The safety tens of thousands of swans and geese in the UK could be improved by new research into collisions with power lines, which started this week with the installation of more than 150 special bird diverters in Lancashire.

Flying collisions are the most commonly recorded cause of death for swans, whose size means they have poor manoeuvrability in flight. Bird diverters are special attachments to the lines that help make them stand out to birds in flight. For the first time, a partnership between Electricity North West, Lancaster University and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is studying the efficiency of different types of diverter, alongside agricultural, weather and landscape factors that affect birds' flights. The study area around WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire is the winter home of 30,000 Pink-footed Geese and 2,500 Whooper Swans and has been identified as a sensitive area for collisions.
Dr Eileen Rees, Head of UK Waterbird Conservation for WWT, said: "Tens of thousands of migratory geese and swans make the UK's wetlands their winter homes. Collisions with power lines are a major cause of death for them, so WWT is delighted to be working with Electricity North West to make Lancashire, and the UK as a whole, a safer place for them. Through this innovative partnership we aim to gather evidence for solutions that work in our modern landscape. As well as reducing the risk to swans and geese, the results of the study should help electricity suppliers throughout the UK provide their service with fewer unnecessary interruptions."

Steve Cox, future network manager for Electricity North West, added: "We hope that the diverters and our subsequent research will go on to help birds and electricity customers across the UK. By working closely with WWT Martin Mere we discovered this was a sensitive section of the network as it was located in a known flight path and we are delighted to be able to help protect these wonderful birds. By limiting the chances of any collisions, the special diverters will also reduce any possible impact on customer power supplies."

Dr Ian Hartley, a Senior Lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University and a behavioural ecology expert, commented: "This is a great opportunity and we are very pleased to be working with new partners on a project of such high calibre which is going to have a large impact on the area around where the geese and swans winter. One of our Master's students will work on the project for a year and our input will be to add knowledge on the analysis and geographic information systems aspects."

Throughout this winter, the study will closely observe the flight behaviour of geese and swans in and around WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre. It will determine the importance of features such as tree lines, the choice of crops and the wind direction on the birds' choice of flight line and height.

For more information about Electricity North West please visit www.enwl.co.uk, and for further information about WWT see www.wwt.org.uk.

Birds might be paying more attention to road speed limits than some humans: a
new study has found that some European birds factor in average traffic speeds
when determining when they need to take off to avoid oncoming cars. In the
study, published in this week's issue of the journal Biology Letters, scientists tested whether European birds standing on the side of the road
altered their escape distances in response to how fast an approaching car was
moving or to road speed limits. The abstract can be found below:

 Behavioural responses can help species persist in habitats modified
by humans. Roads and traffic greatly affect animals' mortality, not only through
habitat structure modifications but also through direct mortality owing to
collisions. Although species are known to differ in their sensitivity to the
risk of collision, whether individuals can change their behaviour in response to
this is still unknown. Here, we tested whether common European birds changed
their flight initiation distances (FIDs) in response to vehicles according to
road speed limit (a known factor affecting killing rates on roads) and vehicle
speed. We found that FID increased with speed limit, although vehicle speed had
no effect. This suggests that birds adjust their flight distance to speed limit,
which may reduce collision risks and decrease mortality maximizing the time
allocated to foraging behaviours. Mobility and territory size are likely to
affect an individual's ability to respond adaptively to local speed
limits.
Study co-author Pierre Legagneux, a biologist at Canada's University of
Quebec in Rimouski, said the idea for the experiment occurred to him while he
was commuting to his lab in France. "I found [the commute] very boring so I had
to do something while driving, so I started to record birds flying away,"
Legagneux said. Using only a stopwatch and a notebook, Legagneux measured the
reaction times of birds that he spotted on the edge of the road while travelling
in regions where the speed limit ranged from about 12 to 70 miles per hour (20
to 110 kilometres per hour). "When the birds flew away, I started my timer and I
fixed the point where the birds were standing. And when I passed over this
point, I stopped my timer," Legagneux explained. "So I had the time elapsed, and
because I also recorded our vehicle speed, I also had the distance."

 Legagneux and his colleague, Simon Ducatez of Canada's McGill University,
found that the birds — mainly Carrion Crows, House Sparrows and Blackbirds — took flight earlier after spotting
their car in areas where the speed limit was higher. Curiously, the birds did
not seem to pay attention to the car itself. "They reacted the same way, no
matter the speed of the car," Legagneux said.

