BirdGuides

By STEPHEN MOSS GONE BIRDS Lifelong birder and Birdfair veteran Stephen Moss looks at the species whose arrival we can celebrate, and those we have lost, in the past few decades. In the birding lottery, I have done pretty well. Living on the Somerset Levels, I frequently see all three British breeding species of egret (little, cattle and great white); indeed, I often come across this elegant trio while on the college run with my daughter Daisy. If I head down to the Avalon Marshes, I can add bittern, crane and the occasional glossy ibis; raptors – including hobbies in summer, merlin and peregrine in winter, and marsh harrier all year round – are regular sightings. No wonder that so many people now visit Somerset to go birding Less than two decades ago, when we moved down to Somerset from London, I could hardly have dreamed that I would log so many sought- after species during a typical day’s birding. In those days, all those I have mentioned were either scarce or non-existent. No wonder that so many people now visit Somerset to go birding – either on their own, or on organised birding trips like the ones I lead for Somerset Birdwatching Holidays. Yet boasting about these new and exciting birds leaves me rather uneasy, for two reasons. First, several of these species are here only because of the climate crisis. While we in the south celebrate the presence of these exotic waterbirds, and look forward to more species arriving in the next few years, so our friends in the north are lamenting the decline – and potential loss – of montane species such as the ptarmigan and snow bunting. We are also witnessing rapid and potentially devastating declines in Britain’s famous seabird colonies, which conservationist Roy Dennis once hailed as ‘our Serengeti’. Second, while the two groups I have mentioned – waterbirds and raptors – are doing very well, many other species and groups are in rapid, and possibly irreversible, decline. When I first moved down to Somerset, I expected to find a host of farmland birds, such as corn bunting, grey partridge and turtle dove. Yet despite my adopted county being heavily farmed (or perhaps, ironically, because of this), these are now absent, or almost Cattle egret Bittern 10 j G LOBAL B IRDFAIR 2022