Press Reports
SBS in the Times
Keith McDougall, Policy Director
Birds of prey, The Times, July 2008
Do breeding and egg loss balance out?
Sir, I have enjoyed Derwent May’s delightful commentaries on bird life for many years in your columns. His recent contribution on the length of life of various species was intriguing (July 10). I always learn something from his writings.
However, there are a good number of bird lovers and ornithologists who dispute the theory that there is always a balance between breeding success and the natural loss of eggs and nestlings; therefore stable populations of all our prey species are maintained. Modern studies have recently shown that prey numbers can drop alarmingly when increasing numbers of different predators feed on the same species.
In the past 40 years many prey species of garden and farmland birds have dropped in numbers by an average of 60 per cent — and some as much as 97 per cent. Habitat loss, pollution, bad weather and continental shooting have all been important factors; but nowadays, uncontrolled predation has overtaken many of the former dangers facing small birds.
Predator numbers, both mammalian and avian, have rocketed, and legal controls of magpies, foxes, crows, grey squirrels, etc have not kept pace with their population growth at the expense of diminishing prey species. Raptors, especially sparrowhawks (116 per cent increase), and buzzards (414 per cent increase) are literally eating into prey populations.
Our charity is campaigning on the issue and has commissioned scientific research to demonstrate that imbalance is rife in our managed countryside and that more attention must be paid to controlling — not eradicating — native predator numbers.
Keith McDougall, Policy Director, SongBird Survival
Date Added: July 20th 2008