Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council

• Our Borough
• The Council
• Events 2008
• Building Control
• Community & Economic Development
• District Policing Partnership
• Environmental Health
  • Environmental Protection
    • Air Quality Management
      • AIR QUALITY
  • Consumer Protection
  • Dog Control
    • LOST OR ADOPTING DOGS
  • EMS- Environmental Management System
  • Food Control
  • Health and Safety at Work
    • SMOKE FREE ENVIRONMENT
      • SMOKE FREE ENVIRONMENT - THE LAW
    • Healthy Workplace Campaign
  • Licencing and Regulations
  • Agenda 21
    • FAIRTRADE INITIATIVE
      • Fairtrade Forum for Key Stage 2
      • Fairtrade Fortnight 2008
    • LOUGH NEAGH WETLANDS TREE SPARROW PROJECT
    • ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT PROJECT
    • ENERGY EFFICIENCY
    • Dungannon & South Tyrone Biodiversity Action Plan
      • Biodiversity
      • Policy Context of Local Biodiversity Action Plans
      • The Project
      • Getting Involved
    • Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Super Whooper Project
    • South Tyrone's Food Futures
    • Washingbay Local Nature Reserve
      • Visitors from Los Angeles make a difference in the
    • Lough Neagh Wetlands Local Biodiversity Action Pl
    • Addressing climate change
  • Markets
• Tourism, Culture and Leisure
• Technical Services
• Rates Information
• Freedom of Information
• Registration
• Complaints Procedure
• Business Directory
• A-Z Services
• Online Gallery
• Find Us
• FAQs
• Links
• Publications
• Videos
• Blog

LOUGH NEAGH WETLANDS TREE SPARROW PROJECT

PROJECT IN PLACE TO AID THREATENED LOUGH NEAGH WETLANDS TREE SPARROW

Local farmers and land owners around Lough Neagh are coming to the aid of the nationally threatened tree sparrow population.  Ten farmers and land owners in the Dungannon Borough area agreed to having nest boxes erected and feeding and monitoring carried out on their land.  This is as part of the Lough Neagh Wetlands Tree Sparrow Project, which is a partnership between the land owners around Lough Neagh, the Lough Neagh Advisory Committee (LNAC), the RSPB, DARD, the EHS and the seven councils around Lough Neagh.  The project aims to determine what the best breeding conditions are for the beleaguered tree sparrow and how farmers and conservationists can help them recover.

The tree sparrow has declined by 95% per cent in the last 40 years but Lough Neagh is one of the last remaining strongholds for this bird.  Tree sparrows appear to favour farmland close to water and this is evident by the number of birds present in the Lough Neagh wetlands.  However, this theory is being tested by providing suitable nesting and feeding habitats along waterways to see if they can be encouraged to spread out to new areas.   This will help inform the future management of farmland habitat for the species.

In the Dungannon Borough the project is supported by Dungannon & South Tyrone Borough Council through their Agenda 21 unit. With the help of an RSPB officer, nest boxes have been set up at ten sites both along the river Blackwater and in the Washingbay area.  Ten bird boxes have been placed on trees and in hedgerows at each site, making a total of 100 nest boxes in the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough! 

300kg of birdseed has been delivered to each site and local volunteers kindly agreed to carryout the weekly feed over the winter months.  The project is now entering the phase where this weekly feeding will cease as the insect population begins to increase with the coming of Spring.  The tree sparrows are also entering the nesting phase of the year.  They have a long breeding season, (mid April to mid September), during which time they are very sensitive to disturbance.  They can produce up to three broods during this time; taking four weeks from the eggs are laid until the young birds leave the nest.  Once again, local volunteers have agreed to monitor the nest boxes over this breeding season.  These summer surveys will show how the birds are responding to the conservation work by measuring the occupancy of the nest boxes and will continue over a two-year period. The results will be collated in the winter of 2008 and the LNAC and RSPB hope that they will prove that by targeting land close to waterways with nest boxes and feeding habitat, that the tree sparrow population can be encouraged to expand. 

Four primary schools have been involved in learning about the tree sparrow and the Lough Neagh Wetlands Tree Sparrow Project.  Aughamullan Primary School, St John’s Primary School, Primate Dixon Primary School and Clintyclay Primary School have all taken part in identification sessions provided by the Agenda 21 unit, so that they know the difference between their house sparrows and their tree sparrows!  They learned about why the tree sparrow is in decline and how they can encourage and monitor the species in their area. Pupils at Aughamullan Primary School were also able to take practical action by helping to erect bird boxes on farmland close to their school in January of this year.

In addition to this, Aughamullan Primary School and St John’s Primary School took part in a Bird Watch at Washingbay on 7^th March ‘07.  The Bird Watch was organised by Dungannon & South Tyrone Borough Council’s Agenda 21 unit in conjunction with Seamus Burns, LNAC’s Local Biodiversity Officer, to highlight the local and international importance of Lough Neagh for its birds.  The school children learned how to recognise the birds that live in this special wetland area and found out more about the Lough Neigh wetland ecosystem.  Yvonne Zellmann, Agenda 21 Co-ordinator for Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council explains:

"Lough Neagh provides a great outdoor learning opportunity for young and old alike. Through the bird watch pupils from Aughamullan and St. John’s Primary schools were able to learn first hand about various species of birds and their habitat requirements. Hopefully events like this will help to raise local awareness of issues such as the protection of wildlife and preservation of our natural wetlands that are host to a diverse range of flora and fauna.”

The tree sparrow is a farmland bird, and like the yellowhammer, subsists on grain in the winter and insects in the summer. It relies on healthy hedgerows, field margins and grass seeds. It also frequents arable fields. Lough Neagh is an ideal place for it as the wet shoreline is rich in insect food, which it uses to feed its young during the summer. The main cause of its decline is thought to be related to recent changes in agriculture, especially the local decline in arable farming.

According to the RSPB, the tree sparrow is on a ‘red list’, meaning that if the decline of this once common bird continues, it may face extinction. The RSPB is keen to point out that how bird populations are faring indicate the state of the environment and that we should all be concerned if bird numbers fall to dangerously low levels.

If you are interested in carrying out monitoring of tree sparrows and other birds in  the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough, at your home or at your school, then please contact Yvonne Zellmann or Jill Hamilton on (028)87720366 or email yvonne.zellmann@dungannon.gov.uk or jill.hamilton@dungannon.gov.uk to find out more.

For more information about the Lough Neagh Wetlands Tree Sparrow Project go to http://www.loughneagh.com/treesparrow.html

How can I tell the difference between my Tree Sparrows & my House Sparrows?

You can ask any of the clever primary school pupils that participated in Agenda 21 Tree Sparrow information sessions, but if you don’t have one of these pupils to hand then here are a few tips!

• The tree sparrow is smaller then the house sparrow and is much more shy.
• The tree sparrow lives in communities in trees, hedges and woodland edges, in quiet areas free from too much human activity. 
• The house sparrow, however, happily lives alongside man in gardens, buildings and in towns. 
• The tree sparrow has a chestnut brown head whereas the house sparrow has a grey head. 
• Another difference between these two birds is that the tree sparrow has a black patch on its cheek, whereas the house sparrow does not.