The Polar Bear Problem....

Polar Bears. Copyright Angela Plumb.

There's some interesting reading on the WWF website - linked from my sidebar - on the plight of the Polar Bears directly linked to global warming. The photograph above is a way of conserving energy for the young bear during their ever increasing travels to find food, an amazing image. 

1st winter Grey Wagtail. John Bateman.

Well if the harsh winter weather keeps us indoors at least you can continue to get your photographs if birds  keep visiting your home like this Grey Wagtail does at JB's. This is the only urban Grey Wagtail I know which often appears in this residential area of Lancaster far from its usual habitat of fast/slow flowing rivers and streams with plenty of exposed rocks in and alongside the water.

Waxwing/Redwing. Mike Watson  

A rare opportunity for Mike to have these two Scandinavians together on the same berry supply recently at Preston.

Aythya Hybrid. Colin Bushell

And here's the odd one out, the Aythya hybrid on Southport Marine Lake and is a probable Pochard x Ferruginous Duck....I think I would be inclined to agree with that.

Thanks to JB/MW/CB for the photographs and for helping me out with my latest 'gap filler' until I can get out birding once again.

Bear Necessities.

Barnacle Geese. Phillip Tomkinson.

In my post yesterday I recorded the excellent sighting of eight Barnacle Geese quite low over  Plover Scar at Cockersands and flying south, it was the best record of the day for me and took the total number of this species to thirty eight in two days birding. I also commented that this number surely indicates birds of wild origins rather that feral birds which is often suspected to be the case in our area....But a serious and tragic story is unfolding, it is a story with more than one edge to it and involves the Barnacle Goose.

There are fears that Polar Bears - which are hungry because of the melting ice in the Arctic which is making the hunt for seals too difficult - are feasting on the eggs of the Barnacle Goose (BG), in itself a serious problem for the birds but it also adds to the fact that a conservation success story is now in serious jeopardy.

In the 1940's numbers of BG had slumped to below 300, today up to 30,000 can be seen from WWT Caerlaverock following the BG's revival through a conservation success story. According to research, last winter saw only half of the expected numbers of BG goslings on the Solway Firth and the reason for this is being placed on the Polar Bears as prime suspects as more and more are gathering around the islands off Spitsbergen where the birds breed, and evidence has been gathered by finding wrecked nests and egg debris and the added advantage of photography showing Polar Bears at nest sites. 

All this is suspected to be connected to climate change which the world is now in the grips of, which is reducing the polar ice-floe, making life difficult for the Polar Bear in the hunt for the seals they feed on and which in turn are being driven by hunger to prey on the nest sites of the Barnacle Goose. 

So, there appears to be a dilemma here brought about by two species of conservation concern which are clashing over the right to survive and is a prime example of the kind of tensions the natural world is experiencing right now in the 21st century, it is to say the least, pretty tricky to know how to resolve this dilemma without the risk to one or both Barnacle Geese and Polar Bears.

Thanks to Phillip Tomkinson for the excellent photograph of five Barnacle Geese in flight at sunrise/set.