Sunday 15 December 2013
Willow Tit - an appeal.....
I'm sure that everyone is aware that Willow Tit is getting harder to find in the Barnsley area (although ask anyone who has done a Birdrace and they'll tell you it was never easy) and they are suffering a massive decline nationwide.The RSPB have recently flagged this species as being in big trouble in the UK and are about to undertake research in our part of the country to try to establish what can be done to help. To aid this, can contributors to this blog please include sightings of Willow Tit in their postings to help understand where the species is still occurring, in particular where birds are still in territories. We need to do all we can to stop Willow Tit following Turtle Dove, Twite and Corn Bunting which no longer breed in the Barnsley area.
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3 comments:
We have a fairly stable average of 8 pairs a year breeding at Wintersett, with lows of 5 pairs and an exceptional count of 15 pairs in 2010. Having said that, they are never easy to find 'on demand' as you say.
One recommendation would be if Birch trees were cut at about a metre height from the ground when clearing scrub, which would fairly quickly provide suitable nest sites as they decay.
It would be a great shame if we lost this species along with other recent ones.
Graham, We average at least 2 pairs per year, which is more or less what we have always had at Carlton Marsh.
2 ringed so far this year.
At least 1 pair at Green Moor and daily visitors to the feeders.
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