“Europe’s first songbird reintroduction programme is celebrating after cirl buntings, one of Britain’s rarest and most attractive small birds, were found last week to be breeding in Cornwall – where they had been extinct for many years…
Read the complete good news story ‘Rare songbird is returned to Cornwall’ by Michael McCarthy here: http://environment.independent.co.uk/wildlife/article2669864.ece
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Ooai m’dear,
The real reason is that the Cornish have stopped making Bunting Tiddy Oggies, and Star Gazey Bunting. These were never popular in Devon. However, what about all the invertebrates that the increasing buntings will destroy? Won’t that reduce biodiversity? Will the ‘Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (1949)’ (known to a few contrarian denialists as Boltzmann’s Entropy (1895)) be able to identify this? It should rise, since it is maximised when all species have an equal number of individuals, i.e. one bunting, one grasshopper; one krill, one baleen whale; one zebra, one lion etc. Ain’t ecology amazing?
Seriously, I’m glad the buntings are back.
P.S. Tiddy Oggies are the origin of the tribal chant ‘Oggie, oggie, oggie, ooai, ooai, ooai.’
There goes my Bullshit Canary falling off his perch again. Birds extinct in Cornwall? This is a piece of land 100km by 20km, it is owned by Prince Charlie. Devon, next door is three times larger. Was the Cornwall population extinct or did they just wander off to the bright lights of Devon to get laid and never came back.