Birds of Ireland

Today we publish a special supplement on birds, the first of an occasional series on Ireland's natural history and environment…

Today we publish a special supplement on birds, the first of an occasional series on Ireland's natural history and environment under the general title In Time's Eye. The line is from Kipling who muses in his poem Cities and Thrones and Powers how human constructs, however great, pale into insignificance in time's longseeing eye beside the wondrous work of nature.

Our purpose is not just to open the eyes of school students to the world around them - subsequent issues will feature trees and urban wildlife - but to provide for general readers a snapshot of the state of knowledge of, and work for, birds on this small island today.

We take a particular look at the extraordinary story of bird migration and the work being done by scientists and amateurs to explain what drives even the tiniest of birds like the arctic tern or the swallow tens of thousands of miles every year, and what awesome impulse brings them back, time and again, to the same barn or rocky outcrop. In that global story Ireland is a massive crossroads where the millions meet and rest before passing on to all points of the compass driven by their inbuilt seasonal clocks.

Yet the truth is that the extinction clock is ticking down on a number of our species. The EU reports a decline of 32 per cent in farmland bird species since the 1980s, a legacy of the intensification of farming. In Ireland some 18 species are currently "red-listed", meaning they have declined by more than 50 per cent in the last 25 years.

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Important work is being done to restore natural habitats for birds like the red-necked phalarope and corncrake in Termoncarragh in Mayo and in Blackditch Wood, a woodland and wetland site in Wicklow, for four species, Greenland white-fronted geese, whooper swans, kingfishers and little egrets. In the magnificent wilderness of Glenveagh Park in Donegal the golden eagle is being reintroduced.

But the challenge is much more far-reaching. It is about creating a whole new partnership in the countryside between farmers, who hold it in trust, and the wider community. That is the focus of the EU's approach to the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy and of its Birds Directive, 25-years-old this year. The directive gives states the power to designate special protection areas for birds as part of the Natura 2000 network. But, as BirdWatch Ireland warns, while designation has largely been completed, strategies for management need to be put in place that include not just conservation measures, but also adequate consultation with landowners and financial incentives for positive management.

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