Ireland's Birds doing worse than ever before

well that's depressing reading

in particular this:

The plight of our breeding Curlews is well documented and, with only 150 pairs remaining, their fate is uncertain, despite concerted conservation efforts

Bearded Tits and Pied Flycatchers on the Irish list of concern?

Birds need hedgerow and mature trees.

We are destroying bird habitat faster the rainforest is being destroyed in Brazil (at least in % terms).

Around my area in Kerry, the great majority of roadside hedgerow has been destroyed over the past few years. The hedgerow inside farms is not doing better either with farmers replacing natural hedges with ridiculous wire fences (I am sure farmers have their reasons).

Mature trees are also under constant and never-ending attack: roadside safety cuts, ESB line trimming, cut for firewood, etc. etc. For example, I recently drove along the N72/N25 between Cappoquin and Dungargan. 100s of majestic mature trees (probably 50+ years) lying on their side over a 20km stretch.

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

What you're saying isn't wrong, and few things make my blood boil like seeing hedgerows being butchered unnecessarily, but it's important to acknowledge too that hedgerow management and ESB works etc have cause little or no species to make it onto the red or amber lists above. We shouldn't lose sight of the bigger issues, that are unfortunately much more complicated to try and rectify.

What would the main issues be? Climate change, habitat loss /change of farming practices (insecticides or other poisons)? Upland burnings?

We've had a few new arrivals in recent decades not to forget such as egret and woodpecker.

Where is this data obtained from?

Birdnuts wrote: »

The activities and policies pursued by state and semi state agencies such as the OPW,Teagasc, Bord Na Mona etc. are big factors is this sorry state of affairs

Del.Monte wrote: »

Don't forget Coras Iompair Eireann and their scorched earth policy which is being implemented up and down the railway network at what must be an enormous financial as well as environmental cost.

I agree with the sentiment but all these state agencies account for very little land mass in the grand scheme of things, while they do seem to obliterate any natural habitat in the name of health and safety the problem is not entirely at their door.
I'm surprised in reading this thread that farmers haven't been mentioned more (I'm from a farming background) and in my opinion farmers who were once protectors of land who had no choice but to work with what they had are now the number 1 threat to wildlife in Ireland with housing and flood control a distant second
In the course of my work every day I cover hundreds of kilometres and am in despair as to what our farming community are doing to our wonderful countryside, spreading slurry openly beside open water courses (beside the motorway in crusheen yesterday) and outside of restrictions, cutting down and bull dozing any natural form of cover and habitat that's remaining on their farm, clearing acres of natural scrub land for grazing and destroying any hedges and earthen moots to make it easier to herd and move cattle
I travelled the boyle to roscommon road recently and saw hundreds of mature trees knocked and cut and stacked into blocks with a sign up firewood for sale, it was nothing short of scandalous what that man was doing to his land to make a few euro, they can seemingly act without fear or prosecution when it comes to farming
Now I don't fully blame the farming community (myself included) with what is happening, teagasc ifa and European policy has brought us to where we are today, we have schemes where we leave some of our land idle and plant wild flowers and the like but it's a box ticking exercise, no enforcement and no interest in doing it right from individuals who know they'll be given a slap on the wrist if they do get an inspection
Until we have schemes where farmers are all paid to plant native cover, hedging and trees on at least 5 to 10 percent of their land we are looking at a natural disaster for wildlife, and farmers will have to be paid to give their land back to nature as we seem not to care how much it will cost to tear it all apart to make grass there will meet a lot of resistance from farmers who won't see a point in doing good for the land they were supposed to protect
As it stands this very morning on my walk over fanore overlooking the beautiful Aran islands and galway bay theres turf cutting and land clearance on a grand scale and I didn't have to travel beyond my 5 kilometres to see it
I myself have planted various natural plants trees and hedgerows on over 10 percent of my land, I have rented the rest to a local farmer to pay for some of it, but my efforts are minuscule in what needs to be a country wide effort from all land owners who should set aside financial incentives and do something just for the good of it, too little too late I'm afraid

jackboy wrote: »

Just after the Clarecastle roundabout on the road to Limerick, there is a massive construction project going on beside the river. It looks like a massive metal barrier is being constructed to stop the river flooding into the surrounding floodplain. This must be an extremely important habitat for birds. Why would such huge money and resources be spent to destroy a habitat, can’t be much gain for anyone in it.