 The scientists speculate that some combination of two things might be
happening. First, it may just be a case of natural selection in which
individuals that failed to take off quickly enough are killed. As a result, only
those birds with traits that help them successfully escape oncoming traffic go
on to reproduce. Another possibility, Legagneux said, is that the birds are
actually learning to adapt to different traffic speeds. Daniel Blumstein, a
biologist and bird behaviourist at the University of California, Los Angeles,
said he could easily see how learning might be taking place. Imagine, he said, a
scenario in which a bird is foraging next to the road and a truck drives by. "If
the truck is moving fast, the bird is going to get knocked around by the
vortices coming off that truck" said Blumstein. "So the bird, if it survives, is
going to learn very quickly that the truck produced a very adverse experience...
One or a few trials of getting knocked around may be sufficient for the bird to
learn that cars are approaching faster on certain roads than other roads."

 But why did the birds seem to ignore the speed of the scientist's car itself?
It's possible, Legagneux said, that the birds might have just learned that it's
simpler to react the same way for any given section of road. "This way, they are
not spending a lot of time being vigilant by looking at the speed of each car,"
he said. Legagneux added that the findings have implications for making roads
safer for wildlife. "If you have different speed limits for similar roads in
similar landscapes, it could be dangerous for birds because they hardly have any
cues of those changes."

The RSPB is issuing its first objections to fracking proposals over concerns that the controversial drilling technique will harm wildlife and the climate.
The charity has lodged a letter of objection with Lancashire County Council to a proposal by Cuadrilla at Singleton near Blackpool (Lancashire). The drilling site is close to an internationally important protected area for Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans, and could cause disturbance to the birds. The RSPB is also officially objecting to the contentious plans to explore for oil and gas at Balcombe (Sussex) on the grounds that no Environmental Impact Assessment has been carried out, and because increasing oil and gas use will scupper our chances of meeting climate targets.

 Harry Huyton, RSPB head of climate and energy policy, said: "Balcombe has hit
the headlines as the battleground in the debate over fracking. The public there
are rightly concerned about the impact this new technology will have on their
countryside. These are not just nimbys worried about house prices — there is a
very real public disquiet about fracking. We have looked closely at the rules in
place to police drilling for shale gas and oil, and they are simply not robust
enough to ensure that our water, our landscapes and our wildlife are safe."

 "Cuadrilla boss and former energy secretary Lord Howell claims that when he
made his much-publicised howler about fracking the 'desolate northeast', he
actually meant the northwest. Singleton in Lancashire is right in the heart of
the northwest and is on the doorstep of an area which is home to thousands of
geese and swans who will arrive from as far away as Siberia to roost and feed
next month and stay for the winter. There may not be as many local residents as
in Sussex, but this area is protected by European law because it is so valuable
for wildlife and Cuadrilla has done nothing to investigate what damage their
activities could do to it."

The RSPB has called on Lancashire County Council to ensure Cuadrilla has
carried out a full Environmental Impact Assessment before it goes ahead with any
work. The charity has also joined with other wildlife and environment groups to
call on the Government to rethink its shale gas policies.

 Mr Huyton added: "Government figures show that in the north of England there
is potential for 5,000 sites and a total of up to 100,000 wells. The idea that
these will not have an impact on the countryside is very difficult to believe.
Fracking is technology largely untested in the UK and we really have no idea
what the impact will be on our wildlife. We do know, however, that concentrating
our resources on extracting fossil fuel from the ground instead of investing in
renewable energy threatens to undermine our commitment to avoiding dangerous
levels of climate change."

A pioneering project on Scottish lochs to create nesting rafts for one of Scotland’s rarest birds has met with remarkable success.

The Black-throated Diver, a species that only breeds in freshwater lochs in the north-west of the country, is benefiting from the scheme to create floating rafts that provide the necessary conditions for it to nest and raise chicks.

Although graceful in the water, it’s a different story for the bird on land. Black-throated Divers have to nest close to the water’s edge as their legs are set so far back on their bodies that they are very poor at walking, and shuffle around on their bellies instead. This makes the birds highly susceptible to changes in water level, often on lochs used to generate hydro-electric power. If water levels are too high, the nests are prone to flooding, and if too low, adult birds are unable to reach their nests when returning from feeding. 

