The RSPB/BTO/WWT state of the UK’s birds report is out now. Here’s the exec summary cribbed from the RSPB’s press release.
- Climate change is helping some species, hindering others.
- Bird abundance and distribution are changing, more reaching further north.
- Some migratory birds are arriving earlier. Swallows get her two weeks sooner than they did in the 1960s.
- Species that prefer warmer climes but don’t migrate are beginning to settle on our shores, e.g. little bittern and night heron. Garganey, quail, and little egret already on the increase.
- Rare breeding birds, such as dotterel, whimbrel, common scoter, and Slavonian grebe, will be at greater risk of extinction in the UK as conditions change.
- Sandeel numbers are down which means kittiwake population are declining. Will affect Arctic skua, Arctic tern, and puffin too.
- National surveys show capercaillie and hen harriers down.
*Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust