Caution

The decline of wildlife, in particular birdlife and insects in our parish has become quite noticeable this year.

The House Martins and Swallows that usually nest in the Church Road area have not turned up this year and even had some House Martin and Swift nest boxes installed on our building but it seems they may go unused.

There used to be 4 Swallows nests in the barns at the Church Road farm. Now there are none!

Also there are lower numbers of Warblers this year, i.e., Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff etc in the areas where I do most of my birding.

The female Great-spotted Woodpecker visiting the garden for sunflower seeds suggests she is unable to find her preferred food in the wild.

We had a success of Lapwing breeding but this was down to the field flooding and no land management took place during this period and gave the Lapwings a chance.

This all seems to be pointing mainly to a lack of insects exacerbated by man-made long term climate change, disturbance and land management practices. Not to mention herbicide and pesticide use!

There is a complete lack of wild flowers and insect species in places I walk and grasses are cut before they go to seed. This all impacts on food availability for wildlife.

‘No Mo May’ is popular at the moment but does this actually achieve anything or is it just box ticking?

By the time wildlife gets established we start mowing again therefore destroying a habitat in mid-life not allowing any plants to seed and insect colonies to mature.

There are no records of Bullfinch this year in the parish. Is this another species that is going the way of Spotted Flycatcher, Turtle Dove, Tree Sparrow, Marsh Tit and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker locally?

We need ‘wildlife corridors’, ‘rewilding’ of areas and sympathetic land management practices.

I could go on but maybe you would get bored or dejected reading this?

Comments and pics courtesy Richard Broughton

Spring is a cruel season. And nature depletion makes it crueller. Even in a leafy rural village habitat like this, my local Blue Tit chicks are starving due to a lack of insects.

Weakened starving Rooklings now dropping from the trees. Second one I’ve picked up this week, very thin, too weak to hold onto high branches in the breeze. Most fledged weeks ago, these are 2nd attempts after wind/rain destroyed early nests. Now hit by lack of rain/food.