By BRIAN TILLEY

Published at 09:42, Friday, 30 July 2010

ONE of Tynedale’s most iconic birds has gone into a steep decline.

The curlew, the curved billed emblem of the Northumberland National Park, has lost more than a third of its numbers over the past 13 years.

The largest European wading bird, the curlew’s evocative, haunting cry is synonymous with high moors and wide open skies, but concern is now being expressed for its survival.

The decline has been linked to a loss of breeding habitat due to agricultural intensification.

The sobering news that curlew numbers dropped by 38 per cent between 1995 and 2008 comes from the Breeding Bird Survey, a partnership between the British Trust for Ornithology, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the RSPB.

The curlew is not the only bird missing from the Tynedale twitchers’ tick list.

Starlings have declined by 40 per cent over the same period, while the familiar little-bit-of-bread-and-no- cheese song of the yellowhammer is no longer heard quite so frequently, with numbers down by 31 per cent.

On the plus side, the number of gaudy goldfinches is up by a massive 74 per cent, with great tits up by 68 per cent and dunnocks, aka hedge sparrows, up by 31 per cent.

Nationally, the familiar roadside raptor the kestrel is faring badly.

The report reveals a 20 per cent drop in the population of the kestrel between 1995 and 2008, and a further fall of 36 per cent between 2008 and 2009.

However, buzzards and red kite numbers continue to rise, and the hobby, a migrant falcon that winters in sub-Saharan Africa, has increased by 23 per cent.

The success of the hobby could be linked to increasing numbers of dragonflies, one of its main prey items, allowing a northward spread in the hobby’s distribution.

A number of small-bodied resident birds declined significantly between 2008 and 2009, presumably due to the prolonged freezing temperatures in January and February.

Goldcrests and long-tailed tits, which in 2008 both reached their highest numbers since the start of the survey, declined by 56 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, between 2008 and 2009.

Significant declines were also shown by stonechats (38 per cent) and treecreepers (27 per cent).

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk