Birds In Britain Research Articles

:The Archaeology of Wild Birds in Britain and Ireland

:<i>The Archaeology of Wild Birds in Britain and Ireland</i>

Bargheer (Stefan), Moral Entanglements. Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany , Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2018

Bargheer (Stefan), Moral Entanglements. Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany , Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2018

Stefan Bargheer, Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany

Stefan Bargheer, <i>Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany</i>

Migratory passerine birds in Britain carry Phytophthora ramorum inoculum on their feathers and “feet” at low frequency

AbstractIn this study, we investigated whether birds could be vectors facilitating long‐distance spread of Phytophthora ramorum in Britain. Migratory bird species associated with the main sporangium‐producing host plants and most likely to pick up P. ramorum spores were considered. Swabs were taken from the flank and “feet” of 1,014 birds over a 12‐month period (April 2011–March 2012) in the west of Britain and subsequently analyzed for the presence of P. ramorum using nested PCR. Ten positive samples from 10 birds were identified: three in Cornwall, one in Devon, three in Gloucestershire, two in north Wales and one in Merseyside. Phytophthora ramorum was detected on samples from four species of thrushes (Redwing Turdus iliacus, Fieldfare T. pilaris, Blackbird T. merula and Song Thrush T. philomelos) and one species of warbler (Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita). All birds that tested positive were sampled in late autumn and winter (October–February), when long‐distance movements (over 100 km) would have stopped. The low incidence of P. ramorum found using PCR suggests that the incidence of inoculum, whether viable or not, on birds was low. The apparently low incidence of inoculum on birds suggests migratory passerine birds can carry P. ramorum inoculum on their feathers and “feet,” albeit at low frequency. The dates of positive samples indicate that birds would not have been moving long distances at the time but further work is needed to estimate the extent of their contribution to the spread of P. ramorum in Britain.

Beyond Moral Motivations - Stefan Bargheer, Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany (Ville, University of Chicago Press, 2018)

Beyond Moral Motivations - Stefan Bargheer, Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany (Ville, University of Chicago Press, 2018)

Bargheer, S. Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany2018University of Chicago Press339 pp $105.00 (Hardback) $35.00 (Paperback)

Bargheer, S. Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany2018University of Chicago Press339 pp $105.00 (Hardback) $35.00 (Paperback)

Book Review: Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany

Book Review: Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany

Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany

At first glance Stefan Bargheer’s book is 300-plus pages about bird watching, filled with detailed accounts of 19th, 20th, and 21st century bird enthusiasts and their alphabet soup of organizations in Britain and Germany. There are bird manuals, bird boxes, Nazi concentration camp guards who birdwatch on the side, and even a photo of a bird defecating on the German tricolor. Bargheer plunges the reader—in my case, a reader largely unfamiliar with the world of bird watching—into this milieu with a detailed historical comparison based on life histories of its protagonists. Despite what may at first seem like an esoteric subject matter, the book tackles theoretical questions central to our discipline, as well as providing a penetrating critique of how we tend to think of environmentalism’s rise. In Europe, the protection of birds drives environmental legislation. The British, in particular, love birds and bird watching at extremely high rates. Bargheer examines the emergence of bird conservation and its transformation in Britain and Germany. He places the contribution of his book in the sociology of morality, examining its foundational questions empirically. Drawing on Dewey’s pragmatist theory of valuation, Bargheer argues that moral values (e.g., saving birds or nature) cannot be empirically or analytically separated from the practices in which they are embedded. The value of birds to bird conservationists is based on how birds fit within bird collecting practices and institutions. Values are the outcome of the transformation in practices and institutions, rather than driving these transformation. To study morality, we need to examine practices and institutions, not the discourse, which may be extensive and yet have no actual material effect.

Moral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany. By Stefan Bargheer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. xiii+326. $35.00 (paper); $105.00 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewMoral Entanglements: Conserving Birds in Britain and Germany. By Stefan Bargheer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. xiii+326. $35.00 (paper); $105.00 (cloth).Chelsea SchellyChelsea SchellyMichigan Technological University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 124, Number 6May 2019 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/704057 Views: 95Total views on this site For permission to reuse a book review printed in the American Journal of Sociology, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Abundance, biomass and energy use of native and alien breeding birds in Britain

We quantify the contribution of alien species to the total breeding population numbers, biomass and energy use of an entire taxonomic assemblage at a large spatial scale, using data on British birds from 1997 and 2013. A total of 216 native and 16 alien bird species were recorded as breeding in Great Britain across the two census years. Only 2.8–3.7% of British breeding bird individuals were alien, but alien species co-opted 11.9–13.8% of the energy used by the assemblage, and contributed 19.1–21.1% of assemblage biomass. Neither the population sizes nor biomasses of native and alien species differed, on average, in either census, but alien species biomass is higher than native species biomass for a given population size. Species richness underestimates the potential effects of alien bird species in Britain, which have disproportionately high overall biomass and population energy use. The main driver of these effects is the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), which comprised 74–81% of alien biomass, yet the breeding population of this species is still only a small fraction of the estimated 35 million birds released in the UK in autumn. The biomass of this release exceeds that of the entire breeding avifauna, and suggests that the pheasant should have an important role in structuring the communities in which it is embedded.

