Sharp declines in Puffin populations and other birdlife
Each species is allocated a ‘conservation status’. The familiar birds of Irish gardens, for example, all receive a ‘Least concern’ designation; their populations are considered healthy and their prospects good. The Javan rhino, on the other hand, is deemed to be ‘Critically endangered’; its numbers are declining and extinction looms. ‘Near threatened’ ‘Vulnerable’ and ‘Endangered’ are categories between these extremes.
In the latest BirdLife International Red List, prepared on behalf of the IUCN, 24 bird species have been re-classified as ‘Endangered’. Six of Africa’s 11 vulture species, it’s feared, will become extinct if adequate protection measures aren’t taken. These, the most characteristic birds of prey, are being poisoned indiscriminately, their body parts used in traditional medicine. Poachers kill vultures because the birds, wheeling in the air above kills, attract attention to their illegal activities.
But species closer to home have also been re-classified. Turtle doves and Slavonian grebes, which visit Ireland in small numbers, are now deemed ‘Vulnerable’, the first of the three ‘Threatened’ categories. So are the pochard and the puffin, two much more familiar Irish birds.
There are between 1.95 and 2.25 million pochards in the world. According to BirdLife International, the species ‘has experienced rapid declines across its European range’; numbers fell by 30% to 49% in 23 years. This grey-backed diving duck with a chestnut head, nests along the fringes of well-vegetated lowland lakes, marshes and slow-flowing rivers. Water-based sports, hunting, urban encroachment and habitat destruction are implicated in the decline.
Pochard used to nest in small numbers throughout Ireland. Some still breed around Lough Neagh but few do so elsewhere. The largest lake in Ireland and Britain once hosted the biggest winter concentration of pochard in these islands. On occasion, it held more of these ducks than all other sites combined. The 20,000 or so pochard which used to spend their winter holidays on the Lough no longer do so. The numbers visiting Ireland have been halved since 1984. ‘Short-stopping’ may partially explain this; birds from Eastern Europe and Asia appear to be going elsewhere.
Pochard are relatively easy to census. The same can’t be said of the puffin. The ‘sea parrot’, with its ridiculous multi-coloured bill and bright red legs, is everyone’s favourite seabird. It even has a range of children’s books called after it. A cartoonist’s dream, this cross between a penguin and a chicken has an inquisitive disposition; puffins fly close to humans visiting their colonies and stand around gazing at the intruders. The nests, deep in burrows on the steep grassy slopes of island cliffs, are impossible to monitor. Nor are the comings and goings of birds at a colony a reliable guide to numbers. One or both parents may be absent when a count is made. Unpaired, widowed and immature birds, loafing about, complicate matters. How do you decide if a burrow is occupied or not?
Although no great change has been noticed at Irish colonies, there is no doubt that puffin numbers overall are falling. We are at the fringe of the species’ range; Iceland and Norway hold about 80% of the breeding population on this side of the Atlantic. Sharp declines have occurred at the Norwegian colonies, in the Faroe Islands and in Greenland.
According to BirdLife International, the species suffers ‘the combined impact of predation by invasive species, pollution, food shortages caused by the depletion of fisheries and adult mortality in fishing nets’. The birds are ‘highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, such as sea temperature rise and shifts in prey distribution’.
Are our seas becoming too warm for our traditional birds? Trigger fish, and other warm-water creatures are visiting our coasts. Could we be heading for a time when great white sharks, rather than puffins, will patrol our coasts?
