Third Draft
For Comment
Changes since v2 are shown in magenta text
Priority Bird Species
The following text should be read in conjunction with this tabular data.
Introduction
The government has set legally binding targets to:
- Halt the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030
- Increase species abundance by the end of 2042 so that is greater than in 2022 and at least 10% greater than in 2030
- Reduce the risk of species’ extinction by 2042, when compared to the risk of species’ extinction in 2022
A Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) is intended to be a critical new tool for driving the national ambition to increase species abundance and reduce risk of species extinctions. Nationally, there will be 48 LNRSs, including one for Shropshire (including Telford and Wrekin).
The LNRS will describe opportunities, set priorities, and propose potential measures for the recovery and enhancement of species.
Species Recovery within Local Nature Recovery Strategies: Advice for Responsible Authorities (Version 1: August 2023) has been issued by Natural England. It sets out an approach to help responsible authorities (RAs) achieve this goal in a consistent way. The approach involves two broad stages: identifying threatened and other locally significant species relevant to the strategy area (the “Long List”), and determining which of these species should be prioritised for recovery action (the “Short List”).
Species to be considered for inclusion in the Long List are
- Any native species which have been assessed as “Red List: Threatened” against International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria (see https://www.iucnredlist.org/)
- Other native species that have been identified as “Threatened” by local Conservation Organisations
A draft paper, “Shropshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy: Priority Bird Species (v2)” was sent for comment to Community Wildlife Groups and stakeholders (Shropshire Ornithological Society (SOS) and Royal Society Protection of Birds (RSPB)), and this updated version incorporates the comments received by the deadline of 14 October. It is the penultimate stage in producing the “Long List” of Bird Species.
Priority Bird Species
The UK was home to 73 million fewer birds in 2023 than it was in 1970, according to research from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). This staggering number – a decline of almost a third – is almost impossible to comprehend, but it indicates the scale of the challenge for LNRSs.
Table 1 includes all the native bird species which have declined substantially, which occur in Shropshire, and have been
- Red listed by IUCN, in categories CR (Critically endangered), EN (Endangered), VU (Vulnerable) or NT (Near threatene
- Listed as species of principal importance in England under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006. Some wild birds are listed as rare and most threatened species under this Act, and local Planning Authorities must have regard for their conservation as part of planning decisions. Restoring the populations of the S41 species are the Government’s biodiversity targets, enshrined in international treaties.
- Included in the Red and Amber Lists of Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire, published by SOS in 2020. The lists highlight those native species that are under greatest threat in the County. It is 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 approach largely follows that used to produce the national lists published in Birds of Conservation Concern 4 in 2015. The County and national lists are complementary, and both will be used to determine local conservation priorities. Three main criteria have been used to select the species listed:
- Disappearance from large parts of the County (from more than 50% of the survey squares they occupied in 1985-90, to qualify for the Red list, and from more than 25% for the Amber list)
- Big reductions in the County population (by more than 50% to qualify for the Red list, and 25% for the Amber list, over the same period)
- The population is vulnerable, because it only breeds at a few sites.
A detailed explanation of the criteria, how they have been applied, and supporting references, can be found in a paper in the Shropshire Bird Report 2019.
- Listed in the Shropshire Biodiversity Action Plan (SBAP), launched in 2002. Some species had their own Action Plan (shown as “Species AP” in Table 1), but others were listed under the Farmland Birds Action Plan (shown as “Farmland AP” in Table 1. The Action Plans are now out of date, but can still be found on the Shropshire Council website. These species had already declined substantially by 1990 (before the baseline year for the SOS Red and Amber Lists, so they did not qualify for inclusion on those lists, but must be included in the LNRS.
- Included amongst the 12 Species Action Plans, including four bird species, Dipper, Snipe, Tree Pipit and Willow Tit, published by the Stepping Stones project (see https://middlemarchescommunitylandtrust.org.uk/info-sheets/ Stepping Stones is a nature conservation programme covering over 200km² in the Shropshire Hills. It is creating more bigger and better spaces for wildlife, and linking them with wildlife ‘corridors’. The project is led by the National Trust but involves a number of partners, including The Wildlife Trusts, Natural England and Shropshire Hills National Landscape.
