Missing

I have heard willow warblers this year, but it's a bird that's missing, so far as I can tell, from the bird population of our garden and the woodland behind. Its song is a sweet falling cadence of notes, and I'm sorry not to have heard it as part of the dawn chorus (or the evening chorus, which is sometimes almost as good) at our garden gate.

Willow warblers and chiffchaffs are very similar birds - to be honest, I can't tell them apart by sight. The habits are a bit different, and the song is very different. Chiffchaffs are among our first summer migrants to arrive, and, indeed, these days a fair few of them never leave, but hang about along the south coast and into the west country. Willow warblers arrive later, and have a long journey to make, as they spend the rest of the year in sub-Saharan Africa. That in itself may be a factor in their decline.

It would seem that the decline is not only locally here but nationwide, with numbers down from some four million to - I don't know, but a lot less - today.  The enthusiastic bird-shooters, legal and otherwise, that target our migrant species in the Mediterranean countries (Malta having been particularly in the spotlight) come in for much criticism, to a degree well-founded. It's also true that things are often pretty stressful for our summer birds in their winter quarters, where changing agricultural practices, loss of habitat and growing human populations are bound to have an impact.

Here there's been quite a lot of attention paid to our own agricultural practices. Many species, residents as well as visitors, that have been agricultural land specialists, have seen substantial population declines in recent years. Conservation organisations have long campaigned for a more wildlife friendly approach to agriculture, and I think the wisdom of this is being more and more accepted by statutory authorities and farming organisations. Things like better hedge maintenance and the development of wildflower-rich headland areas need not be costly to the farmer but can have a rich benefit where wildlife is concerned, not least by linking up what might otherwise be isolated bits of good habitat.

To this mix, however, I'd like to add a thought that occurred to me the other day. Populations of many native birds have been growing - provided they are adept at accessing things like garden feeding stations - and surely that in itself must have an impact on other species. One reason why resident birds are resident is that they are therefore early on the breeding scene each spring, and can - in a good year - raise more broods than the summer visitors can do.  Garden feeders and nest boxes help make more years into "good years". This enables resident species to be more effective in competing with the summer visitors for - often, I should think - the same food resources.  I'm sure that's bound to be a factor in the ways populations develop and decline - gardens and therefore people who feed birds in gardens are a hugely significant part of the so-called "natural environment" these days. The only question, it seems to me, is how much of a factor, set against the others listed above.