10:27am Wednesday 3rd December 2008
One of the most spectacular sights on the South Coast is under threat from climate change.
Every evening at this time of year, tens of thousands of starlings perform a breathtaking aerial ballet before coming home to roost on the West Pier Brighton.
The astonishing natural phenomenon attracts visitors from far and wide all winter until the birds leave for their breeding grounds in Britain and Eastern Europe.
For the first time this year the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Brighton and Hove City Council rangers are patrolling the pier at weekends and loaning out binoculars and telescopes to give watchers a closer look.
But they have warned the scene could soon by a thing of the past because of climate change and a loss of habitat.
About 40,000 starlings are known to roost on the pier but 30 years ago there were up to 250,000 birds.
Dan Parkinson, from the RSPB, said: “Nowadays we have not got that many – probably only 10% of the amount we used to have – and we think it is because of the changes in farming methods and the loss of habitat.”
Throughout Britain as a whole, the starling population has declined by two thirds since the 1970s and the bird is now listed as a species of conservation concern.
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