Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

About: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is a nonprofit organization based out in Sandy, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Biodiversity. The organization has 670 authors who have published 1425 publications receiving 88006 citations. The organization is also known as: RSPB & Plumage League.

Developing Environmental Education, a Review of a Scottish Project: International and Political Influences.

Abstract: An attempt to promote environmental education in Scotland was started in the 1970s by a group representing several sectors of education. It set in action a chain of events which can be seen as a coherent project relatively independent of developments elsewhere, although parallel with them, and from a starting-point which was more one of urban renewal than of rural preservation. It progressed through interaction between promoters, practitioners and public, within the surrounding framework of government policy, and illustrated many of the difficulties encountered by educators in complex political processes. The time is now appropriate to review the outcomes and prospects of the project. This paper is particularly concerned with the part played by the political system and the international context. The analysis shows a complex and largely negative interaction with the political and administrative systems relating to formal education. The influence of international events was generally marginal, but at its be...

Bird communities of highland birchwoods

Abstract: Breeding birds in 36 birchwoods in the Scottish Highlands were counted by point censuses which generated 4630 records of 28 species. Community gradients were found by Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DECORANA) and identified by regressing site scores on habitat factors. The important habitat factors influencing communities were longitude and shrub cover. Longitude had a dominant effect on overall bird density and on species richness, which could not be explained by correlation with other habitat factors. Canopy cover, which was greater to the East, influenced total densities but not community composition. Low shrub cover had a weak effect; there were no pure shrub or high forest elements to communities. Species richness, within a wood, however, did increase with the horizontal variety of extent of shrub cover in addition to the effect of longitude.

An assessment of ecological conditions and threats at the Ethiopian wintering site of the last known eastern colony of Critically Endangered Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita

Abstract: The long-range, migratory eastern relict population of Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita has been steadily declining since the time of discovery in 2002, despite the protection programme in place at the breeding grounds in Syria. Assessing the ecological conditions and threats along the migration route and at the wintering site, both discovered in 2006, has become a priority for this “Critically Endangered” species. Adult ibises spent the winter at the same site on the central Ethiopian highland plateau, from August until mid-February during five consecutive winters (2006-2011). The wintering site was surveyed during four field visits and assessed through a spatial analysis of 1,067 satellite locations. The site is in an agro-pastoral landscape, inhabited by a settled community of people living in relatively poor and isolated conditions. Home range analysis based on kernel distributions showed that the bald ibises used a core range area of 9.1–19.0 km² (confirmed by direct visual observations in the field) and an extended range area of 61.0–126.1 km². These figures are c.20 and 60 times smaller, respectively, than those calculated for the breeding site in Syria. Eighty-one percent of the core area in Ethiopia was used in all five years confirming the birds’ fidelity to this wintering site. Ibises preferred to forage in wet or dry pastures and in recently cut hayfields, and avoided tall grass, uncut hayfields and cultivation. Despite dependence on human-created habitats, human disturbance observed in the field was minimal. The main short-term threat for the ibises was judged to be the potential raising of attention on the part of the local community specifically towards these few individual ibises. In the medium term, the main threat comes from the conversion of pastures into crops and the potential use of fertilisers and pesticides.