A Bit of A Downer (in more ways than one).

On the decline, originally uploaded by http://andrewskelton.net.

I read a rather shocking article today regarding the decline of the UK bird population over the last four decades. Friends and family have often commented how there seem to be fewer birds around over the last few years, and if the data is to be believe then this is indeed true. Comparisons between records taken in 1966 (they think it’s all over, at this rate it may well be!) and this year show there has been a decline of around 44 million birds – that’s a staggering decline in numbers. Levels of nesting birds were estimated to be around 210 million in 1966 compared with around 166 million this year.

It’s not all bad, a number of species are on the increase; the Wood Pigeon population has doubled to around 5 million pairs in the last 30 or so years, and amazingly despite woodland birds generally being in decline, Greater Spotted Woodpecker numbers have increased by over 360% over the same time period. Touch, or knock, on wood that other bird species numbers start to increase in the same fashion.

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