Scrub fires — a burning issue that must be quenched

WILDFIRES have burned thousands of hectares of Ireland’s countryside this year.

The impact on birds has been particularly severe as thousands of nestlings will have perished in the fires or will face slow starvation as their main foraging areas have been destroyed.

Populations of birds such as stonechats, wrens and song thrushes, already decimated by the cold weather in January, are amongst the worst affected by these clearances, and returning migrants such as whitethroats, a specialist of this type of habitat, will also have been badly affected.