Drought affecting migratory birds

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

from Diario:

Fuerteventura, from oasis to secarral for migratory birds.

• The drought of the wetlands, the noise in the field and the destruction of the habitats are making it difficult for the birds that land on the Island to winter.
  
  
• From north to south, thousands of birds fly these months towards warmer areas. They flee the European cold to the African continent. Fuerteventura is a resting point or wintering place for many of them during the migratory journey. However, the destination is not in the best condition. The drought in the wetlands after years with hardly any rainfall, the progressive abandonment of traditional agriculture and the deterioration of habitats make the former majorero oasis for birds increasingly a secarral.
  
  With binoculars in hand and an important dose of patience, these months you can see in Fuerteventura an interesting range of migratory species. Through plains and wetlands you can see the white and cascadeña wagtails, common mosquito nets, robins, capyrotated warblers and birds of the turid family such as thrushes and pinto starlings. Most of the contingent comes from central Europe and they stop in Fuerteventura, either to winter or to rest and regain strength before reaching their last stop: Africa, especially in the Sahel area.
  
  José Antonio Sarrión, although he prefers to be called Sarry, has a degree in Environmental Sciences and an ornithologist. He has been going out to the countryside in Fuerteventura for several years in search of birds to study. At the moment, it carries out a project on the Island of ringing of migratory birds through the Aranzadi Science Society. The ornithologist clarifies that the emigration of all these birds during these months occurs due to the need to "look for an optimal and warm place where they can continue living".
  
  "When they finish their reproductive period in northern Europe or in other parts of the planet, they find that it begins to get cold and there is little availability of food so they need to go to other warmer places where they can have a greater capacity for food," he clarifies. Months after arriving in Africa, they have to start the flight back to Europe to carry out the breeding period.
  
  The ornithologist points out that Fuerteventura is a resting place for many of them on their migratory journey. For others it is the place they go every year to spend the wintering. Also some of them arrive after encountering episodes of calima or less favorable winds that push them towards the Canary Islands.
  
  In these months, he has been able to see in the field some curiosities that he has been pointing out in his notebook. Among them, a red-robin specimen, a bird of the passerine family that should not weigh more than 10 grams and that every year makes thousands of kilometers from the breeding areas of northern Europe to warmer areas. "A few years ago I was able to ring it and this year I have recaptured it again on the Island. That means he's gone and back again," says the bird specialist.
  In his kick around the island, these months he has taken some surprises. Among them, being able to document white wagtails, birds of about 15 grams that are associated with livestock cabins where they feed on insects that hide in the food of animals. These birds make about 2,000 or 3,000 kilometers to reach the Island. In the forums of birders there is also talk of quotes of specimens of the bilistado mosquito net, a bird that comes from Siberia, of no more than six grams, and that has also been seen by Fuerteventura.
  
• Sarrión has also recorded an important contingent of birds of the turid family: the pinto starlings and common thrushes. This "birder", as he likes to call himself, assures that the emigration of these species to Fuerteventura has been quite high with respect to other years and that is due, possibly, to the fact that "in northern Europe they did not have the ideal conditions and decided to go down. In September, it was snowing in northern Europe and that may have influenced or even the episodes of favorable winds that we have had in recent times. Those winds have been able to drag these individuals here."
  
  After thousands of kilometers of flight, the birds that land in Fuerteventura have been finding for years that, little by little, the old oasis that the Island supposed has been diminishing. Sarrión does not hesitate to affirm that the main threat to migratory birds, but also to residents, is the lack of water and food. "Traditional agriculture associated with gavias with fig trees and other fruit trees has been disappearing. Now they look dry and that complicates the survival of these specimens, "he says.
  
  With hardly any water
  
  Fuerteventura has been years with hardly any intense episodes of rain. The lack of rainfall has left a photograph of wetlands turned into dry: "They are literally dry. That poses a threat to migratory birds. I believe that one of the great objectives of the Canary Islands, and especially of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, would be the recovery of their wetlands".
  
  The ornithologist remembers hearing birders talk about the Catalina García wetland, "which was in the 70s the best in the Canary Islands and is now a secarral. Older ornithologists remember seeing birds there that are not seen today," he laments. "I think that the fact that fewer birds are being sighted on the island may be due to drought," he says, recalling that "at the landscape level, having a wetland is life."
  
  On their migratory route from north to south, the birds find in their path large wetlands that serve as a reserve. Sarrión compares them to gas stations that, if they are eliminated, cause "the bird when it arrives to have no food, which can lead to starvation."
  "In the end, if you want to see birds in Fuerteventura, you have to go to a golf course. Before there were natural wetlands or anthropized roses, where you could see birds. It's a shame that now you have to go to an urbanization, golf course or the garden of a hotel to see them, "he laments. Not only the drought is a handicap for birds that decide to make a break in the trip and land in Fuerteventura. The health of the habitats in which they are installed is, in the words of this bird specialist, "quite regrettable" and lists a number of factors that are not making life easy for wintering birds and residents in Fuerteventura: overgrazing, uncontrolled hiking, noise and destruction of places at the hands of quads, off-road vehicles, Buggies... "We find that in the majorero field there are disturbances all the time," he says.
  
  For Sarrión, "the main problem of migratory species is the loss of habitat. There is less and less habitat according to them. The gavia landscape has been lost and the greenhouses are not helping either because birds cannot enter there." He adds: "The use of pesticides is another problem." In addition, he says he has encountered "authentic garbage dumps that break with the image of an oasis that the Island should be for birds." "In northern Europe there are places that seem not to have been touched. Here, the spaces are totally abandoned," he denounces.
  
  The ghost of windmills has been flying over Fuerteventura for some time. The announcement of the installation of several wind farms spread throughout the island poses another threat to species such as the guirre, as environmental groups and the doñana team of experts working on the recovery campaign of the guirre on the island have already denounced. "If wind farms proliferate, there will also be consequences for migratory birds," he says. Birds migrate at night to avoid the threat of being preyed upon by a raptor. The mills have lights installed that make the birds come to them and that can mean their death.
  
  Climate change
  On all these situations, a greater one flies over: the climate crisis. Migratory birds serve as bioindicators of climate change. Biodiversity acts as a sensor of global warming. Scientists call bioindicators the species that, with their behavioral, phenological or distribution changes, act as testimony to the advance of climate change. The environmental crisis would be causing the cessation of the movements of birds from northern Europe to their traditional wintering areas.
  
• José Antonio Sarrión agrees with the theory of scientists that points out that there are fewer and fewer birds migrating. In addition, "they suffer Dantesque episodes during the breeding period, caused by climate change," he says. "Birds usually arrive in Europe in May to breed and find a storm, snowfall or horrific heat falling. In the end, they are messes that cause the reproduction to be less. We have scientific data for some species where you see that the population is plummeting and no action is being taken. For example, in some parts of Europe hunting continues. There are fewer and fewer individuals, but we don't let them breathe either."
  
  Those who dare to migrate may also be surprised by extreme Weather Events. The ornithologist explains how a storm that surprises them while they are going down "can cause these birds to end up dying in the ocean, if they are not lucky enough to find a boat." In the end, he goes on to explain, "climate change is making Events like rain, which was continuous, now abrupt and torrential."
  Sarrión dares to venture that fewer migratory birds are arriving in Fuerteventura. "Every time I go out into the field, you hear more silence and that worries me a lot. I go, for example, to the ravine of Río Cabras and I don't hear anything. I don't even see the pispos and tarabillas that are species from here," he laments. The reasons may be that they decide to stay in Europe or that the numbers of local species are smaller.
  

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