By Sue Evans, Director of Policy GWCT Wales
I had a look at the fall and rise (rarely ever mentioned) of wild bird species following the Guardian’s article Wild bird numbers continue to fall in UK with some species in ‘dramatic freefall’ | Birds | The Guardian based on DEFRA’s Wild bird populations in the UK and England, 1970 to 2024 – GOV.UK.
Yet again it led me to ask why General Licence 004 (GL004) in Wales, which is for the Conservation of wild birds, only lists carrion crows to protect the eggs or chicks of only certain wild birds of conservation concern. Whilst certain bird species continue to decline, other predatory species have increased two-to-three-fold since the 1960’s and their numbers continue to rise.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) removed Magpies from GL004 due to a decline in their numbers which led to them being placed on the amber list. As you will see from the graph magpie numbers have increased threefold since the 1960’s. That alone should flag the need for reduction in their numbers but having briefly entered slight decline in numbers, their numbers are now increasing again so surely, they should be reinstated onto the listed of species that can be managed under GL004.
The magpie is a species which many farmers have contacted me about this year. They feel hopelessness watching increasing numbers of magpies on their farms strip the hedges of young birds and eggs causing species such as thrush, bullfinch, and dunnock to decline.
Bird Trends Explorer shows the increase in magpie numbers and our research shows that magpies predate on songbird eggs: GWCT’s Predation of artificial songbird nests by magpies on UK farmland – Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
In light of this, we believe that NRW should review species whose numbers are increasing to add them back onto GL004 as predators which can be controlled. We should be having an open and honest conversation about The Question of Balance (title of Steve Tapper’s seminal GWCT 1991 book) and consider the effect a species is having now. At the Royal Welsh Show a member of the public attending the curlew conservation panel held on our stand on the Wednesday asked why everyone seemed to agree that predation control was key to the survival of curlew as a species present in Wales and yet in the press there seems to be two sides to this argument and it seems to be disputed. One of the panelists, Julian Hughes who is Head of Public Affairs for RSPB Cymru, agreed that yes, we need to make our messaging clearer.
It’s important to remember that not all birds are declining in number, – some are actually thriving. This tells us that the situation is more complex than a simple drop in numbers across the board. What species are increasing in numbers, what’s driving their success, why and what effect are they having on other birds?
This discussion is going to be uncomfortable in areas such as curlew conservation as demonstrated in Montgomeryshire where we run Curlew Connections, curlew project. Not only are the curlew preyed upon by species which we are allowed to control such as the fox and crow but also those which we cannot control such as the badger, buzzard and kite. With only 400 pairs of curlew left in Wales and predicted extinction by 2033 should we not afford greater protection to this beautiful bird? The fantastic success of the kite reintroduction project into Wales with this kite feeding centre just up the road near Rhyadr there are now hundreds collecting in the area putting additional stress on the success of ground nesting birds.
So, if we have priority areas for vulnerable species, as we do with the Important Curlew Area’s for curlew, shouldn’t we be able to go beyond the current limited list of predators we’re allowed to manage – especially now that the removal of HCR has reduced the tools available to us even further?
It seems we as a nation love and champion the predator species above all other! Why do we love the red kite more than the curlew or the buzzard over the dunnock? Are we not a nation that supports the underdog? Yet in nature we seem to be blind to the fact that increasing numbers of predator species result in a greater threat to other species particularly when they are at their most vulnerable nesting on the ground.
Deciding on a priority species and then prioritising that species over other more numerous predator species would seem an obvious approach and more cost effective to the public’s purse to recovering species. These are scientifically proven methods to recover species which includes the control of predators which will not adversely affect the UK population of those predator species.
It seems to me that we are shirking our responsibility to protect vulnerable species which are in decline, some near extinction, for the sake of avoiding an uncomfortable conversation and not being honest about what works best to recover these species. Having altered our environment around a highly populated island which benefits some species we must continue the management to ensure balance in nature so that we do not lose more vulnerable species.
We need to decide which species we want to conserve in local areas and build numbers, otherwise we will continue to lose species forever while others continue to dominate the landscape.