Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire & Species Recovery Action Plans

Red and Amber Lists of Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire have been adopted by Shropshire Ornithological Society. The lists are based on local data and observations collected over the last 35 years, culminating in the publication of The Birds of Shropshire by Liverpool University Press in 2019.

The Policy Statement adopted by the Board, including a brief summary of the criteria used, can be found here.

A detailed explanation of the criteria, how they have been applied, and supporting references, published in the Shropshire Bird Report 2019 is available here.

The Lists highlight those native species that are under greatest threat in the County, and will steer the conservation efforts of SOS and others. There are 32 species on the Red List, and 17 on the Amber List – 49 in total.


The County Red and Amber Lists 

RED LIST
RED LIST (continued)
AMBER LIST
Chaffinch Snipe Black-headed Gull
Common Sandpiper Spotted Flycatcher Corn Bunting
Cuckoo Starling Dipper
Curlew Swift Garden Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler Tawny Owl Great Crested Grebe
Greenfinch Teal Green Woodpecker
Grey Partridge Tree Pipit Grey Wagtail
Kestrel Tree Sparrow Marsh Tit
Kingfisher Turtle Dove Meadow Pipit
Lapwing Wheatear Mistle Thrush
Lesser Black-backed Gull Whinchat Moorhen
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Willow Tit Sand Martin
Long-eared Owl Willow Warbler Shoveler
Merlin Wood Warbler Sparrowhawk
Nightjar Woodcock Treecreeper
Pied Flycatcher Yellow Wagtail
Pochard Yellowhammer

Species Recovery Action Plans

Action Plans are now being prepared, setting out what we can realistically do to help reverse the decline of each species. The ultimate goal of each Plan is maintaining and then restoring its population.

The Policy Statement Development of Species Recovery Action Plans can be found here.

We have identified 23 species for which an Action Plan can make an immediate impact, and we hope to start work on all of them in 2021. They are Black-headed Gull, Corn Bunting, Curlew, Dipper, Grasshopper Warbler, Great Crested Grebe, Kestrel, Lapwing, Long-eared Owl, Marsh Tit, Merlin, Pied Flycatcher, Pochard, Shoveler, Snipe, Swift, Teal, Tree Pipit, Wheatear, Whinchat, Willow Tit, Wood Warbler and Yellow Wagtail.

Species Champions

We are appointing a Champion for each species to draft the species Action Plan, and lead and co-ordinate its implementation. The role of the Champion is more fully described in the Policy Statement Development of Species Recovery Action Plans referred to above.

The species, in List and then alphabetical order, the first 23 followed by the remaining 25, together with the name of the Champion, contact details, and a link to the Action Plan as and when available, are listed below. Most of the Action Plans for the first 23 should be available later in 2021.

We are still looking for Champions for Pochard, Shoveler, Teal and Great Crested Grebe, and would welcome volunteers. If you want to volunteer or want more information about the role, please contact the Working Party chair, Leo Smith.

Fieldwork and Surveying

We want to start this work in the 2021 breeding season, so we also need a lot of help with survey work for all these species. If you want to help, please contact Jonathan Groom (bto.shropshire@gmail.com) with a note of the species and / or sites that you want to help survey.

Finalising the Action Plans is taking longer than we hoped, but it is still intended to start monitoring and survey work in Spring 2021. We would like help with the following, please:-

  • Curlew, in the 10 Community Wildlife Group areas (see Save our Curlews, elsewhere on this website, and ShropsCWGs.org.uk)
  • Wood Warbler – suitable woodland at Brown Clee, Bury Ditches, Candy Valley, Clunton Coppice, Dowles Brook area of the Wyre Forest, Mortimer Forest, The Ercall, The Wrekin and Whitcliffe
  • Willow and Marsh Tit, mainly in March in woodland across the County, using a tape recording to attract a response,
  • Grasshopper Warbler, at sites across the County in late April
  • Swift, locating nest sites, mainly in urban areas. The hour before sunset during June and July is usually most productive. A volunteer to co-ordinate survey work in each town with old buildings would be extremely useful.
  • Lapwing, Kestrel, Cuckoo, Tree Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Wheatear, Whinchat, and other listed species in some areas, also on Community Wildlife Group surveys
  • Kestrel, Cuckoo, Tree Pipit, Wheatear, Whinchat, Grey Wagtail on Long Mynd Breeding Bird Surveys
  • Corn Bunting and Yellow Wagtail, in north Shropshire.
  • A survey of all listed species on each of the larger SWT reserves – if you live near one of these reserves, and visit it regularly, this might be ideal for you.