Conservationists devised the unique system of tethered floating rafts covered in vegetation to provide stable breeding habitat and have partnered with landowners to implement them throughout the region. 
The efforts appear to be working. Since the introduction of the raft programme in the late 1980s, the Black-throated Diver breeding population has gradually risen from a low of 180 pairs to 240 pairs in 2012.

Stuart Benn, RSPB Scotland Conservation Manager, said: “Black-throated Divers are arguably the most stunning of British birds: a gorgeous, sleek combination of black, grey and white, with never a feather out of place. It's fantastic to see these charming birds successfully breeding on our lochs. This is a great example of how, through simple measures we can have a huge impact on the success of a struggling species. Thanks to our partnership with landowners, we are able to provide a safe haven for these birds and the conditions they need to thrive." 

Last week's extraordinary tale regarding the Hebridean White-throated Needletail (recounted here) drew plenty of positive response from readers, particularly those who had been lucky enough to connect with one of the few previous occurrences of this exhilarating central Asian species. Of those, the 1984 Shetland (Hillwell, 25th May — 6th June) and 1988 Orkney (Hoy, 28th May — 8th June) were the most 'available' to twitchers. Here, Nigel Wheatley and Mike Cartwright share their own experiences surrounding each bird. Firstly, Nigel takes up the story on 2nd June 1988:

"The epic news was relayed by Alun Hatfield, early Thursday morning. He then spent the whole day on the phone making sure the team had places on the ferry to Hoy. Well behind schedule, Al, Tony Clarke and Robin Chittenden (all from London) picked me up at 10:30pm near Reading and we headed north, picking up Ian Ricketts on the M6. Worried about the lack of time, we stopped only for fuel and zapped along at a steady ton. At Inverness, we landed on a roundabout and some way north very nearly met our doom when the car refused to round a corner — we only stopped two feet short of a barrier that overlooked a nasty cliff.So, it was with some relief that we finally got out the car at John O'Groats to news of a Pallas's Rosefinch on North Ronaldsay. Absolute pandemonium set in. Eventually it was agreed to try for the swift first, so we boarded the ferry and crossed to Hoy — Tysties, Arctic Terns, Arctic andGreat Skuas, Puffins and a European Storm-petrel were seen en route. Once on Hoy, we were taken to Melsetter House in a fleet of rusty cars and minibuses. Alas, an hour of no joy and the time came for us to make a decision about catching the ferry to North Ronaldsay. Never had I seen so much uncertainty on a twitch, as people ummed and ahed about whether to head for North Ron or not. I could barely afford the cost of getting to Hoy, let alone an extra ferry trip on top, so I remained on Hoy as the other 25 or so rushed off north once more.Back at the mansion, all were asleep in the garden on my return. I went scanning from a nearby lane and, at 5:30pm, suddenly clapped eyes on a tiny black-and-white rocket bombing across the fields — "there it is!". I hurried back to the house to relay the news to everyone only to find the bird already there, swooping in, low, and back out again!

We moved out on to the lane and there it was, the White-throated Needletail — working the flies and bees along the edge of the sycamore stand with unbelievable speed and agility. One slight movement of the wings acted like a turbo switch as it shot high in to the sky. It would occasionally swoop low over the field, giving supreme views of its coppery-edged silver mantle in the sunlight, but spent most of the time working up and down the garden edge — the chocolate belly, white 'arrow' and forehead all observed well as it turned just a few feet away, frequently sweeping past our heads with a 'whoosh'! With many of the 'tickers' heading off, just five of us were left to enjoy the bird until 9pm when, after three unsuccessful attempts to land on the building, it disappeared. We retired to the local hostelry for some much-needed food before returning to the mansion, where the very friendly owners let us sleep in their summer house.The Liverpool crew departed early on the Saturday, leaving me alone with the swift on this beautiful island. I enjoyed it for much of the morning until, just as I was about to tuck in to some surprise sandwiches and coffee brought out to me by the mansion owners, the Rosefinch twitchers reappeared. I said, "follow me", and we all ran down the lane — they soon gave a great roar of approval as the bird made its first pass over their heads at the garden edge.
Nigel's excellent sketches of the Hoy Needletail (Artwork: Nigel Wheatley).

