Watervogels

Im Altkreis Senftenberg sind herbe Verluste bei den Weißstörchen (Ciconia ciconia) zu beklagen. Fast die Hälfte der Brutpaare ist den angestammten Horsten in den zurückliegenden 20 Jahren fern geblieben. Und der Nachwuchs in den Nestern ist viel zu gering, um den Bestand dauerhaft zu sichern. Der Abwärtstrend bei den Weißstörchen ist in Südbrandenburg dramatisch. Im Jahr 1996 sind noch 404 Horstpaare im Süden – also zwischen Königswusterhausen und Ort rand – gezählt worden. Für 2015 stehen 329 Paare zu Buche. Das ist ein Rückgang um 18 Prozent.

ONE of the many pleasures of living in the Yorkshire Dales area is the arrival of Europe’s largest wader bird, the curlew. This exotic-looking visitor is one of the most recognised birds in UK, found in upland and coastal habitats. The curlew’s most distinctive feature is the long down-curving bill (the first part of its Latin name ‘Numenius Arquata’ translates as crescent moon), that it uses to probe the ground for worms and insects. Before you see your first curlew of the season, you will probably hear their distinctive bleating call that gives the bird its common name. The Yorkshire Dales and surrounding areas is home to around 4,000 breeding pairs. This accounts for about six per cent of the total 68,000 pairs breeding in the UK each summer. It came as a shock then, to discover that the curlew has recently been identified as one of the UK’s most rapidly declining breeding bird species. The British Trust for Ornithology have launched a Curlew Appeal to identify the causes of these declines.

This is the analysis of the latest assessment of the Red List of Birds for Finland, published in January. Of the 245 Finnish breeding species evaluated, 87 (36%) are Threatened and 23 (9%) are Near Threatened. Of the Threatened species, 13 (5%) are Critically Endangered, 36 (16%) are Endangered, and 38 (16%) are Vulnerable. The numbers have gone up from the last evaluation: In 2010, 59 species (24%) were Threatened and 30 (13%) were Near Threatened. This time, 110 species (45% of all Finnish breeding species) are on the Red List, up from 89 (about 36%) in 2010 and 72 in 2000. The state of water and wetland birds is the most concerning. Half of the Finnish breeding waterbirds and nearly half of the waders are now threatened. Populations of the Tufted Duck, Garganey, Eurasian Wigeon and Northern Pintail have decreased sharply in the last decades. The situation is alarming not only for conservationists and birdwatchers, but also for hunters. Eleven out of the 17 game waterbirds in Finland are now red-listed because of a decline in population: six are Endangered, four are Vulnerable and one is Near Threatened. The number of species which can be hunted sustainably in Finland has collapsed.

The number of waterbirds that call the eastern third of Australia home has dropped to the second lowest level on record, sounding alarm bells for the health of the wider ecosystem as drought conditions take hold. The annual aerial survey of waterways and wetlands by the University of New South Wales' Centre for Ecosystem Science found the total wetland area studied was the smallest documented, with 60 per cent of wetlands in the survey area dry. The number of breeding waterbirds was also the lowest recorded. "Waterbirds are the canary in the coalmine for the ecosystem because they track all of the processes and organisms that are difficult to track at a large scale," said Richard Kingsford, project leader and director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science. Collectively waterbirds interact with all levels of the ecosystem. Pelicans and cormorants catch fish while herons prefer frogs and smaller fish. Small wading birds such as the sharp-tailed sandpiper opt for further down the foodchain, targeting microscopic invertebrates while swans and coots graze largely on aquatic vegetation.