- Surveyed by Community Wildlife Groups. The first group, the Upper Onny, started to survey disappearing Lapwing, Curlew and Skylark in 2004, and the network of 10 groups was complete by 2018 (see https://www.shropscwgs.org.uk/). All groups monitor Lapwing and Curlew. The Other Target Species were revised in 2024, and there are now five main target species (MT), Cuckoo, Kestrel and Red Kite, in addition to Lapwing and Curlew, and a list of other target species (OT), which are now no longer included in CWG Annual Reports. Members are now encouraged to submit records of these species, and any others seen on surveys, to BTO BirdTrack.
Table 1 then includes the Status and Abundance of these species in 2014, taken from The Birds of Shropshire, using Status and Abundance Definitions set out in Appendix 2, together with the population estimate at that time; the national Red, Amber and Green list status defined in The status of our bird populations:BoCC5 and IUCN2 (Stanbury et al 2021); whether the species population in Shropshire is nationally or regionally important, and whether there is hard evidence for a change in status, in the period 2015-2023 NB the last two columns in Table 1 are incomplete).
Priority has been given to species that currently breed in the County, set out in Section 1, as these must be the species that can be most effectively helped by the LNRS. Section 2 lists species that no longer breed, although they have been listed by IUCN or S.41, and Section 3 includes all species that occur in the County, and are on the IUCN Red list, but which are only Passage Migrants or Winter Visitors (or both), and Vagrants. As such, it is unlikely that specific actions can be undertaken in the County that will help the species recover.
Shropshire Ornithological Society (SOS), the pre-eminent bird conservation organisation in the County since 1955, and the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds (RSPB), both support the approach adopted in this paper, to prioritise the species on the SOS Red and Amber Lists of Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire, based on analysis of the species accounts and other data in The Birds of Shropshire, published by Liverpool University Press in 2019.
Additions to the Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire
Firstly, the national BTO/RSPB/JNCC Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) started in 1994. BTO can produce statistically valid population trends at County level for species that are recorded on an average of at least 30 squares per year. There are Shropshire BBS trend graphs for 34 of the most common species, including 11 of the threated species listed in Table 1. These trend graphs and percentage change figures for the County need to be recalculated, starting with a baseline of 1997, since when more than 50 squares have been surveyed each year (there were less than 20 squares surveyed in the years 1994-96, making the baseline index unrepresentative). This recalculation is underway. The results may lead to some changes in the priority species in Table 1. In particular, it will allow a review of the SOS Red and Amber lists, and may mean that some species are added to the Amber list for the first time (House Martin and Swallow, and perhaps Collared Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit and House Sparrow), and move Yellowhammer from the Amber to the Red List. This process will be complete before the need to finalise the Long List for the LNRS. The support of the BTO in helping facilitate the LNRS in this way is gratefully acknowledged.
Secondly, local monitoring has identified three species that should be added to the County Red List
- Red Grouse, which has declined by more than 50% since 2018, probably mainly due to habitat loss (heather beetle and encroachment of bracken, and bad weather affecting productivity in several breeding seasons). The LNRS must include a habitat management plan for heathland management and restoration.
- Firecrest, which has become established as a regular breeding species over the last 10 years. That should benefit from improved woodland management, and does not require any additional measures
- Herring Gull, which has recently become established, nesting on rooftops in Shrewsbury, together with Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
A Farmland Bird Index for Shropshire
There are a number of farmland species that are in decline, but which do not occur in sufficient BBS survey squares to produce a statistically valid trend graph As indicated above, four are farmland seed eating birds that were identified as priorities in the SBAP, drawn up in 2002. These species (Corn Bunting, Linnet, Reed Bunting, and Tree Sparrow) are on the national Red List (BoCC5), but are not all on the County Red List because their decline mainly occurred before our baseline year of 1990.
There are then five other species (Grey Partridge, Kestrel, Lapwing, Turtle Dove and Yellow Wagtail) that are on the National Farmland Bird Index (NFBI) and on County Red or Amber lists (BBoCCS) that are not individually found in sufficient squares to generate a BBS trend.
BTO considers that it would be possible to produce a statistically valid trend graph for some or all of these species – a Farmland Bird Index for Shropshire. This would facilitate monitoring the population trend for farmland birds, a key requirement for the implementation of the LNRS, and most of the others. However, BTO do not have the resources to produce such an index at present. The Shropshire LNRS team should raise this will colleagues across the country, to help BTO make the case to JNCC and Defra.