Every member can help

Casual records can add a lot to our knowledge, so we hope all members of SOS, and other birders, will seek out these species, and submit breeding season reports to the County Recorder, John Martin (soscountyrecorder@gmail.com). They should include counts and evidence of breeding behaviour. If you know of breeding sites for these species, in 2020 or in previous years, please let us know.

Co-ordination of the Project

The work will be the responsibility of the SOS Conservation Sub-committee, and will be carried out by a dedicated “Species Recovery Working Party”. Members of the Working Party will be Leo Smith (Co-ordinator), Graham Walker (Chair of Conservation Subcommittee), those members of Conservation Subcommittee who wish to join (Jonathan Groom and Gerry Thomas have opted in), and up to four Species Champions (including Bob Harris and Martin George, so far).  All Species Champions will be able to contribute to the Action Plans, and the whole project.

Please help with this important project

Leo Smith
SOS Species Recovery Working Party
leo@leosmith.org.uk

Postscript

The journal British Birds has acknowledged the importance of the county Red and Amber list project in its News and Comment feature in British Birds 114, February 2021, 67–71. To read this news article, link here for page 1 and page 2.


Species Champions & Action Plans

The following table is a work in progress. As Species Champions are appointed for each bird on the Shrophire Red and Amber Lists, their names will be added to Column 3 in the table below. Column 4 provides an email address for that person to be used in connection with the Red/Amber List Species Recovery project. These are set up as links so selecting an address will open your mailer with the address in the ‘To:’ header. Finally, the right-hand column shows whether an Action Plan has yet been developed for that species. If so, a document icon appears in this column. This too is a link and can be selected to take you to the Action Plan.

SPECIES

STATUS

SOS SPECIES CHAMPION

EMAIL ADDRESS OF SPECIES CHAMPION

LINK TO ACTION PLAN

Curlew

Red List

Leo Smith Curlew@shropshirebirds.co.uk
Grasshopper Warbler

Red List

Jonathan Groom GrasshopperWarbler@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Kestrel

Red List

Raptor Group Kestrel@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Lapwing

Red List

Leo Smith Lapwing@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Lesser Black-backed Gull

Red List

Tom Lowe LB-bG@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Long-eared Owl

Red List

Gerry Thomas Long-earedOwl@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Merlin

Red List

Raptor Group Merlin@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Pied Flycatcher

Red List

Bob Harris PiedFlycatcher@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Pochard

Red List

  Pochard@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Snipe

Red List

Leo Smith Snipe@shropshirebirds.co.uk
Swift

Red List

Carol Wood
Swift@shropshirebirds.co.uk
Teal

Red List

Teal@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Tree Pipit

Red List

Leo Smith TreePipit@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Wheatear

Red List

Leo Smith Wheatear@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Whinchat

Red List

Leo Smith Whinchat@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Willow Tit

Red List

Jonathan Groom WillowTit@shropshirebirds.co.uk
Wood Warbler

Red List

Andrew Cristinacce WoodWarbler@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Black-headed Gull

Amber List

Gerry Thomas Black-headedGull@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Corn Bunting

Amber List

Glenn Bishton CornBunting@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Dipper

Amber List

Leo Smith Dipper@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Great Crested Grebe

Amber List

John Tucker GreatCrestedGrebe@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Marsh Tit

Amber List

Jonathan Groom MarshTit@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Shoveler

Amber List

  Shoveler@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Yellow Wagtail

Amber List

 Glenn Bishton
YellowWagtail@shropshirebirds.co.uk  
Chaffinch

Red List

     
Common Sandpiper

Red List

     
Cuckoo

Red List

     
Greenfinch

Red List

     
Grey Partridge

Red List

     
Kingfisher

Red List

     
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Red List

     
Nightjar

Red List

     
Spotted Flycatcher

Red List

     
Starling

Red List

     
Tawny Owl

Red List

Tree Sparrow

Red List

     
Turtle Dove

Red List

     
Willow Warbler

Red List

     
Woodcock

Red List

     
Garden Warbler

Amber List

     
Green Woodpecker

Amber List

     
Grey Wagtail

Amber List

     
Meadow Pipit

Amber List

     
Mistle Thrush

Amber List

     
Moorhen

Amber List

     
Sand Martin

Amber List

     
Sparrowhawk

Amber List

     
Treecreeper

Amber List

     
Yellowhammer

Amber List

     

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Page updated: 18/05/2022