Besides training soldiers, an Army base is playing a vital role in detecting environmental changes, as Chris Brayshay discovers

KEY pointers to the state of Britain’s environment are being provided by an Army camp in North Yorkshire.

Catterick Garrison, near Richmond, is one of a chain of 120 sites across the UK, monitoring bird populations, survival rates and breeding success – providing the Government with important indicators of the environment we share with our feathered friends.

Like the 119 other sites ranged across Britain, the garrison collects its information by catching songbirds in mist-nets – 32 of them – stationed half a mile apart across the camp’s Foxglove Covert local nature reserve.

The numbers of adult birds caught can indicate changes in population size, while the young birds ringed are a pointer to breeding success. Re-trapped birds, ringed in previous years, indicate survival rates.

The monitoring scheme is organised and analysed by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), which lays down precise and exact rules to achieve the most accurate picture they can.

“Over a period of a year, the BTO gives you 12 dates and on the same 12 dates each year you have to ring, using the same number of nets in the same net rides (locations), for the same number of hours on the same days,” says Major Tony Crease, architect of the reserve.

“What is unique about this place is this is our 21st year. We have not missed a date yet and there are very few sites in the country that have done that.

“We do it over a period of 10.5 hours and over 21 years that amounts to a total of 2,646 hours on this scheme, without missing a date. We are the second biggest data producer in the UK.”

Qualified volunteer ringers have 12 ringing days between May and August each year, getting out of bed at 2am to erect the nets at dawn, which in summer can come between 3.30am and 4am. Last year’s long wet and stormy summer was a challenge to both birds and bird ringers alike but all targets were met.

To cause a caught bird minimum stress, the nets must be checked every 20 minutes, and with Foxglove’s 32 nets half a mile apart, that has meant covering a total of 4,032 miles in the past 21 years.

“Over the years we have had a number of different ringers who have helped us out each time and these people make a real sacrifice to do it,” says Maj Crease. “But what this work does is to allow professional analysts – ecologists – with the BTO to analyse environmental changes. This is an important contribution to the Government indicator, a pointer to the state of the environment in the UK – one of its primary uses. We have ringed a total of 40,074 birds on the programme over these 21 years – a substantial number of birds.”

Disquieting changes registered at Foxglove include fewer blue tits being caught in the nets and a fall in the numbers o f marsh and willow tits. Numbers of willow warblers – a summer visitor from Africa – have tumbled from 400 birds to about 150 caught this summer.

Lesser whitethroats no longer turn up at the reserve while whitethroats themselves have been “virtually lost” along with pied flycatchers and redstarts. Tree pipits are no longer found on the reserve, while turtle doves have vanished from the area.

Successive cold springs and – up to this year – wet summers over recent years have taken their toll of bird populations. Heavy rain means eggs and chicks are often chilled in their nests, while insects become a challenge to find.

More intensive farming has meant habitat loss.

In addition to the rigours of crossing natural obstacles such as seas and deserts, birds visiting Britain have to run the gauntlet of hunters in Mediterranean countries.

It costs £120,000 a year to keep the 100-acre reserve open and running.

“We explore every avenue we can including looking at grant-giving bodies. We have been very lucky in the past. But it is very difficult, there is no question about it. All we can do is plug away with fundraising – car boot sales and coffee mornings,” says the major.

“We get by having enthusiastic volunteers, who put in a lot of work, and the staff (of two) extra hours. We are where we are as a result of lots of superb volunteers, who come here absolutely routinely, bringing with them a variety of skills, and on whom we rely very heavily. We depend on their goodwill and that of the general public.”

  • Volunteers are packing bags at the check-outs in Tesco in Catterick Garrison on Saturday and holding a coffee morning in Richmond Town Hall on November 14 to