Bird Scientists Borrow Music Technology from Teenagers in Search for Rare Bird
18.05.12
The survey partnership includes the RSPB, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW). The survey will begin as the birds return to their upland nesting sites – from the end of March – from their wintering grounds in the mountains and hills of North Africa and southern Spain.
The first national survey, which took place in 1999, revealed that the ring ouzel was disappearing from several upland areas where it was formerly widespread, including parts of Scotland, south Wales and large swathes of Ireland. The birds last nested in Shropshire in 2004 and on Exmoor a little earlier. In most areas it is believed to have declined alarmingly over the last century. In 1999, there were thought to be fewer than 7,500 pairs nesting in the UK. The declines were so marked that the ring ouzel was added to the red list of the Birds of Conservation Concern in 2002.
Innes Sim is an RSPB scientist who has been studying the bird for 14 years in Scotland. He said: “The ring ouzel has a beautiful song and it sings on some of our most wonderful stages, such as the highest mountains of Scotland, Wales and England. I have been studying these birds in Scotland since 1998 and I am deeply alarmed by its widespread and deepening disappearance: the hills would be lonelier without them.”
Source: Surfbirds News (blog)