The proposed LNRS Long List
During the consultation, only one species was proposed for inclusion in the Long List, Redstart. It is on the national Amber List, and the Shropshire population is regionally important. There is no hard evidence of population change in the County, but it declined by 12% in England, and 30% in Wales, over the 10-year period 2012-22. It has been added to the Long List.
Two species have been removed from Table1. Section 1, Hawfinch and Turtle Dove, as they no longer breed here. They are included in Section 2. Species No Longer Breeding in the Table.
It was suggested that Red Kite be retained on the Long List, in spite of its rapid population increase, because it is charismatic and popular, and will therefore help with the promotion of the LNRS. This is a matter for the steering group. In general, only endangered species are included on the Long List.
Trend Graphs are still awaited from BTO to assess whether or not the species listed in the penultimate paragraph of p3 should be added to the list.
Otherwise the list of species in Table 1 is unchanged from the version sent out for consultation.
Towards a Short List, and Strategy for Recovery
Now the County LNRS “Long List” has been almost finalised, as set out in the revised Table 1, it is necessary to draw up the “Short List”.
Several species need specific programmes of conservation, because they will not benefit sufficiently from generalised improvements to habitats. These species, which are all candidate species for the Short List, are
- Curlew
- Dipper
- Pied Flycatcher
- Snipe
- Swift
- Tree Pipit
- Wheatear
- Whinchat
- Willow Tit
Most species on the Long List will benefit from a sustained programme of farmland improvement, targeted at improving wildlife habitats rather than agricultural output. Others will benefit from changes to woodland management. Similar “assemblages” will benefit from other improvements in specific habitats, as set out below.
Candidates for the shortlist are identified in Table 1.
The specific habitats, and species that would become less threatened as a result of the proposed improvements to them, are also shown in Table 1, and discussed below.
Additions have been made to several sections, and two sections have been added (Scrub/heath mosaic (ffridd) and Reduce disturbance by humans)
i. Farmland
Farming dominates land use in the County, taking up over 80% of the land, and many of the threatened species have been reduced by agricultural intensification since the early 1970s. The greatest potential for species recovery lies in making farmland a less hostile environment.
Although the habitat of each of the Red and Amber List species listed as benefiting from a Farmland Bird Assemblage Recovery Plan are different, they would all benefit to a greater or lesser extent from
- Planting more hedgerows, and increasing the width, height and species diversity of those that remain.
- Planting native trees in the hedgerows, to improve their function as wildlife corridors for woodland species.
- Creating ponds, scrapes and boggy areas.
On arable land, far more biodiversity, including priority bird species, would be provided by:-
- Increasing the size and plant diversity of field margins, which should not be used as tracks by farm vehicles. They should be allowed to grow wild, to provide habitat for voles and mice, providing food for Barn Owl and Kestrel. Seeds from plants in the margins will increase the food supply for birds, and they will also provide invertebrate food.
- Reduction of use of herbicides and pesticides. Many species will have any increase in food supplying, including those dependent on “aerial plankton”: Swift, Swallow and House Martin.
- reduction of use of inorganic fertilisers (and replacing them with natural ones instead, if necessary), to help improve soil heath and increase invertebrates
- Increasing the proportion of spring barley, and over-winter stubbles, will directly benefit several species, specifically Lapwing, still in catastrophic decline, and Corn Bunting, which is regionally important. The winter “hunger gap” of the seed eating birds will be reduced.
- Reverting silage crops to single late cut hay meadows
- Reintroducing Set-aside, which took a proportion of arable land out of production. It operated as part of the EEC Common Agricultural Policy up until 2007. The BBS graphs for several species show this period as a population high point, followed by a steep decline.
On pasture land, sheep stocking levels should be reduced, to allow the regeneration of diverse swards with more invertebrates and plants.
Wormers passing through sheep and cattle (anthelmintics, particularly ivermectins) ensure that chemicals designed to kill invertebrates are deposited on the land in large quantities. Dung beetles have largely disappeared as a result, but less conspicuous invertebrates will have been equally reduced.
To meet the Government’s 30×30 target (In 2020, the government committed to protecting 30% of the UK’s land for biodiversity by 2030), consideration should be given to introducing set-aside for non-arable land.
ii. Woodland
Shropshire is well wooded, with 8.5% of the land covered by woods of at least 0.1ha in 2014 (58% broadleaved, 29% conifer, 9% mixed, 3% miscellaneous). Forestry Commission owns 16%, and the other 84% is in different, mainly private, ownership. Several species, identified in Table 1, would benefit from targeted improvements to woodland. These species generally occupy different habitat niches, and need different actions to improve those habitats.
- Most of the species on the Long List are in decline because of a loss of invertebrate food, so specific actions to increase that (including over woodland, as well as in it).
- Rewetting the woodland floor (including blocking drains and putting “leaky dams” in small watercourses) is necessary for Willow Tit and Woodcock, and would help most other species as well, as wet ground usually supports a higher density of invertebrates.
- Woodlands along the banks of rivers and streams should be managed to increase the supply of invertebrates for Pied Flycatcher (regionally important in Shropshire).
- Targeted removal of scrub (understorey) would help Wood Warbler (also regionally important in Shropshire).
- Opening up plantations planted on heather moorland would increase habitat for Nightjar
- Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has probably suffered the most catastrophic decline of all, and they only nest in dead trees or dead branches on living trees. An increase in the volume of deadwood is essential, but also action to stop the tendency to tidy up, which usually involves removing dead wood.
- Scattered trees on clearfell is ideal habitat for Tree Pipit, which will also benefit from “edge management”, if that means a few scattered trees on the edge of woodland.
- Funding will be scarce, so action to Promote the use of woodland funding opportunities should be much more explicit, targeted at the Nature Recovery priorities, and will not be used for planting on the habitats of priority species of bird or other taxa, or for planting coniferous (or any other) monocultures.
- Improved monitoring and management is essential to ensure all priority species start to increase, as a result of habitat improvements
iii. Rivers and watercourses
Diffuse pollution, particularly run-off from agricultural land and sewage works, should be controlled. This would increase the numbers of fish and larvae, and benefit several species of water-bird, including Kingfisher. It would also increase invertebrates near the rivers, benefiting Grey Wagtail and Pied Flycatcher.
Flash flooding is a threat to Dipper (reduced feeding opportunities), and birds that nest on shingle in the river bed, such as Common Sandpiper.
iv. Rewetting, particularly peatland, and Rush Management
Farmland has been systematically drained over many centuries, but particularly from the 1970s onwards, which has contributed to the decline of several species listed in Table 1. A programme of blocking drains and drainage channels, and removing excess rushes, would benefit Curlew, Snipe and Reed Bunting, among others.
v. Heathland Restoration
Whinchat is on the SOS Red List, and the recent decline in the Red Grouse population has resulted in it being added to the Red List. Long Mynd is the only site where Whinchat now breed regularly, and it holds the large majority of the Red grouse population (the only other, smaller, population is on The Stiperstones). Whinchat nest primarily in bilberry heath mosaic, and Grouse are totally dependent on heather.
The Long Mynd is only one of two SSSIs in the County designated for its birds (the Upland Bird Assemblage), but it no longer meets the SSSI qualification criteria. The most recent condition assessments of the various sections of the SSSI, mainly more than 10 years ago, concluded it was “Unfavourable – Recovering”. Natural England are due to undertake a new condition assessment of the SSSI in the next year or so, but it is not clear yet whether it will recommend, or insist on, habitat and other improvements to ensure the recovery of these two species, and the other declining species in the Upland Bird assemblage. The National Trust, as landowner, must be encouraged to improve the area and quality of heathland for Red Grouse, and bilberry heath mosaic for Whinchat, through its Long Mynd Conservation Plan.
vi. Scrub/heath mosaic (ffridd)
These are the areas between the enclosed more intensively managed lower fields and the unenclosed hill and moorland, diverse habitats including some or all of the following; scattered trees and small woodlands, bracken, heather and bilberry heath, wet and dry unimproved grassland, bog, scree and rock. It is a particularly important and vulnerable habitat in the Shropshire Hills, but it has benefitted very little from conservation action to date. Bracken is an important part of the habitat, but each site needs to be assessed to consider if it is becoming too dominant. Stocking levels also need to be considered – if levels are too high it becomes grassland and too low it becomes woodland.
