Protecting Birds
The Trust’s land is one of only two 'Constant Effort' sites monitoring bird populations in Oxfordshire, regularly supplying information to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). The other site is at South Stoke owned by Christ Church College, Oxford.
Monitoring work such as this helps the Trust manage its estate sensitively for the benefit of all wildlife. In the late 1950s, this type of careful monitoring first identified the potentially lethal impact of the pesticide ‘DDT’ on birds. Researchers discovered that earthworms were accumulating the persistent pesticide and that the robins eating them were being poisoned. Other birds fell victim in different ways, such as the thinning effect DDT was having on sparrow hawk eggshells. The sparrow hawk was affected because the small birds on which it preyed, were feeding on the poisoned worms and so on through the foodchain.
Through the British Trust for Ornithology, we are currently taking part in the European Union bird ringing EURING project on swallow populations. The Trust offices annually host around 20 breeding pairs who feed in the air above the meadows in our nature reserve. Over 25 countries have participated in EURING, resulting in more than half a million swallows being ringed. The project aims to collect data on breeding and migration as well as study conditions in African wintering grounds.
Mike Rogers
Ornithologist
Click here for more information on bird ringing, as appeared on the BBC website.