The Needletail went straight to the top of many people's list of British favourites (mine included) for it was an aerial delight — a "flying Killer Whale" according to one observer. We happily returned to John O'Groats and drove merrily home to a welcome bed, bath and larder. It was, in short, an epic encounter."The Pallas's Rosefinch Nigel mentions was never accepted on to Category A of the British list. Nigel added that, shortly after the swift, he (among others) headed down to Clevedon to see a Black-winged Pratincole on 12th June before, on 3rd July, they were on Anglesey for a Bridled Tern at Cemlyn. Coincidentally, both species have been recorded in Britain in the week following the Harris bird..!

Four years before the famous Hoy Needletail, what could potentially have been the same bird spent almost two weeks in the Hillwell and Quendale area of Shetland. This was a time long before any sort of bird news information service existed, and as such Mike Cartwright had no idea of the presence of the bird as he began the long trip north to spend a week on Fair Isle. Mike takes up the narrative:

"My story starts on 28th May 1984. Having travelled to Aberdeen by train and boarded the St. Claire for Shetland, I was full excitement for what might unfold in the coming week that I had booked to be on Fair Isle. Nobody on my limited 'grapevine' had of any news from Shetland, and of course there were no news services back then, either. As we left Aberdeen I stood at the back of the boat with two other birders watching a glorious evening unfold, though there was little in the way of seabirds.We immediately got chatting. They were having a birding holiday on Shetland, hoping to see theBlack-browed Albatross at Hermaness and the four female Snowy Owls on Fetlar among other things. Although I had seen these before I felt envious of them; what if I went all the way to Fair Isle and saw nothing?! They were envious of me, though, and suggested I might see something amazing like a Cretzschmar's Bunting!Having started to talk about rarities, they then told me about a conversation they had with Bobby Tulloch the previous day: a couple of days previously, Needle-tailed Swift had been seen and photographed by Dennis Coutts while he was supposed to be photographing a wedding at Loch of Hillwell, but they had had no further news since. We all stood in awe, contemplating the bird and then had a laugh at what the wedding photographs must have been like — assuming there were any!We reasoned that this highly mobile species would have long since departed — as swifts tend to do — but hoped there might be something else found up there. Never having heard of Loch of Hillwell and assuming it to be north of Lerwick, I was surprised to hear it was at the south end of Mainland. I needed to get to Grutness — at the southern tip — to catch the Good Shepherd to Fair Isle. A plan was hatched: they would very kindly give me lift and we would have a look at the loch, even if it was simply to pay our respects to this amazing bird rather than hope to actually see it. After all, that was too much to hope for given that there had been no news for a couple of days.After docking the following morning, we journeyed south in a small, blue hatchback. I was in the back, completely submerged by luggage and rucksacks and surrounded by condensation-covered windows. Eventually we were driving along the north side of the loch, and I wiped a small hole in the condensation to reveal the outside world: there were some hirundines but then, as we bumped along further, I caught a glimpse of a huge pale-backed swift that was moving very fast. Disbelief...no, it really is! Panic!"It's here! It's here!"The car jolted to a stop. I tried to get out — there were only three doors; I couldn't."Where?"I couldn't see for mist, lack of space and sheer excitement."I need to get out...get out!"At which point it zoomed back past me."It's there!"From outside it must have looked hilarious as the three of us and various bags exploded from the poor little car. But no mistaking it, there was the Needletail, putting on the most exhilarating of displays and to just the three of us! Its stunning speed and beautiful markings — the wonderful greenish sheen to its upperparts, the huge white undertail and chin offset by dark brown — were just incredible. I don't know how long we watched it for — I sort of slipped into another dimension; I think it was for a good few minutes, but equally it could have been seconds or weeks. We were all captivated, in awe and totally numb. It gradually started to make each pass a little higher and when it eventually departed to the northwest I knew that this was an experience that would never be repeated.