Because we build on flood planes around ennis, ennis is an island (inis) and has massive flood plains all around, they even want to build apartments beside the post office, that's a flood plain which has many different types of wildlife on it and they still want to build on it, this is the policy from the top down, it's like fighting a losing battle

Even the Green Party have turned their backs on the environment and habitats in favour of waffling about carbon taxes and cycle lanes. 90% of individuals who would have been interested in protecting the environment and habitats are now gone down that rabbit hole too. Protecting habitats and birds is not fashionable at the moment. Things are very bleak for the near future at least.

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

What you're saying isn't wrong, and few things make my blood boil like seeing hedgerows being butchered unnecessarily, but it's important to acknowledge too that hedgerow management and ESB works etc have cause little or no species to make it onto the red or amber lists above. We shouldn't lose sight of the bigger issues, that are unfortunately much more complicated to try and rectify.

It might not have have sent the specified listed above to the red/amber lists, but it will be dramatically decreasing the numbers of other species (which could be joining those lists in the coming years).

The attack on hedgerow and mature trees in Ireland is absolutely dramatic. A combination of farmers and County Councils, with no one to place any robust restrictions.

magicbastarder wrote: »

well, they've doubled the budget of the NPWS, announced a new wildlife crime unit, and started a major program to rewet bogs (ignoring carbon related stuff)

for a party that everyone seems to think is incompetent, they seem to be achieving more change than either of their two senior coalition partners.

No credit for announcements. After they achieve these things they can get credit. Hadn’t heard about a wildlife crime unit. I assume that they will be arresting politicians, county councils, developers and the others who are involved in industrial scale destruction of habitats.

embraer170 wrote: »

Very good point. In some counties, destroying the hedgerow and creating a roads setback is one of the planning conditions (but I am sure people would do it anyway even if it wasn't).

Absolutely ridiculous.

These are existing houses that have been around for many years, clearing the hedges so that it now "looks good" from the road.

whisky_galore wrote: »

These are existing houses that have been around for many years, clearing the hedges so that it now "looks good" from the road.

That's true. There has been a lot more of that since COVID. Probably people with nothing else to do.

Birdnuts wrote: »

The activities and policies pursued by state and semi state agencies such as the OPW,Teagasc, Bord Na Mona etc. are big factors is this sorry state of affairs

Don't worry , once the government bring in this new carbon tax , wildlife will start miraculously bouncing back .

You could add waterways Ireland to that list aswell . They're non stop up and down the canals all summer, cutting weeds that the fish spawn in , cutting grass non stop in case it grows and cuttting down reed buntings all along the bank that ducks and moorhens nest and hide in . Funnily enough when I drove past the travellers site in ballyfermot the other day , the canal that runs along the back of it hadn't been touched , Whereas in my area it's been butchered all the way along . And now theres gonna tarmac a cycle lane all along the grand canal that no one wants except cyclists.

Same thing happening here in the South West since the milk quota went. And the latest thing here too is long stretches of mature hedge rows being wiped.

Its sad to say but we are just going to have to watch it all disappear. There will be no real change until it hits rock bottom. Then it will be too late.

Modern values have changed.

But it dose not mean some of us that are able to can't do our own bit where ever possible.
I have a very small bit of ground to use. Planting as much native tree as possible wild patches left go, putting in a few small ponds but it's worth to see and hear all the life around the place.
It's all I can do.

Money can't buy that.