WIDE public outcry has greeted the recent decline of Britain鈥檚 once plentiful house sparrows and starlings. Now reports are coming in of young birds unable to fly and instead walking around in tight circles, doing somersaults and twisting their heads in a bizarre fashion (快猫短视频, 31 August, p 5). What is happening?
I asked Elliot Morley, the junior minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA) with responsibility for animal welfare, if his department is backing any research into what is decimating these small birds.
Morley said that DEFRA recently published a report based on research led by the British Trust for Ornithology with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the University of Oxford, the government鈥檚 Central Science Laboratory and the consultancy Wildwings Bird Management. Both the sparrow and the starling have drastically declined in the past 30 years in suburban gardens, sparrows especially in south-east England. But sparrows are thriving in parts of Scotland and Wales, and although starlings have declined in both suburban and countryside areas in the south and west, their breeding patterns are improving in urban gardens in the south-east.
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Research on the numerous diseases that may have impacted on both species can be notoriously difficult. It could be, for example, that sparrows are susceptible to some sort of disease transmitted via unhygienic garden feeding stations and from other birds feeding at them.
This aspect of avian disease is the basis for research being undertaken by the British Trust for Ornithology. The trust wants volunteers to help in its Garden BirdWatch national survey, and with a new house sparrow survey.
It never fails to amaze me just how interested the public is in bird matters. The RSPB has more members than Britain鈥檚 three main political parties combined. Copies of the DEFRA report into the declines in the starling and the house sparrow are available at .
鈥淏IN the chemicals and put your back into gardening鈥� was how the caption read. It accompanied a 快猫短视频 news item that questioned whether even the smallest amounts of weedkiller can be safe (21 September, p 10). I decided to ask Michael Meacher, the environment minister, what DEFRA was advising farmers and gardeners about the use of phenoxyacid derivatives.
Meacher replied that DEFRA鈥檚 pesticides safety directorate has yet to study the work of the researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on which the 快猫短视频 article was based as their findings have not yet been published. But the directorate is trying to obtain a pre-publication copy of the paper from the authors.
He went on to say that he and his advisers always take evidence of unexpected low-dose effects seriously. But he added that until they have been able to examine the paper they will not be able to give any view on its conclusions. If DEFRA does have any concerns after reading the paper it will immediately seek expert advice on it from the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides.
Under the terms of the European Commission鈥檚 Drinking Water Directive, however, even the low levels of pesticides referred to in the 快猫短视频 article would not be permitted in Britain鈥檚 drinking water. The directive sets a limit of 0.1 micrograms per litre for individual pesticides.
I find Meacher鈥檚 comments reassuring. I am not convinced, though, that pesticides need to be used at all in small gardens. Gardeners should take the caption鈥檚 advice, when clearing unwanted weeds.