At the time, of course, we had no idea that it had been faithful to this spot. We looked at each other, the abandoned luggage and car. The incredible realisation of what we had seen cut through the peace of the loch; we were stunned. It was some minutes later, as we re-engaged with an Earthly time zone and the beautiful loch now calm but somehow incomplete without its spectacular guest, that we realised that a Corncrake was calling on the other side and probably had been doing so the whole time!Even to this day this is still the rarity that I have had the most luck with. It would have been so easy not to have seen it in the short time I had available. In fact, I could easily have never known about it. This finally dawned on me when the Good Shepherd docked on Fair Isle and I was met by Nick Riddiford, who wasn't able to leave the island and had the most agonised look on his face. "Do you know about the Swift?"That afternoon was spent on top of the cliffs looking down into one of the geos and watching aSubalpine Warbler among the Thrift and Sea Campion in exquisite light, ending a truly memorable day. Nearly thirty years on, the Needletail remains one of my most treasured memories — though the memory had dimmed over time, the events of last week totally reignited my own recollections. It could have been yesterday!"

Nigel Wheatley & Mike Cartwright
Friday 5th July 2013

Hundreds of twitchers travelled the length of the country to see the “bird of the century” – only for it to fly into a wind turbine and die.
Bird-spotters were ecstatic about the first UK sighting of the rare white-throated needletail since 1991.
But their excitement soon turned to horror when it hit the 120ft structure’s rotating blades.
James Hanlon and three pals drove 17 hours through the night to see the black and white swift on the Isle of Harris, one of Scotland’s Western Isles.
He said: “I was watching it through my binoculars from about 200 metres away.
“One minute it was flying in spectacular fashion. I followed it and then watched as it flew into one of the blades of the wind turbine and vanished.
“My heart jumped into my mouth. We dashed over to see if it had been killed and sadly found its body on the ground. It was heartbreaking.”
James, from Cambridge, said about 200 wildlife lovers gathered on Wednesday to see the needletail having heard about it through a website for spotters.
He added: “We had a wonderful feeling of elation watching it – this bird has to rate in the top five of any UK twitcher’s dream list. To see it die was ­absolutely shocking.
“There were hundreds on their way to see it. Some even chartered planes to take them to Stornoway so they could get here as soon as possible. They will have been devastated.”
The bird’s body has since been handed over to local conservationists.
James, 38, was joined by fellow twitcher Mark Batten, 49, who said wind turbines were a serious danger for birds.
He added: “This wasn’t even a turbine on a huge wind farm, it was a solitary turbine to provide power to a small community.
“There is huge concern in Scotland about plans for big wind farms and the danger they would pose to big birds of prey like golden eagles and sea eagles.
"This goes to show they do pose a huge threat.”
Website Rarebirdalert.co.uk recorded the death today and said it was “widely dubbed the bird of the century”.
In April, RSPB Scotland condemned the Government after it approved Viking Energy’s plans for a wind farm with 103 turbines on Shetland.
Spokesman Aedan Smith said at the time it was: “disappointing they have decided to risk the Shetland environment, as well as birds like whimbrel, with such a large scale proposal”.

The RSPB has today welcomed a recommendation ruling out, yet again, proposals for an airport in the Thames Estuary. The Transport Select Committee stated that the plans for a new hub airport in the estuary are too expensive and environmentally damaging, with specific mention of the hundreds of thousands of birds that make the estuary their home. The RSPB's Head of Conservation Policy, Dr Sue Armstrong-Brown, said: "Our fierce defence of the Thames Estuary has been recognised by the Transport Select Committee and we welcome their recommendations not to allow the development of an airport there. However, the committee's report goes on to state that there is a need to expand aviation in the southeast of England. It goes further and supports expansion at Heathrow. We are as opposed to that as we are to the inappropriate development of the Thames Estuary."

Sue added, "Having opposed London Mayor Boris Johnson, the main backer of an estuary airport, we now find ourselves united in our opposition to the Select Committee's recommendation for major expansion at Heathrow in west London. Our policies remain the same, but Mayor Johnson has today voiced his opposition to a third runway, or the new proposal of moving Heathrow westwards, on environmental and cost grounds. Exactly the same points we will be making."

Aviation is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and by 2050 aviation could account for one quarter of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions, yet there are no targets to contain this, and these emissions are still not counted in the UK's carbon budget system. The committee were convinced of the economic necessity of expansion put forward by the aviation industry. This was despite the recent submission to the UK Government of a new report commissioned by the RSPB with HACAN and WWF from CE Delft. The study found that once a city reaches a certain level of "connectedness" further expansion is unlikely to significantly affect the economy. London already has six airports with seven runways and more flights than any other place in the world; as connected as it gets.