Climate change is driving birds north

The appearance of rare birds is an unmistakable sign that the climate emergency has also reached England.

Birds such as the European bee-eater are expected to become regular visitors to the island due to global warming.

The rainbow-colored beekeepers nesting on the Norfolk coast this summer and three rare emerging stilts in Yorkshire say environmentalists areAn unequivocal warningThat a state of natural and climate emergency has reached Britain.

There are no local breeds

The bee-eaters did not breed in England between 1956 and 2001, but this is the sixth attempt in this century. The birds nested in County Durham in 2002, Herefordshire in 2002, Isle of Wight in 2014, Cumbria in 2015 and Nottinghamshire in 2017, where quarry nests failed due to bad weather.

“These seven bees are arguably the most colorful and fascinating birds to be seen in the UK at the momentRSPB’s Mark Thomas said. “While this is a beautiful sight, we must not forget that the appearance of these birds on our shores is a result of changes in our climate and the resulting pressures on wildlife here and around the world.”

“Drawn north by climate change, these exotic birds are likely to become regular visitors in the summer of the future, having provided an early and deadly signal over the past two decades that an environmental and climate emergency has arrived at our shores.“

Bees the size of starlings have red backs, blue bellies and yellow throats and can be seen hunting bees, dragonflies and other flying insects.

unexpected scene

At Buteric Carr Nature Reserve in Doncaster, three stilts have been set up this week from what are believed to be Britain’s northernmost nests for a species of wading bird that is rare in this country and does not breed here every year.

“We’ve been waiting for this a long time, but we’re excitedAndy Dalton, COO of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust said. “Potteric Carr is a tree-protected area on the outskirts of Doncaster, surrounded by busy highways and industrial expansion – the conservation work we do here has a huge impact on wildlife, especially endangered species like the black-winged stilt.“

Danny Heptstil, Head of Strategy and Partnerships at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, stressed that there is a need to protect and restore enough rich natural areas to allow species pushed north by global warming to find sanctuary in the UK.

“The only reason the Potteric Carr’s sturdy stilts thrive is because we have an impressive conservation area of ​​several hundred acres that is due to be expanded. These animals will have nowhere to go if we don’t give them a home in the UK”, according to Heptinstall.

Is there a hope?

“It’s encouraging, exciting, and great to validate the work we’ve done at Potteric Carr, but it’s also a wake-up call. The other side of the coin is what we lose at the same time. Yorkshire is concerned about its numbers of seabirds, including kiteo, fulmar and puffin.“

Twenty-four of the UK’s 25 breeding seabird species are classified as red or yellow on the Birds of Conservation List, meaning they are threatened with local extinction.

As sea temperatures rise, populations of fish migrate north or disappear, reducing the reproductive success of seabirds in the far south and forcing species to migrate to where food is available.