The AHSA association which looks after the interests of the wetlands of the Southern Alicante area, along with the Southeast naturalists association ANSE, and ASE friends of Sierra de Escalona, have collectively presented arguments this week against the building of a new DIY store on the protected land of Torrevieja´s salt lakes. One of the
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BirdLife International has revealed that iconic birds of prey such as Andean Condor, Secretarybird, Bateleur and Martial Eagle are now at high risk of extinction.
The findings come as part of the latest IUCN Red List update, which reveals a mixed picture for bird conservation across the globe – worrying declines come alongside a suite of success stories.
Andean Condor is the national bird of Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, yet is now globally threatened with extinction. The emblematic species has had its threat level raised to Vulnerable in the 2020 Red List update, sparking fears that the crisis that brought many Asian and African vultures to the edge of extinction has spread to South America.
Zosterops meeki. And it looks like we’ve done so just in time, because two of the species – the Tagula Butcherbird and Tagula White-eye – are Near Threatened. Logging, agricultural expansion and commercial gold prospecting are destroying their rainforest habitats. These vital new discoveries came in large part from research lead by one scientist, William Goulding, whose ambition is to improve knowledge of all the endemic bird species of Tagula and the wider Louisiade Archipelago. His research projects employ and train local people and include public education and awareness-raising campaigns among island communities.
3. Junín Grebe swims against tide of extinction
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A territorial pair of Audouin s Gulls was observed on the Atlantic coast of France this summer – and, although breeding could not be confirmed, hopes are high that the birds will return in 2021.
On 4 May 2020, Matthias Grandpierre was conducting a survey in the dunes at Banc d Arguin Nature Reserve in Gironde department, south-west France, when his attention was drawn to an unusual gull call. It quickly became apparent that the vocalisations were coming from an Audouin s Gull, which was behaving much in the same manner as the other breeding gull species in the vicinity.