Changes in the Bird Population of Suffolk, 1900-1950

5

ORNITHOLOGICAL

SECTION.

THE first two annual Suffolk Bird Reports, published by this Section, have met with a most encouraging reception from bird watchers in, and outside, the county. The chief work of the Section is necessarily devoted to individual field work from which the Bird Report springs, although a joint meeting with the British Trust for Ornithology is being held this autumn. The Bird Report for 1952 will appear in the Transactions to be published in the middle of next year. All records should be sent to the Editor as before, by the end of January, 1953, if possible.

P. R.

WESTALL,

Section Secretary and Editor.

CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK, 1900- 1950.

BY A. C. C.

HERVEY.

Now that the first annual Suffolk Bird Report, conveniently brought out by the Suffolk Naturalists' Society for the year 1950, serves to some extent to bring the work of Dr. C. B. Ticehurst in his Birds of Suffolk (1932) up-to-date, the time seems appropriate to survey the changes in our county bird population during the half-century recently completed. Anyone familiar with the work of Dr. Ticehurst who studies the Suffolk Bird Report for 1950 cannot fail to be Struck by the changes in our avifauna which have occurred in the short space of only eighteen years. But we are living in a period of rapid and even revolutionary change in almost every sphere of life. It was only to be expected that such changes would affect our wild life also.

T h e causes of many of these changes are obvious. The industrial revolution vastly increased the industrial areas and population. The Enclosure Acts, between 1760 and 1843, and the era of large country estates and close game-preserving, bringing in, as they did, the familiar nineteenth-century chequer-pattern landscape of numerous high and broad hedges, woodland coverts and plantations, and the war upon all " birds of p r e y " and other " vermin," must have greatly increased the numbers of hedgerow and woodland birds generally. On the other hand, there was the continued draining of fen and marsh, the great

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CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

increase in the numbers and power of the shot-gun, the craze for stuffed birds and similar " trophies," the rise of the fashion for plumage in millinery, the general shooting at sight of all rare or handsome birds. Towards the end of the Century a reaction set in, producing the Protection of Sea-birds Act, 1869, the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880 (and later the Plumage Act, 1921) and the beginnings of a more humane and considerate attitude.

Babington remarked (1884) that already a number of species had benefited from the Acts. So early as 1886 he could write, of the Breck : " This great district was once much more open than it is at present, now that fir plantations have been largely introduced." And, " the increasing inroads of civilization upon the Breck district have been disastrous indeed to its ornithology."

Again, " the woods and plantations in the county are almost entirely of modern growth, some timber is also scattered about, but trees of all kinds are diminishing in many parts and perhaps generally . . . Of marshland there is now, for the most part, no great quantity, and much fen has entirely disappeared . . . T h e fields are sometimes very large, and are divided by hedges which are no longer of the same height or breadth as formerly. On some roadsides, however, high hedges are still to be seen." He also comments on the diminution of lakes and meres.

I n the present Century the g r o w t h of h u m a n p o p u l a t i o n

has

continued, and, with the social changes levelling the Standard of living, and revolution in the means of travel and communication, the spawning and sprawling of the towns Over half the countryside.

There are the effects of world warfare, hot and cold, including the neglect of game-preserving during the Great Wars and its only partial return since ; the recent emphasis upon grain-crops rather than stock; new farming methods, new drainage and forestry Operations, continued eradication of furze, heather and hedgerow, the pollution of our seas and rivers, and other changes producing great water-reservoirs, sewage-farms, gravel-pits.

There is also the growth of interest, the development of ornithological study and research, and of protective organisations and measures, especially, in recent years, of reserves and sanctuaries— though far more needs to be done in this direction. There is the replacement, to a large extent, of the gun by the binocular, the camera and the notebook. T h e changes which an attempt will now be made to summarise can in most cases be confidently attributed to one or more of the causes already outlined. But in other cases they are obscure. It is important that every possible effort should be made to clear up these obscurities.

U p to 1924 there was no ornithological work specifically on East Anglia. Information could only be gleaned from general ornithologies, or from stray references in books on sport, country life, travel and the like. T h u s we have the well-known reference

CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

7

of Sir Thomas Browne, about 1668, to the effect that spoonbills nested upon the tops of high trees at Trimley in Suffolk. But then we have the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds, with Remarks,

by Sheppard and Whitear, 1824-5, invaluable, though it does not always State whether the entries refer to Norfolk, to Suffolk, or to both. They enumerate 217 species. Next comes the List of Birds rarely and occasionally met with in the County of Suffolk,

by T . M. Spalding, of Westleton, published in Suckling's History of Suffolk, Vol. I, 1846, enumerating 116 species, omitting the commoner ones. In 1870 Dr. N. F. Hele published his Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh, Suffolk, principally ornithological.

