WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR HEDGEROW BIRDS?
Hedges are disappearing at an alarming rate as
towns expand and new roads are built. How is
this effecting the birds? Years ago the
Yellowhammer was a common roadside bird but nowadays
it is quite unusual to hear its cheery but
monotonous song "a little bit of bread and - no
cheese", in this part of Essex.
The British Trust for Ornithology started the
Common Bird Census about ten years ago, to find
out what was happening. The entire population of
singing male birds is plotted on a map of the census
area, at least eight times every year and thus one
can tell fairly accurately the number and species
of birds which nest in every hedge on the map. Birds
are very conservative and return year after year
to within a few yards of a successful nesting site.
According to Kenneth Williamson, the organiser of
the Census, a pair of birds must start to build the
nest before coming into full breeding condition.
If a nest once built is destroyed, they can build
elsewhere, or nest a second time, but if they do
not find a suitable nesting site within a reasonable
time of pairing, they lose interest and no eggs are
laid. This may happen to many birds which return
to find that their hedge has gone.
The new road which was recently made from Spring-
field to Little Waltham, on the east of the Chelmer,
runs through part of an area which has been censused
since 1961. The hedges were removed from about
half a mile of roadside during the construction.
The bird population of these hedges had altered
slightly from year to year - the number of wrens
dropped badly after bad winters - but the total
numbers were fairly stable. The hedges which were
removed had provided nesting sites for 30 pairs of
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