http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/4617652.stm
Monday, 16 January 2006, 16:01 GMT
Fewer wetland birds migrate to UK
Many birds who migrate to the UK are staying closer to home
Fewer migrating ducks, geese and wading birds are wintering in Britain
because more are staying closer to their Arctic breeding grounds due to
global warming.
New studies by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Wildfowl
and Wetlands Trust have revealed the fall.
Teams patrol watersides in winter to count species and numbers of birds.
Their work covers the Wash, Morecambe Bay, Norfolk coast, Solway Firth
and the estuaries of the Humber, Thames, Dee and Mersey in the period
2001-04.
Ducks, geese and waders are attracted by the relatively warmer winter
conditions in the Gulf Stream protected British Isles but global
warming is blamed for the migrating birds preferring cooler northern
and eastern waters.
Climate change
Britain is the winter home for about 10m wetland birds and the Wash
sees populations of 350,000 while other sites and the estuaries have
numbers of more than 100,000.
However, heavy development of traditional sites in the south of England
have seen loss of habitat which has caused the bird populations to move
away.
Signs are growing that all is not well for a range of geese, ducks and
wading birds.
For species such as the Grey Plover and Dark-bellied Brent Goose, whose
populations peaked in the early 1990s, after long periods of increase,
numbers are now declining steadily.
But numbers of Little Egrets, Pink Footed Geese, Gadwall and
Black-tailed Godwit are all reaching record levels.
Andy Musgrove, of the BTO, who is the wetland bird survey national
co-ordinator, said: "Different species are changing in numbers and one
possibility is redistribution due to climate change.
"Milder winters mean many species spend winter closer to their breeding
grounds so a decreasing proportion of their populations migrates as far
as the UK."
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