Churchill Babington, Rector of Cockfield, published his Birds of Suff olk in 1884-6. T h e n comes The Birds of Suff olk, by Dr. C. B. Ticehurst, 1932, still the Standard work, and the last until the Suff olk Bird Report for 1950. In addition I have used the Handbook of British Birds, 1945 edition ; Changes in Status among British Breeding Birds, by W. B. Alexander and D. Lack, 1944, published in British Birds, Vol. X X X V I I I ; and James Fisher's Bird Preservation, 1951, with, as an appendix, a Classification of the British breeding birds, by population-trends, 1900-1949 inclusive, based to a considerable extent on the work of Alexander and Lack. Finally I have my own recollections, and some records, relating mainly to the earlier years of the period and, again, to its last five years. For the earlier period they refer mainly to the country on either side of the Orwell estuary.

It is not possible, in the available space, to give detailed references in every case. I have kept to the Classification and order of the Handbook, except that I have brought all the predatory birds together at the beginning. I have omitted reference to species for which no adequate or decisive evidence of change of status exists. T h e numbers are those of the Handbook.

271. MARSH HARRIER, Circus aeruginosus. Mr. Fisher records " noticeable decrease." It would appear that he has followed Alexander and Lack without regard to the fact that they are referring to the whole historical period of ornithological recording, and not merely to the present Century. All the local evidence is against him. T h e Handbook states : " A very few breed in Norfolk and Suffolk, otherwise vagrant." Hele has no record at all. Babington cannot record a single nest in Suffolk. Ticehurst writes : " I cannot find any reference which would suggest it has bred in Suffolk during the last hundred years." T h e fact seems to be that it had long ceased to breed in Suffolk, but during the latter part of our period, however precariously, it has again begun to do so.

272.

M O N T A G U ' S HARRIER, Circus pygargus.

In spite of its courageous efforts to remain a Suffolk breeding bird, its status has been precarious, on account of continued persecution, throughout our period.

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CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

249. L I T T L E O W L , Athene noctua. Only began to penetrate into Suffolk as a breeding bird about 1902. Helped by the war, it had colonised the whole county and was common almost everywhere by 1918 and remains so.

250. LONC-EARED O W L , Asio otus. A Suffolk mystery at present. Babington reported " great multiplication" in the Breck, and that it appeared to be " the only bird of prey whose numbers have increased of late years." Ticehurst writes : " I think commoner and more generally distributed than the Tawny Owl. The owl of the heathlands and brecks." Yet S.B.R., 1950, has only 2-3 records, none of a nest.

253.

T A W N Y O W L , Strix aluco.

Babington and Ticehurst both State " much less common than Barn Owl," though, adds Ticehurst, " numbers increased during the (1914-18) war."

It is clear that since then it has become our dominant owl.

254/5.

BARN O W L , Tyto alba. Ticehurst calls it the most generally distributed and commonest of the owls. Has evidently declined, from what cause is not clear. But my Observation is that its decline is apt to be exaggerated.

3.

CARRION CROW, Corvus corone. Babington reported formerly fairly common, now rare. Stated by Ticehurst to be virtually extinct by 1914, but later " a few pairs managed to breed."

S.B.R. states " apparently on the increase." I never saw a Carrion Crow in Suffolk tili after 1914. Now it is common everywhere.

4.

ROOK, Corvus frugilegus.

Abundant, has increased and is increasing, apparently by immigration as well as breeding.

5. JACKDAW, Corvus monedula. T h e same remarks apply.

My Observation is that its increase is proportionately greater than that of the rook.

7.

M A G P I E , Pica pica.

Hele, Babington, Ticehurst all report " almost extinct," Ticehurst adding " a pair or two have survived or wandered in during the (1914-19) war." I never saw a Magpie in Suffolk, not only before 1914 but not even before 1939. My astonishment at seeing them everywhere on return to Suffolk in 1946 may be imagined. Keepers have somewhat reduced them since then.

11. JAY, Garrulus glandarius. Keepers have never succeeded in reducing it to the same extent as they did the Carrion Crow and Magpie. Increased greatly during the wars, and appears well able to hold its own.

CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

9

20. G O L D F I N C H , Carduelis carduelis. Scarce in early years of the Century, but " nowadays " (Ticehurst, 1932) " not uncommon throughout the county, even entering and nesting in the outskirts of towns." I never saw a Goldfinch in Suffolk before 1914. Now common everywhere. Greatly benefited from protective legislation and from increase of weeds ; also from remarkable adaptation to suburban life for the breeding season, very noticeable in, e.g., Felixstowe.

30. L I N N E T , Carduelis cannabina. Mixed status makes accurate assessment difficult. Mr. Fisher records " noticeable increase " as breeding species, which is not true of Suffolk. It is not a very common species in highly cultivated inland areas. In many areas the destruction of gorse has certainly reduced it as a breeding species, as I can State from personal knowledge.

69.

WOODLARK, Lullula arborea. Alexander and Lack, followed

by Fisher, report marked decrease in the country generally.

All Suffolk evidence is of marked increase and extension of ränge. Obviously the planting of conifer and other tree-belts as wind-breaks in our coastal area and in the Breck, and even partial afforestation, has favoured the woodlark, which needs the juxtaposition of such trees with areas of rough herbage.

