Data on breeding birds is eagerly awaited

THE conservation of nature depends on us knowing where the species are, the number of individuals and whether this number is increasing or decreasing.

When it comes to birds the most important source of this information is the Atlas of Irish Breeding Birds. But this is based on data obtained between 1988 and 1991.

So the fact that the information is being updated is important. Between 2007 and 2011 thousands of ornithologists, professional and amateur, counted both breeding birds and winter migrants all over Ireland and Britain. Both voluntary organisations and state bodies are involved but in the Republic the work is coordinated by BirdWatch Ireland, a sister organisation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain.

This year the new information should start to become available online with a complete printed atlas due for August 2013. Anyone interested in wild birds will be very excited about this. The comparisons between the modern data and the 20-year-old material will be particularly interesting.

The good news will certainly include the re-introduction of three large birds of prey that were extinct as breeding birds at the time of the last survey — the golden eagle, the white-tailed sea eagle and the red kite. It will note that the buzzard, which was only starting to re-colonise this country 20 years ago, is now widespread and successful and that there are breeding records for goshawks, a bird making a remarkable recovery in Britain.

It may or may not mention marsh harriers, which have been extinct in Ireland for about 70 years but may be coming back. Two other successful colonisers in the last 20 years are the little egret and the great spotted woodpecker.

The news about corncrakes will undoubtedly be bad as their slow decline as an Irish breeding species continues. I’m also expecting bad news about curlew, lapwing and golden plover which are declining as breeding species and probably also as winter visitors. Common snipe and woodcock will probably be doing well enough as winter visitors, but I expect the number of breeding birds will have declined.

Two other species that will almost certainly show a very sharp decline are the swift and the kestrel (above). It’s already known that numbers have plummeted in Britain and it’s strongly suspected that the same applies here. A rare and slightly dowdy little finch called the twite is probably also faring badly.

There are other birds I’ll be checking out. I’m worried about cuckoos because they seem to me to be declining, at least in the east of the country. I’ll be very interested to find out how choughs are doing because I’m very fond of this rare member of the crow family. There are three birds of prey I’ll be looking at. Has the decline in hen harrier numbers bottomed out? How are merlins doing? And what is the current status of the barn owl? When it comes to ducks and geese, as well as whooper and tundra swans, it’s the winter migrant figures that are most relevant. But a remarkable number of duck species visit here in large numbers in winter and breed here in small numbers. The list includes teal, gadwall, pintail, shoveler, wigeon, pochard, tufted duck, goosander and common scoter. The new data may also reveal whether the black-necked grebe is still an Irish breeding species.

That’s a lot of information to look forward to in the course of 2012.

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