Seit den 1970er Jahren werden alljährlich an Gewässern wie dem Rheindelta, am österreichischen Ufer des Bodensees, dem Inn, aber auch an Traun- und Attersee, den meisten Kärntner Seen und entlang der Donau und der Mur von Hunderten Freiwilligen Wasservögel gezählt. Von 1970 bis Ende der 1980er Jahre stiegen die Bestände stetig an und erreichten bei knapp 200.000 überwinternden Wasservögeln ihr Maximum. Seither ist der Trend abfallend. "Aktuell sprechen wir von etwa 131.000 Wasservögeln, die hierzulande überwintern", so Norbert Teufelbauer von BirdLife Österreich. Dabei handelt es sich um an die hundert unterschiedliche Vogelarten wie verschiedene Enten, Schwäne, Möwen, Lappentaucher, Seetaucher, Reiher und Rallen.

Karanji Lake (Kannada: ಕಾರಂಜಿ ಕೆರೆ) is a lake located in the city of Mysore in the state of Karnataka, India. Karanji Lake was one of the favourite haunts of migratory birds like herons and egrets. But the number of bird species seems to be on the decline at Karanji Lake. This came to light when avian enthusiasts went to the lake on Sunday for birdwatching. With the assistance of naturalists, the bird enthusiasts managed to locate about 48 bird species in the lake ecosystem. D. Rajkumar of Wildlife Conservation Foundation, who assisted the participants, told The Hindu that there used to be at least 210 bird species in the lake ecosystem during bird watching sessions about six to seven years ago. “Now, the species number is dropping and we could only locate less number of species. Moreover, the number of birds was also less. The same situation prevails even in other lakes located within the city” he said. Mr. Rajkumar said the number of Common Coot had come down drastically. “We used to see them at this time in big numbers in lakes like Karanji and other lakes during the waterfowl census.” Mr. Rajkumar’s views were endorsed by photographer G.S. Ravishankar, who, with two bird enthusiasts Prithvi and Tejas, organised the bird watching session at Karanji Lake under the banner of Mysore Naturalists Ark. “Both the bird number and species had dropped. If birds are not assured of food, they start going away from the water bodies."

The prevalence of several well-known Danish plants and animal species has decreased, reports the national monitoring program Novana. According to the Environment and Food Ministry, wading birds such as the meadow bird and the ruff are among the most threatened bird species in Denmark, and the golden plover has almost completely disappeared. “Approximately 28 percent of the known Danish species are endangered and placed on the red list,” stated Eva Kjer Hansen, the environment and food minister.

Farmland and wetland birds and seabirds in the UK have all seen significant declines in the past few years, official figures show. Populations of UK birds that live on farmland were 54 per cent down on 1970 levels in 2014, but while most of the falls occurred between the late 1970s and the early 1990s due to more intensive farming, there were also declines of 11 per cent between 2008 and 2013. Birds that feed and breed on water and wetlands saw populations fall 12 per cent in the five years from 2008, the statistics published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) showed. Seabirds have also been faring badly in recent years, with populations down by more than a quarter (27 per cent ) since 1986, with most of the decline occurring since 2003. Numbers were down 9 per cent between 2008 and 2013, the figures reveal.

By 2013, the UK breeding farmland bird index had fallen by 55 per cent to a level less than half that of 1970. Four farmland specialists (grey partridge (Perdix perdix), turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur), tree sparrow (Passer montanus) and corn bunting (Miliaria calandra)) have declined by over 85 per cent relative to 1970 levels. In 2013, the UK breeding woodland bird index was 28 per cent lower than its 1970 level. A number of woodland specialists (lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor), lesser redpoll (Acanthis cabaret), spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), tree pipit (Anthus trivialis), wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix), crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) and marsh tit (Poecile palustris)) have declined by over 70 per cent relative to 1970 levels, with willow tit (Parus montanus) and capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) down by more than 90 per cent. The index for wet grassland birds decreased by 53 per cent since 1975. Redshank (Tringa totanus), snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) have declined, by more than 60 per cent, 80 per cent and 95 per cent, respectively. Seabird populations in the UK have fallen by 24 per cent since 1986; this is the lowest level recorded. Blacklegged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) declined by 72 per cent since 1986 and Arctic skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus) declined by 82 percent.