English

The skylark Alauda arvensis has suffered from a "surprising and worrying decline" in numbers in Scotland, ornithologists have warned. The population shrank by 25% between 2010 and 2011. The fall in numbers has been recorded in the British Trust for Ornithology's latest breeding bird survey (BBS). Scotland had previously been regarded as a stronghold for skylarks.

Bird experts are ringing alarm bells over the decline of one of the UK's most recognizable birds: 40 million starlings have disappeared from the European Union, including the UK, since 1980. In 2002, the starling Sturnus vulgaris was added to the UK ‘red list’ of the Birds of Conservation Concern, because its population had halved during the previous three decades. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the starling has recorded the greatest loss of any European farmland bird. Starling numbers recorded in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch have fallen by 80% since 1979 across the UK.

A major bee conservation group in Scotland has become embroiled in a bitter row for failing to back a ban on nicotine-based pesticides blamed for killing bees. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, based at the University of Stirling, is facing calls for the resignation of its newly-appointed chairman, Professor Michael Usher, and criticism from its founder over its cautious stance. One reason the trust has refused to support a ban is revealed in a paper agreed at the last meeting of trustees in May. "If we take an aggressive campaigning stance then we risk reputational/ relationship damage with government and, importantly, with farmers," it said.
Usher, formerly chief scientist at the Government wildlife agency Scottish Natural Heritage, was recently quoted in a gardening magazine defending the use of neonicotinoids. This has infuriated beekeepers and campaigners, who are now demanding he resign or be sacked from the bumblebee trust. In a letter to the Sunday Herald published today, two of the trust's life members and two activists from the campaign group Friends of the Bees, have warned that wildlife is facing "ecological Armageddon". If the trust fails to back a ban, it "may find its membership sliding towards extinction faster than the bumblebees", they said. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has also come under fire from Professor Dave Goulson, a bee expert from the University of Stirling who originally founded the trust.

Bird experts have warned of a dramatic fall in the number of the Dartford warbler Sylvia undata. The Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) has said in its latest report that the heathland bird “has suffered a dramatic population decline at some of its most important breeding sites in South-east England.” In 2004, there were almost 1,000 pairs in the Thames Basin and Wealden Heaths. Sadly, in 2010, just 50 pairs of Dartford warblers were reported across areas of Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex. Dartford Warblers are named after Dartford Heath in Kent. These warblers are insectivorous, feeding on caterpillars, butterflies, beetles, spiders, etc., but will also take berries.

Here are 10 crops that would disappear without bees: 1. Apples. About three out of five apples in the United States come from Washington State. 2. Almonds. About 80 percent of the world's almond supply comes from California. 3. Blueberries. The loss of the blueberry crop, most of which comes from Maine, wouldn't just be felt at the kitchen table. 4. Cherries, most of which come from Washington State. 5. Avocados. How does that saying go? No avos means no guac. No guac means no party. Boo. 6. Cucumbers. Cucumbers are a popular option for cooling down in the hot summer months. Their cool, fresh flavor and crunchy bite make them a popular addition to salads, sandwiches, and cocktails. 7. Onions. No onions? Well, you're pretty much screwed. Onions are the base for myriad classic sauces, soups, and stews when cooked, and when raw, are pretty much de facto in tacos, salsas, sandwiches, burgers, and salads. You'll still be shedding tears even when they're gone. 8. Grapefruit. Sweet-tart grapefruit, whether eaten with a spoon or cut into segments by the ambitious, is a breakfast staple for the health conscious. It's also delicious in salads and blended into smoothies and cocktails. 9. Orange. That morning cup of orange juice would get a lot more expensive. Maybe we'll just import our way out of this one — except, colony collapse disorder is a worldwide problem. 10. Pumpkins. Halloween just wouldn't be the same without pumpkins, nor would Thanksgiving.

A type of sparrow that lives only in Florida has mysteriously plunged in number so dramatically that scientists fear it will vanish forever well before the end of this decade. Florida grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus), which inhabit grasslands in the state's interior south of Orlando, have been listed as endangered for the past 26 years. But the furtive birds have all but disappeared in recent years from one of their last three prairie refuges and, in what has become a wildlife emergency, may now total fewer than 200 in just two counties, Osceola and Okeechobee. The bird, a subspecies of grasshopper sparrows, eats grasshoppers and sings like one, with a "tick, tick, buzz." It also runs — hidden by dry-prairie grasses — as much or more than it flies, bedeviling researchers' attempts to learn more about it.

Kent’s hedgerows are no longer bustling with some of their chirpiest inhabitants - figures show the county's starling population has declined by more than two-thirds. In 2002, the starling Sturnus vulgaris was added to the UK ‘red list’ of the Birds of Conservation Concern, because its population had halved during the previous 30 years. In Kent, while they are still the second-most recorded bird in the county, a survey found this year an average of 4.5 birds were seen per garden compared to 12 birds recorded per garden in 1991. This is drop of almost 70% over the past two decades.

The latest figures from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) show that four breeding wading birds have reached their lowest levels since the survey started in the early 1990s. Volunteer birdwatchers reported particularly low numbers of lapwing, oystercatcher, snipe and curlew during the spring of 2011. These birds breed on wet grassland and upland habitats across the UK, where they rely on earthworms and other invertebrates for food. All four species saw sharp declines between 2010 and 2011, of 19 per cent for oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus, 18 per cent for lapwing Vanellus vanellus, 40 per cent for snipe Gallinago gallinago and 13 per cent for curlew Numenius arquata. The BBS produces annual population trends for over one hundred widespread bird species. Ten species have declined by more than 50 per cent since the start of the survey in 1994, including turtle dove, which has declined by a staggering 80 per cent. Since the start of the survey Britain has lost more than half of the following ten species: Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur -80%; Willow Tit Parus montanus -79%; Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix -65%; Whinchat Saxicola rubetra -57%; Grey Partridge Perdix perdix -55%; Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos -52%; Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava -50%; Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca -50%; Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata -50%; Starling Sturnus vulgaris -50%.

The BBC produced a very high quality documentary about a year ago - called 'Who Killed the Honeybee'. It contains extensive interviews with beekeeper Tom Theobald in Colorado, Bret Adee, America's largest commercial beekeeper, with 10,000 dead hives in Lost Hills California, Dave Hackenberg in Florida and Pennsylvania. It also has extensive coverage of the California Almonds disaster. There are excellent interviews with: Bee Scientists Marla Spivak at Minnesota University; Maryann Frazier at Penn State; Jeffrey Pettis at USDA lab in Maryland; Dennis Van Engelsdorp at Penn State. The rest of the film deals with England and Europe. The film covers the big issues: varroa, pesticides, viruses . .even 'climate change' (the British Bee Lab's favourite suspect) - but the weight of evidence overwhelmingly implicates systemic neonicotinoid pesticides. Loss of habitat, chemical cocktails, viruses and varroa all contribute. but it is the global use of systemics that carries the day if you read between the lines. The BBC, as always, tries to give a 'balanced view'.