Implications of transformation to irregular silviculture for woodland birds: A stand wise comparison in an English broadleaf woodland

Woodland birds in Britain have undergone significant long term declines since the late 1960s, associated in particular with changes in woodland structure in general, and loss of early successional vegetation. Irregular, continuous canopy broadleaf management is a form of selective logging, very recently adopted in UK that produces woodlands with open canopies and substantial mid- and understorey growth. We examined spring and late winter bird densities, estimated using distance sampling, at 310 points in irregular, transitional (that being managed towards irregular), limited intervention, and coppice stands within a large working broad-leaf woodland in lowland southern Britain. Almost all understorey and canopy vegetation measures differed significantly across stand types. Ten of 20 species had highest spring abundance in irregular woodland, five in coppice, three in transitional, and just two in limited intervention. In winter, 5–6 species preferred each of limited intervention, irregular and transitional, while no species preferred coppice. Densities differed little across seasons except in Paridae where abundances increased in late winter during which limited intervention stands were used more by this group. Birds generally occupied similar niche positions and had similar niche breadths across seasons. Compared to under-managed woodlands, irregular silviculture in UK’s broadleaf woodlands is likely to enhance habitat quality for woodland birds, including several species of conservation concern e.g. marsh tit Poecile palustris which was twice as abundant in irregular stands as in any other stand type.

The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (9th edition)

The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (9th edition)

Loudly sing cuckoo: More-than-human seasonalities in Britain

This article explores seasonality through the lens of British relations with other beings. Drawing on discussions of temporality and seasonality by Ingold, Harris and Krause and extending them in the light of developments in more-than-human anthropology, the qualities of different sorts of seasonal, more-than-human relations are explored. Haraway’s emphasis on an intimate ‘being with’ other species is used to consider close seasonal relations that draw beings together in shared tasks. However, in modern societies such as Britain, where lives are lived as much indoors as out, less intimate seasonal relations can still carry great significance. These relations are explored using Latimer’s concept of ‘being alongside’. This distinction is expanded upon by comparing narratives of listening to birds in Britain with ethnographic examples from non-European societies where people procure their own subsistence and lead seasonal lives closely enmeshed with plants and animals. Similar relations are examined between farmers and other beings on the Scottish island of Islay, where wild geese and domestic livestock graze the same pastures and where government conservation schemes require the mowing of grass at specific times to foster the breeding success of rare corncrakes. Here ‘being with’ other species is complicated by seemingly detached bureaucratic government schemes, which nevertheless are drawn into the seasonal taskscape by the effects they have on humans and nonhumans alike. Finally, newer seasonal relations with nonhumans that emerge through the use of technologies such as radio-tracking and websites are considered. These render global ecologies of more-than-human seasonality visible in relations of remote witnessing. Seasonality is thus explored as a means to consider the specific relations of place, the contradictions and tensions between being-in-the-world and bureaucratic schemes, and the fragility of the ties that bind weather, wildlife and nation in a time of rapid environmental change.

Manipulating Pesticide Use to Increase the Production of Wild Game Birds in Britain

We describe a management technique whereby the adverse effects of pesticides on game-bird chick production were alleviated following selective use or selective avoidance of pesticides on the edges of cereal crops. This technique (known as Conservation Headlands) provided increased amounts of food resources necessary for young gray partridge (Perdix perdix) and ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) chicks. The use of Conservation Headlands has consistently increased average numbers of chicks per brood of both species via increases in the densities of arthropods and weed plants. These findings are discussed in the context of the other prerequisites of wild game-bird production in the UK and how these may be altered by recent Government policies to reduce cereal surpluses.

Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland

Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland

Nest-site competition between bumblebees (Bombidae), social wasps (Vespidae) and cavity-nesting birds in Britain and the Western Palearctic

Capsule There is no evidence of widespread significant nest-site competition in Britain or the Western Palearctic between cavity-nesting birds and bumblebees or social wasps.Aims To investigate competition between cavity-nesting birds and bumblebees and wasps, particularly the range-expanding Tree Bumblebee, Saxon Wasp and European Hornet in Britain, and review evidence throughout the Western Palearctic.Methods We compared field data from English and Polish studies of tits and woodpeckers breeding in nest-boxes and/or tree holes to assess nest-site competition with bumblebees and wasps. We reviewed the literature quantifying nest-site competition between birds and these insects in the Western Palearctic.Results Bumblebees and wasps are capable of usurping small passerines from nests. In England, these insects commandeered a mean annual 4.1% of tit nests initiated in nest-boxes; occurrence of hornets showed a long-term increase, but not other wasps or bumblebees. Across the Western Palearctic, insect occupation of nest-boxes was generally low, and was lower in England than in Poland. No insects were discovered in tree cavities, including those created by woodpeckers (Picidae).Conclusion Nest-site competition between cavity-nesting birds and bumblebees and wasps appears to be a ‘nest-box phenomenon’, which may occasionally interfere with nest-box studies, but appears negligible in natural nest-sites.

RSPB Birds of Britain and Europe (Revised edition)

RSPB Birds of Britain and Europe (Revised edition)

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

Where to Watch Birds in Britain (2nd edition)

Where to Watch Birds in Britain (2nd edition)

Shakespeare and Birds of Britain

There’s no place where birds cannot fly in heaven and earth. So we want to fly like birds or have dreams to transgress the bounds of human beings. And the song of the bird becomes the song of hope. The same song of a bird may sound sad or happy because birds can vary their song by taking in air from two directions rather than one. Shakespeare made use of his observation of these birds in his literature combining his knowledge with everyday life of his contemporary England. Shakespeare’s birds are enlivening the woods and fields and they make themselves one link in the food chain. This circle of food seems to run like a wheel of violence while Nature keeps this scheme peacefully. In this respect Shakespeare shows the world of birds as an epitome of human life. So Shakespeare’s drama is based on the material world of everyday life where men and birds coexist. Shakespeare describes nature from his own observation with kindly spirit, which makes his metaphors of birds appropriate. Modern technology manufactures the material world into a virtual fantasy. This tendency toward virtualization makes men prisoners in the cage of science. In a sense we are leading as wretched a life as a caged bird. Now we seem to be unable to communicate with each other. When the caged bird flies high to the sky, the voice of the bird will be a universal song uniting us in harmony.