Meet Sarah Dann and Bethany Clarkson, rangers at St Nicholas Fields, York!

Sarah and Bethany both started training as rangers in June 2021 at St Nicholas Fields, a local nature reserve charity in York. St Nicks also supports other organisations to deliver practical conservation work across ‘corridors’ through the city. Both Sarah and Bethany finished their traineeship in October, and since then have been lucky to continue working at St Nicks. Beth has loved being outdoors for as long as she can remember, after spending her childhood horse riding in the countryside. During a degree in Zoology and a master's in Environmental Science, Beth developed a particular passion for predicting and monitoring the response of different species to ecological and climactic change. Sarah did not study ecology at university but volunteered at St Nicks throughout her studies. Her volunteering, alongside interests in hiking, wild camping, and climbing made her realise that she wanted a future working in nature and with local communities. She is building up her knowledge with identifying wildlife, and at the moment is interested in birds and moths. You can contact Sarah at sarah.a.dann@gmail.com and Bethany at bethanyclarkson21@gmail.com.

Sarah and Beth’s chosen species is the Greenfinch Chloris chloris. This familiar garden bird is instantly recognisable for its green plumage and yellow flash along its wing and tail. They are native to Europe and are widely distributed in the urban and rural gardens, farmland, and woodlands of the UK. Greenfinches are synonymous with English gardens and the countryside, so much so that they were introduced to Australia and New Zealand by English settlers as a reminder of home. Although they’re relatively social birds, you might find them squabbling amongst themselves and other species on bird tables and feeders. With an MA in Medieval Studies, Sarah looked into the etymology of the word finch, which comes from an Old English word, finc. It derives from the bird’s family, Fringillidae, which possibly has its origins referring to the colour or call of finches. They can go by other names such as the Green Linnet in the US, and recently genetic studies have resulted in their genus changing from Carduelis to Chloris, the Ancient Greek word for green. You can read more about the Greenfinch on the NBN Atlas.

Once a frequent visitor to our gardens, the greenfinch has seen a rapid decline in the last decade. They are now classified as Red under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). Following estimated declines of up to 66% of the breeding population of Greenfinches in the UK since 2006 (Chavette et al., 2019), the recently published December 2021 Birds of Conservation List saw a drastic shift from the Green to Red List for this once commonly observed farmland and much-loved garden bird (Stanbury et al., 2021). This alarming decline was officially declared as linked to a full-scale UK epidemic back in 2006 by the British Trust for Ornithology, initiated by the parasite Trichomonas gallinae, which causes trichomonosis. This disease causes issues with the back of the throat and the gullet of the bird, preventing proper feeding and breathing. The disease is common in pigeons and doves but appears to have jumped species with devastating consequences. Feeding increasingly in gardens since the 1960s, this disease has been widely associated with repeated congregations of Greenfinch at garden feeding stations (Lawson et al., 2018). Recent research also suggests that increasing summer droughts caused by ongoing climate change have negatively impacted Greenfinch survival rates, with suggestions that disease transmission is further exacerbated by hotter and drier summers (Higgins and Crick, 2019).

However, research efforts suggest that simple changes, like arable winter seed provision, tree presence, and hedgerow management can support effects large enough to reverse local Greenfinch population declines (Dadam and Siriwardena, 2019). Leaving fields as grassland has, in some instances, trebled Greenfinch territory density (Tresise et al., 2021).

‘Wildwatch, one of our volunteer groups at St Nicks, regularly surveys the reserve and notes down any finds, but they have found very little evidence of breeding or nesting Greenfinch’ explain Sarah and Beth. ‘During 2012-2013, we regularly looked for evidence of breeding for the BTO atlas project. Since then the breeding evidence has become much more random. Unfortunately, St Nicks may not be the best territory for nests as they seem to prefer to nest in dense bushes, particularly evergreens. Our record of greenfinches reported on the reserve doesn't show a strong negative or positive link to the overall population decline. Though it does not indicate any larger estimates of population, it is good there has not been a strong decline reported in the reserve.’ Beth is often involved with the volunteer recording on the site, and having jotted down Greenfinch regularly since she began training, she was shocked to read about its population decline, which led to the creation of this blog.

Not only are larger-scale changes to the way we manage land providing hope for the Greenfinch, but there are also ways we can individually make our gardens safer. One of the most important actions is regularly cleaning bird feeders, tables and baths, so that trichomonosis spreads less readily amongst the local population. We can also make sure to include some of their favourites in our bird seed, namely black sunflower seeds and sunflower hearts.

Monitoring

If you find a sick bird in your garden, report it to Garden Wildlife Health using the following link, so that the BTO can track the spread of the disease that is causing so much harm to one of our favourite garden visitors. Initiatives such as BTO’s Garden Birdwatch and annual surveys such as RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch can also help monitor Greenfinch populations.

Further information and acknowledgements

NEYEDC would like to thank Sarah and Bethany for their time and expertise in helping to create this blog.

References:

Chavatte, J.M., Giraud, P., Esperet, D., Place, G., Cavalier, F. and Landau, I. (2019). ‘An outbreak of trichomonosis in European greenfinches Chloris chloris and European goldfinches Carduelis carduelis wintering in Northern France.’ Parasite, 26. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2019022

Dadam, D. and Siriwardena, G.M. (2019). ‘Agri-environment effects on birds in Wales: Tir Gofal benefited woodland and hedgerow species.’ Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 284, p.106587. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2019.106587

Pearce-Higgins, J.W. and Crick, H.Q.P. (2019). ‘One-third of English breeding bird species show evidence of population responses to climatic variables over 50 years.’ Bird Study, 66(2), pp.159-172. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2019.1630360

Lawson, B., Robinson, R.A., Toms, M.P., Risely, K., MacDonald, S. and Cunningham, A.A. (2018). ‘Health hazards to wild birds and risk factors associated with anthropogenic food provisioning.’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1745), p.20170091. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0091

Stanbury, A., Eaton, M., Aebischer, N., Balmer, D., Brown, A., Douse, A., Lindley, P., McCulloch, N., Noble, D., and Win I. (2021). ‘The status of our bird populations: the fifth Birds of Conservation Concern in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and second IUCN Red List assessment of extinction risk for Great Britain. British Birds 114: 723-747’. Available at: https://britishbirds. co.uk/content/status-our-bird-populations (Accessed 14/2/22).

Tresise, M.E., Biffi, S., Field, R.H. and Firbank, L.G. (2021). ‘Drivers of songbird territory density in the boundaries of a lowland arable farm.’ Acta Oecologica, 111, p.103720. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2021.103720

NEYEDC would like to thank Sarah and Beth for their time and expertise in helping to create this blog. If you’d be interested in contributing a piece for the series, contact Lucy at lucy.baldwin@neyedc.co.uk. To find out more about biological recording, see the Naturalists page on our website.

The Natural History of Yorkshire in 100 Species

#25 Greenfinch by Sarah Dann & Bethany Clarkson

Monitoring

Further information and acknowledgements