Some bird surveys in the Peak District have been published. Well, actually, that’s not quite true; some rather obviously selective analyses of some bird surveys done in the Peak District have been promoted but not properly published.
Despite the fact that there is some celebratory social media coverage of these data and some rather condemnatory social media coverage too, the results need a bit of time to consider and to understand what has actually been found and what these findings might mean.
One would hope that the claimed increases in moorland bird populations are real, and are due to the large amount of restoration work that has occurred in recent years on some of these moorlands – otherwise an awful lot of money, some of it public money, has been wasted. So let’s hope that when scrutinised carefully these data do demonstrate some real impact.
I know that the turn around in wader numbers, for example of Dunlin numbers, in places such as Dovestones are said to be pretty impressive, and those results must be included in these results, but the published information is so sparse that it’s difficult to make much sense of them at first view. I note that there are NE and BTO logos on some of these reports and so we should be able to get to the actual facts in due course.
In this press release I’d recommend reading the comments carefully: Natural England says very little (no great surprise there), the Moorland Association gushes about the results (no surprise there), the Moors for the Future Partnership says practically nothing about the actual results, and the Peak District National Park says very little about the results. And other partners aren’t quoted at all – eg the RSPB.
This stuff needs proper examination rather than knee-jerk reaction.
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Rabbits!
The immortal words of Corp. Jones ‘They don’t like it up em’ come to mind.
Good on Moors for the Future, whose members include Yorkshire Water, Severn Trent, RSPB, Peak District National Park, The National Trust, United Utilities, Environment Agency, and Pennine Prospects. Your readers may want to read their excellent ‘Landmark survey reveals moorland birds are thriving’, published yesterday.
Indeed ‘some readers’ may wish to read the report. Happily at least one reader, myself, was actually involved in the surveying. Moorland birds are thriving? Well, as one of the boots on the ground, it is most certainly a lot more nuanced than that. I mean such matters as local extinctions of particular species and the like. Justin S O, if you have read the report yourself I’d be more than happy, with Mark’s consent of course, to debate any particular points of evidence with you via this blog.
I guess I’d only say that the word ‘thriving’ is not that of the shooting people, but rather the partners, whom I’ve listed, in Moors for the Future.
For me, I’m just pleased that the birds are doing better, whatever your interpretation of ‘thriving’, and I’m little surprised that others don’t feel the same way; then again, for some it’s not ever really been about the birds.
‘Press release’ and ‘full report’ can be two very different things, one would assume that’s something most would take for granted. Seeing as for me – and I mean that in the sense of when reflecting on the course my life the exceedingly large part of it that has been consumed by such matters – it is pretty much ‘always about the birds’. Would you like to take this opportunity to ask any specific questions about the results the survey actually produced? As I haven’t, or any member of the public as far as I am aware for that matter, seen the full report, I can only comment on the sector that I personally surveyed, though considering the extent of that sector, and the land management regimes covered, I think that it represents a worthwhile sample of the total survey. I’m game if you are, JSO.
Jim Clarke I work on the Edale Estate and have done all my life as a shepherd and I have seen the report that has been issued to the estate office did you survey the Edale estate moor . As a very keen birdwatcher myself I am totally surprised that there were no Merlin or short eared owls mentioned in the report and i see these birds regularly also a pair of buzzards nest close to the moor edge very close to the survey area and again no mention of these birds either , we on the estate are very bemused by this could you tell me how they could have been missed
Hi Geoff. No I did not survey that area; I worked in the NE and E of the survey area, nowhere near Edale. I hope you won’t feel like i’m dodging answering your specific question but I do feel it’s the right approach that i only make detailed comment on the area i actually worked until the full report (rather than a summary) is released. I hope you will feel that is fair. What it’s worth noting though is that there are limitations inherent in any survey method you might choose to use and the one used here (Brown and Shepherd https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00063659309477182) was originally designed to get a reasonable estimate of wading birds over large areas (and, again worth noting, research has shown that the degree of accuracy is variable for different species). For raptors it will not give anything like the accuracy of the methods employed by say the local Raptor Study Groups. As a demonstration of this I certainly knew of some territorial birds of prey, and actually watched those specific birds on other occasions around the same time, but did not pick them up while out doing this particular survey. This shows the importance of releasing a full analysis; readers need to get an idea of what can be a achieved with a survey of this sort and what can’t.
Surveys of this type,of course, only capture a moment in time, and can be interpreted in
different ways.
However, one thing that strikes me is the almost mirror image, especially on the Eastern moors, between the paucity of Red Grouse sightings, and the frequency with which Carrion Crow was
recorded.
Gone are the days when, with quite low levels of management, a day’s shooting of 50/60 brace
could be had in a good season.
