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The Department of the Environment has issued a Red List of Irish Butterflies 2010 which details species under threat. All 33 resident and regular migrant species of Irish butterflies are evaluated for their conservation status using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) regional criteria. The Red List assessment was compiled using best expert opinion and data from a number of specialist organisations. Apart from the 18% of butterflies under threat of total wipeout, a further 15% are near threatened. One species, Mountain Ringlet Erebia epiphron, is extinct, six species are endangered or vulnerable and five species are near threatened.

There's an alarming decline in chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica), the so-called "flying cigars" that on summer nights eat about one-third their weight in insects. Numbers of the elusive birds are dropping in Connecticut by about 4 percent annually, experts say, with the possibility they could all but disappear from the state in a few decades unless the trend is reversed. Other states are reporting dramatic declines, too. In Minnesota, for example, the bird's numbers have dropped about 48 percent in the last four years, according to the Minnesota Audubon Society. And Canadian biologists are reporting a "dramatic" decline in numbers, too, with populations there sinking 30 percent in the last 15 years. Experts note that many other North American insectivore bird species, such as nighthawks Chordeiles minor and whip-poor-wills Caprimulgus vociferus, are also in dramatic decline, which would also point to a lack of food as a possible cause for their difficulties.

A Hawaiian forest bird is being considered by federal officials for the endangered species list.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday it has initiated a year-long review period of a petition to list the iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) as threatened. The petition was submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and Life Net. Wildlife officials say the iiwi, known for their bright scarlet feathers, plays a crucial role as a pollinator of native plant species. 'I'iwis breed and winter mainly in wet or moderately wet forests with 'ohi'a and koa as the dominant trees. 'I'iwis spend most of their time foraging on 'ohi'a trees, feeding primarily on 'ohi'a nectar, but also catching butterflies, moths, and other insects. Mamane nectar is another major part of 'I'iwis' diets, and in some areas, the nectar of the introduced banana poka is also an important food source. Accounts of 'I'iwis from the early 1900s described a coevolutionary relationship between the birds, with their long, decurved bills, and the similarly-shaped, tubular corollas of Hawaiian lobelioids. During the past century, though, many of these lobelioids have become endangered or gone extinct, and 'I'iwis now feed mostly on 'ohi'a flowers, which have open, non-tubular corollas.

I enjoy watching the birds at my feeders, but this was a much more entertaining activity in the mid-1990s when I first began feeding birds. I still remember the first time these large, chunky finches arrived, literally just outside my bedroom window. That was back in November of 1993, but I still recall the incident quite clearly. I was still in bed when I heard some unusual bird sounds that I could not recognize. About a dozen or so large yellow songbirds fought with each other for dominance in the “pecking order” hierarchy at my feeders, which were well-stocked with sunflower seed. I am describing the male Evening Grosbeak. The female is more subdued. These hungry birds quickly emptied my small hanging feeders. For several consecutive winter seasons in the 1990s, I hosted Evening Grosbeaks at my feeders. I last saw an Evening Grosbeak in 2000. These large, noisy and conspicuous finches have simply not visited in the last 12 years. At the start of each winter season, I am hopeful that this might be the year the Evening Grosbeaks return. So far, that’s not been the case.

To blame the badger for the loss of bird species, hedgehogs and bees is ludicrous. Badgers are carriers, not the cause, of disease. Insensitive farming methods and overuse of pesticides has had a catastrophic effect on our wildlife as a whole. I was born and raised on a farm, a farm where hay meadows were full of wild flowers and our wildlife had fantastic habitats. I would like future generations to be able to see the beauty and diversity of all our British wildlife, but it doesn’t look too good at the moment. We still have a little time to try and rectify the damage we have done, but soon it will be too late for some species, and trying to hide behind a creature and blame it for something it hasn’t done doesn’t help the situation.

Letter from A Morris, Oswestry to the Shropshire Star, published 20th January 2012

In North America, the northern pintail Anas acuta breeds from the prairie pothole region of the Upper Midwest across Canada and Alaska. The northern pintail’s North American population has been in a tailspin since the late 1950s. Numbers have dropped from an estimated 10 million in 1957 to around 3 million today. Loss of habitat and changes in agriculture appear to be the most serious threats to North American pintails.

Previously common farmland birds such as the corncrake, curlew and yellowhammer are now perilously close to extinction in Ireland, according to a four-year (2007-2011) study of the island’s bird populations. The corncrake Crex crex, whose distinctive cry used to be the bane of sleepless farmers, has seen its breeding population plummet by more than 80 per cent in the past 20 years alone. Breeding populations of curlew Numenius arquata are following a similar trajectory, down 60 per cent. The yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella has seen its numbers drop by more than 40 per cent in the past 20 years. One farmland bird which has already become extinct here is the corn bunting Miliaria calandra. This bird was recorded in modest numbers in the previous 1988-1991 Atlas survey but has since fallen off the radar.

A “biodiversity crisis”: that’s how some conservationists describe new numbers released this week by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service on so-called white-nose syndrome. According to the agency, 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats have died from the fungal ailment in eastern North America since an epidemic first broke out in upstate New York in 2006. The new numbers are striking, and far higher than the previous bat mortality estimate of one million released in 2009. What is known is that when the fungus gets into a cave or mine where bats are hibernating, 70 to 90 percent of the bats die. In some cases, the mortality rate is 100 percent.
Over the past three years, the disease has spread from 88 sites in nine states in 2009 to at least 200 sites in 16 states today. Jeremy Coleman, the lead white-nose syndrome coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that officials can’t keep up with new site infections and are now working on the assumption that all caves and mines are infected in areas where the ailment has existed for several years.

The Sierra Club, with over 1.3 million members and supporters, calls on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately suspend the registration of the insecticide clothianidin, based on new scientific evidence of extensive contamination in bees and soil. Last week (January 3, 2012) scientists at Purdue University documented major adverse impacts from clothianidin, used as a seed treatment in corn, on honey bee health. The results showed clothianidin present in foraging areas long after treated seed has been planted. The study raises questions about the long term survival of this major pollinator. "This research should nail the coffin lid shut on clothianidin", says Laurel Hopwood, Sierra Club's Chairwoman of the Genetic Engineering Action Team. "Despite numerous attempts by the beekeeping industry and conservation organizations to persuade the EPA to ban clothianidin, the EPA has failed to protect the food supply for the American people."