From Good Animal News:
A RARE songbird has tripled in number in 13 years and returned to Wales, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said yesterday.See also here.But the Dartford warbler’s population increase can only be sustained and improved if the Government protects the birds’ natural habitat, the RSPB said.
The UK population of Dartford warblers increased from 1,890 pairs in 1994 to an estimated 3,208 pairs, according to a recent survey.
The bird has returned to Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia, and there are 85 pairs in the Channel Islands.
The population growth is a massive jump from 1963, when just 11 pairs were counted.
Milder winters and the availability of heathland have helped numbers increase, according to the RSPB.
The bird has also adapted to new habitats.
The Dartford warbler – or Sylvia undata – is distinguished by its short, rattling warble, and its distinctive buzzing call.
And here.
Endangered bird hops to rescue of nudist beach
By Amol Rajan
The independent, Thursday, 25 September 2008
The Darford Warbler is one of the species under threat
The nudists who have frequented Eastney beach in Portsmouth for more than a century thought they were on the way out.
Qinetiq, a British defence technology company, wants to build 131 luxury apartments there, potentially leaving the nudists very unwelcome.
But help is at hand, and it has taken the form of a tiny and rather rare friend. The Dartford warbler is one of the few species of warbler to winter in Britain. And now it is has come to the nudists’ rescue.
Qinetiq had received planning permission to develop its flats on Eastney beach on the condition they widen an access road leading to the land. But at a special meeting of the city council earlier this week, protesters successfully pushed the council to carry out a further environmental study to see if the flats will endanger the bird’s natural habitat.
As a result, the warbler may soon discover its safest haven is in the company of naked humans.
Comment by Administrator — October 6, 2008 @ 8:09 pm