The grouse population on these moors is now critically low, and without active management
could well succumb altogether, it is rarely found,as prey, even at certain Goshawks nests, which
is a good indicator of how far it has fallen.
It is an often repeated assertion that Grouse will stabilise at a more natural level ,without the
presence of keepers, but in many areas now, they are way below any levels recorded in recent
history.
Just a few points, Trapit;
As someone who grew up on the fringes of the Eastern Moors and South Sheffield Moors, and have known these (long-since) ex grouse moors since childhood, including when significant portions were accessible only with a Severn Trent Water issued permit (I had a permit), I’m really not sure that Red Grouse numbers on them haven’t been relatively stabilise in the 30 plus years I’ve known them. I’m still encountering them in pretty much the same places in pretty much the same numbers. This is mainly anecdotal of course (though with some dedicated surveying along the way). I can at least say they still aren’t very hard to find – I was last out there on Monday (28th October) and had picked up Red Grouse within about 30 seconds of stepping on the moor, not an especially unusual experience. It’s certainly something I’d like to collate more data on though I think the idea of isolating these moors as a specific, insular biotope removed from land management in the broader landscape is problematic; this area is simply a particular extension of the broader moorland landscape and grouse can and do move (as an aside, and though a very rare occurrence, there have been periodic lowland, even urban records in neighbouring Sheffield; I don’t have the data to hand but I remember there was a bit of an influx around the late 1980s). So, in the absence of a ringing or tagging program, I’m not sure how tightly things could be tied down very tightly – it would be a neat bit of science if anyone fancies taking it on.
In terms of Red Grouse as a Goshawk prey item the various percentages of prey species, as far as my knowledge goes, have always been variable across the area with very high percentages of Grey Squirrel for some pairs, corvids for others, variable mammal prey etc. It would be good to see long-term data updated and collated; I’ll ask around about that. Out of interest, which nest studies are you referring to (i’ll make sure I acquaint/reacquaint myself with them)?
Goshawks, of course, had much higher populations in and around the Dark Peak recent history. I remember that period well. For the reasons behind the sudden drop in numbers at the start of this century a good, easily digestible starting point is this well known report;
http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/Images/PeakMalpractice_tcm9-132666.pdf
This could lead to an obvious problem with using Goshawk prey items as an indicator of Red Grouse numbers – there are very few breeding Goshawks left anywhere close to Red Grouse. And historically, I’m not sure that weren’t extinct in the UK when some of these ex grouse moors were actually active so I reckon long-term data might not be available to support that part of your comment; I’ll have to check the dates but there can’t be much of an overlap with recolonisation/the end of active management.
Jim, thanks for staying up so late to answer my post !.
Most of my observations are anecdotal, but nevertheless the days when I could accompany
shepherds gathering in the autumn, and count 70/ 100 grouse,or hear them cackling at some distance from the moor edge on these autumn mornings are long gone, the frequent sight of small groups sat on roadside wall tops also is fading from memory, mine anyway.
Regarding a handful of Goshawk, that nest , say well within 1km of
open moorland, i would probably have to go back to the early 2000’s , to find grouse plucks in the woods around the nests with any regularity, one about five years ago was I think , the last one.
Hi Trapit. Can you specify where you where seeing 70/100 grouse and what sort of dates? I’m interested in (and have an open mind as to) whether Red Grouse populations on ex grouse moors in my area are genuinely self-sustaining, or even whether, considering the overall landscape level management in the Peak District, and the potential for movements between areas with different management regimes , that’s something that’s currently feasible to assess. It’s worth noting the recent Moors for the Future survey merely involved tallying counts of this species along a transect, with wide variation possible between repeated visits along the same transect, and was in no way intensive or precise enough for accurate population assessment at a given site (as I have no doubt gamekeepers would agree, it’s hardly the method they use to assess numbers!), particularly where densities are undoubtedly (and logically) lower than on active grouse moors . With a number of other species conservation projects already ongoing I really doubt I could undertake a proper study myself at any point in the near future but, to my mind, it does seem a pretty worthwhile thing to do.
The Eastern Moors had very diverse habitats, it is not managed with grouse or heather monoculture in mind but for a range of species. Hence there are ring ouzels, whinchat, cuckoo, redstart, tree pipit, and many other scarce species there which more than makes up for the lack of grouse and all achieved while re-wetting the moors
As one of the surveyors involved in the Moors for the Future survey the first thing I’d say is that I’m extremely disquieted by the press release headline ‘moorland birds are thriving’. I spent weeks covering a considerable area of the Dark Peak – predominantly intensively managed grouse moor and it’s really some of the major absences that stick in my mind; Peregrine, Goshawk, Redshank, Wheatear, Twite for starters. I haven’t read the full report yet so will hold further comment for now.