112. BEARDED T I T , Panurus biarmicus. The Suffolk evidence is that it was becoming scarcer and scarcer throughout the nineteenth Century, so that " in 1900 when J. H. Gurney summarised the history of this bird he thought that it was nearly extinct in our county ; since then it has been certainly on the increase and it never really quite died o u t " (Ticehurst, 1932). The 1946-7 winter as nearly as possible exterminated it in East Anglia, and consequently in Britain, since when its remarkable recovery, especially in Suffolk, is well known. Mr. Fisher declares for a " noticeable decrease " during the half-century, in which he is mistaken.

164. LESSER WHITETHROAT, Sylvia carruca. The Rev. J. Tuck, a correspondent of Babington and Ticehurst, estimated the proportion as one pair of Lesser to ten of Common Whitethroats. I have a strong impression that the Lesser Whitethroat has considerably decreased during our period. But opinions vary, perhaps because this bird has become more local. Certainly its nesting habitat has been destroyed to a greater extent than that of the Common Whitethroat.

169.

DARTFORD WARBLER, Sylvia undata dartfordiensis.

Ticehurst found it breeding up to 1915, on a heath which was soon after burnt out. He had information of a nest on another heath in 1925, but himself failed to find any more birds. He gives

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CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

causes of its extinction in Suffolk as the grubbing and burning of gorse and heather, and adds that the chance of natural reestablishment of a non-migratory species is remote. Its weak resistance to hard weather must also have been a factor.

184.

BLACKBIRD, Turdus merula.

Has increased in gardens and suburbs, but this perhaps balances the decrease in the countryside. Düring the half-century it has displaced the Song-Thrush as the dominant bird of the thrush family, and this before the 1 9 4 6 - 7 winter.

186.

WHEATEAR, Oenanthe oenanthe.

Inevitably some decrease, due to shrinkage of habitat, but still fairly widespread and common locally.

197. W H I N C H A T , Saxicola rubretra. Appears to have decreased somewhat since Babington, but not since Ticehurst.

198. STONECHAT, Saxicola torquata. Decrease since Ticehurst, and especially after 1946-7 winter. S.B.R. 1950 notes signs of revival in some areas but not yet in the Breck.

201.

REDSTART, Phoenicurus phoenicurus.

Alexander and Lack record very marked decrease throughout southern, eastern and central England; cause unknown. Ticehurst reports status much changed since Babington, and now only local. The general impression gained by comparison of Ticehurst with recent evidence is that, since he wrote, though still local, it is again much more numerous as a Suffolk breeding bird in favoured localities.

202.

BLACK REDSTART, Phoenicrurus ocrurus.

Not recorded as a Suffolk bird tili 1868. Began to be recorded much more frequently as a passage migrant about 1912, and in the last few years has become a Suffolk breeding bird in the coastal area.

203.

N I G H T I N G A L E , Luscinia megarhyncha.

After the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880 it began to increase, and has been abundant of late years.

222. H O U S E - M A R T I N , Delichon urbica. Has certainly decreased.

In my opinion the main cause is probably the structure of the modern roads and the disappearance of roadside ponds. Martins need a better quality of mud than swallows, as well as more of it.

In India I have seen Martins' nests from which, in consequence of defective mud-material, the young have fallen through the bottom.

239. WRYNECK, Jynx torquilla. Ticehurst writes—" generally distributed and, though not abundant, it cannot be said to be uncommon." But he adds that " the late Mr. Rope and Mr. Caton in their respective districts think that the Wryneck is getting scarcer and scarcer." This tendency has continued, and not only in Suffolk but throughout the Wrynecks' ränge in Britain.

Cause unknown.

— — — — CHANGES IN THE BIRD POPULATION OF SUFFOLK

SUMMARY A.

HAWKS, OWLS,

OF

11

CHANGES.

CROWS.

Marked increase : T a w n y Owl, Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie, Jay. S o m e evidence of increase : Kestrel.

Additions to breeding l i s t : Little Owl, Marsh Harrier (reinstatement but status precarious).

Doubtful : Montagu's Harrier, Long-eared Owl. S o m e evidence of decrease : Hooded Crow (no recent breeding record).

B.

PASSERINE BIRDS ( O T H E R T H A N CROWS) AND NEAR PASSERINES.

Marked increase : Starling, Goldfinch, Bearded Tit, Nightingale.

S o m e evidence of increase : Swift, Kingfisher.

Addition to breeding l i s t : Black Redstart.

Doubtful : Golden Oriole and Hoopoe (no breeding records this Century).

Marked decrease : Stonechat, House-Martin, Wryneck.

S o m e evidence of decrease : House-Sparrow, Lesser Whitethroat, Wheatear.

Extinction : Dartford Warbier.

Note : Besides the Stonechat and Bearded T i t several species, Song Thrush, Wren, Goldcrest, Green Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, were severely diminished by the severe winter of 1947, but these have now recovered well. I have no doubt that the numbers of some common smaller passerines have actually decreased owmg to the destruction of cover and nest-sites, and increase of predators.

I asked the opinion of two senior game-keepers, one in East and one in West Suffolk, and both were emphatic that there were nothing like so many small birds about as forty or fifty years ago.

T h i s agrees with my own recollections, but there have been increases and on the whole the growth of new favourable factors has balanced the development of unfavourable ones. A . C . C . H .