Many of the Long List species rely upon it, and it has only survived up to now because it is usually on steep slopes that are difficult to ‘improve’ for agriculture. These areas would benefit from both heathland creation and rewetting. It is likely however that these ffridd areas will now be targeted for tree planting for carbon/monetary reasons, with consequent losses of key species. These threats to this habitat should be resisted through LNRS.
vii. Houses, gardens and the Built Environment
Suburban gardens now support more birds than farmland, and an LNRS campaign to encourage householders to feed the birds on the LNRS target list, maintain good hygiene around feeders to minimise disease, and put up nest boxes, will provide an opportunity to engage with local residents to “do their bit” to support the wider aims and targets of LNRS.
Swifts mainly nest in the roof-space of older houses, and are a special case, in that they can be protected to some extent through the Planning system, if Swift groups identify the buildings they inhabit. House Martins, too, frequently have their nests deliberately destroyed by unsympathetic householders.
Each Parish Council should be encouraged to actively support these parts of the LNRS in their own area, and monitor the populations of priority species.
viii. Reduce disturbance by humans
The British/NW European Lesser Black-backed Gull roost count threshold for international importance is 5500. At Ellesmere, counts have been over 8000 for at least the last three consecutive years in autumn, but roosting gulls are regularly disturbed by human activity – boats and paddle-boarders. A management plan for the Mere is needed to reduce the disturbance. Such a plan would also improve the habitat for breeding Great-crested Grebe.
Other important wildlife sites suffer from human disturbance, but numbers of tourists are increasing, and being actively encouraged. The LNRS should seek to get this danger recognised and mitigated in the Shropshire Destination Management Plan and the Shropshire Hills Sustainable Tourism Strategy and Action Plan.
The Special Case of Curlew
The Birds of Shropshire reported that, between 1990 and 2013, the County Curlew population declined by 77%, from an estimated 700 pairs to 160 pairs. Bird Atlas work in 2008-13 showed they had disappeared from 62% of tetrads where they had been found in the earlier 1985-90 bird Atlas. Continued population monitoring by 10 Community Wildlife Groups has shown a continuing decline of about 35% since 2013, and the county population is now down to an estimated 100 – 110 breeding pairs. At the current rate of decline, the County population will halve in 12 years, and be extinct in 24.
Curlew is “the most important bird conservation priority in the UK” (Brown et al, 2015) as we have a special responsibility because the UK breeding population is estimated at 28% of the European Population, and 18-27% of the World Population.
The Shropshire Curlew population is nationally and regionally important. There are an estimated 500 pairs of Curlew left in the south of England (south of a line from the Dee estuary to The Wash). The International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) criteria include maintaining the range of threatened species, as well as their populations. The Shropshire population is over 20% of that in southern England.
The Shropshire Ornithological Society Save our Curlews campaign has shown that predation of nests and chicks is now the main driving force of the decline. As ground-nesting birds, mainly in farmed grassland, Curlews are vulnerable to agricultural operations, but in practice they are predated before such operations can destroy nests or chicks. Therefore, habitat improvements (unless they include reducing the number of predators at the landscape scale) will not, in themselves, achieve a reversal of the Curlew decline. Reports showing the results of SOS project work can be found on the SOS website https://www.shropshirebirds.com/index/bird-conservation/save-our-curlews/
Curlew is on the Red List of Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire, but it is a special case, as habitat improvements will not help reverse the decline (although they will be needed, if predation pressure is reduced).
The increase in predator pressure in modern times is attributed to the 60 million gamebirds released into the British countryside each year, estimated at over 2,000,000 in Shropshire alone in 2018 alone. There is no evidence that predator control at a local or estate level is effective. It just creates a vacuum, and more predators move in to compete for the territory. If Curlew is to be saved from local extinction, efforts must be made through the LNRS to reduce gamebird release.
Conclusion
Readers are invited to comment on
- candidates for the Short List (including the grouping of species into assemblages)
- programmes of conservation action that would benefit species on the Long List and candidates for the Short List
The deadline for comments and proposals, to fit in with the timetable for preparing the LNRS, is 9.00am on Monday 11 November. Comments should be sent by email to leo@leosmith.org.uk
References
- The Birds of Shropshire (Smith 2019) Liverpool University Press
- The status of our bird populations:BoCC5 and IUCN2 (Stanbury et al 2021) British Birds 114 December 2021 pp748-755
- Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern in Shropshire (The Shropshire Bird Report 2019)
