damp, scrubby woodland (Perins, 1979) and despite recent declines can occur at relatively high densities on brownfield sites where these characteristics dominate. Ex-industrial sites like this however have steadily become more scarce in recent times, having been reclaimed for urban development and agriculture. “Wasteland” areas like this do not possess the same overall biodiversity levels as mature woodland and as such are often disregarded, removed or allowed to mature, it is therefore likely that the loss of such habitat is a driving factor in Willow Tit decline. It should also be noted that areas such as these are less appealing to other tit species as well as Great Spotted Woodpeckers which require trees with a minimum diameter of 18cm for nest excavation. Allowing successional habits such as this to develop into maturity therefore increases the likelihood of depredation and competition and thus could be the single biggest factor driving the decline of this wonderful woodland species. Removal of “dead wood” that would otherwise be used for nesting for aesthetic purposes may also factor in.

Images; Willow Tit (Francis C. Franklin)