{"id":304250,"date":"2024-02-25T10:22:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T09:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=304250"},"modified":"2024-02-25T10:22:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T09:22:40","slug":"watch-out-for-hoopoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=304250","title":{"rendered":"Watch Out For\u00a0Hoopoes!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Post by Ian Magness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-13101877\/An-exotic-bird-emits-smell-rotting-meat-soon-Britain-climate-change.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now, as anyone who has ever seen one (and they are pretty common around the Mediterranean) can attest, the hoopoe is a most striking bird, unique in colour and shape. Furthermore, they feed on open ground and are happy in parks, gardens and golf courses, so they are easy to find. This is not, therefore, one of those birds that is likely to sneak into and roam around Britain unseen, especially in modern times when so many more people watch birds. Records can thus be viewed as pretty reliable. So, what do the facts tell us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Points are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Hoopoes have been seen visiting Britain for hundreds of years. They are scarce vagrants, generally appearing pre- (spring, especially) or post- nesting periods (autumn) as the birds either seek breeding opportunities or disperse away from their nesting areas. Southern and eastern Britain sightings predominate but they have been spotted all over the British Isles. Very occasional birds have attempted to nest and some have done so successfully. Never in recorded history, however, has there ever been a viable British breeding population. As Coward put it in 1925: \u201cTo our knowledge, it has been striving to establish itself for two and a half centuries\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Birds of Wiltshire goes into some detail about the growth and decline of hoopoe sightings and nesting. Essentially, it reports that hoopoes had a pretty comprehensive European breeding range \u2013 south to north \u2013 historically. The range contracted more toward its southern heartland, however, between the mid-19th<\/sup> and mid-20th<\/sup> centuries and appears to have been pretty stable since. The reasons are not known but habitat (and thus food) loss is implicated. This is the opposite of what you would expect from global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 In line with the decline noted above, the number of successful British hoopoe nests (never more than a great rarity) all but disappeared by the mid-1970s. To my knowledge (I could of course be wrong), there have been no successful British nests in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Britishbirds.co.uk reports total annual sightings since the late 1960s to 2021 as being between around 100 and 150 (albeit that some of these would likely be the same birds moving around). Importantly, when looking at \u201cTrend\u201d in the sightings, the site states \u201cNone\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Mail article contains the following statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to global warming, scientists believe the hoopoe may set up home on British shores, with scores of sightings being reported every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Yes, there are scores of sightings in Britain each year but twas always thus and there is no trend whatsoever. No doubt there were more birds around in Victorian and Georgian times when the hoopoe range allowed more northerly birds to come across the seas to visit Britain more easily. That would have facilitated some breeding but there has been little or none over the last 50 years or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) As for \u201cDue to global warming, scientists believe the hoopoe may set up home on British shores\u201d \u2013 frankly, it is hard to be polite because this is demonstrable rubbish. What \u201cscientists\u201d? What data? Where? Are we expecting a Mediterranean climate any time soon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This just looks like yet another example of a journalist being fed some puerile climate story that would have taken five minutes of research to rebuff. Whatever drives UK and European populations of the magnificent hoopoe, there is no evidence that anthropogenic climate change (even if such exists) has played the slightest part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coward\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of the British Isles and their Eggs\u201d 1925<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiltshire Ornithological Society\u2019s \u201cBirds of Wiltshire\u201d 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/britishbirds.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now, as anyone who has ever seen one (and they are pretty common around the Mediterranean) can attest, the hoopoe is a most striking bird, unique in colour and shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":304257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Now, as anyone who has ever seen one (and they are pretty common around the Mediterranean) can attest, the hoopoe is a most striking bird, unique in colour and shape.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818902,691827157,691818087,691827156],"class_list":{"0":"post-304250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-british-isles","10":"tag-global-warming","11":"tag-hoopoes","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00hoopoe_4.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1h9g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":330875,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=330875","url_meta":{"origin":304250,"position":0},"title":"\u201cHow Many Birds Do Wind Farms Kill?\u201d (pro-wind concern)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s not just the total amount of birds that are killed that matters, but what types. If a particular species of bird is disproportionately affected it could have real impacts on population dynamics and risk of extinction.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Anda-Mikelsone-SS.jpg?fit=1200%2C446&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Anda-Mikelsone-SS.jpg?fit=1200%2C446&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Anda-Mikelsone-SS.jpg?fit=1200%2C446&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Anda-Mikelsone-SS.jpg?fit=1200%2C446&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Anda-Mikelsone-SS.jpg?fit=1200%2C446&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304250"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304259,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304250\/revisions\/304259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}