Sunday, December 20, 2015

Jumble Hole

Been a bit quiet round here recently. A raven flew over cronking at lunchtime. The GS woodpecker has arrived back at the feeders for the first time this winter (but the nuthatches have come and gone again).
A tawny owl can be seen in the woods now and again.
And it looks highly likely that 2015 will be my first year in 13 years at Jumble Hole that I haven't encountered woodcock. That seems to reflect a local trend - is this a national problem?
Posted by at

4 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

Think Woodcock are in decline nationally Matt. The BTO did some volunteer survey work in selected locations around the country last year but not seen any results yet - unless it's continuing (?). Will try find out.

7:45 pm
David Sutcliffe said...

From BTO website - Full results have been published for the 2013 breeding Woodcock survey (PDF), which estimated a population of 55,241 males, representing a decline of 29% since 2003. Summary details can be found on the Results page.

It has been Amber listed as a bird of conservation concern as part of a wider breeding population decline in Europe.

For more information...
http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/woodcock-survey

7:58 pm
AndyC said...

difficult to get an accurate count on Woodcocks.Still seem to be plenty about if your out at dusk in Calderdales wooded areas.??

5:17 pm
Matt Bell said...

Cheers for that Dave

8:23 pm

Post a Comment