News:
Project of the Month October 2024

Building modernisations, energy-efficient building renovations, loft conversions and the mania for order are robbing building-dwelling bird and bat species of a roof over their heads at an ever-faster rate.

Older people, in particular, can still remember who regularly got them out of bed early in the morning... it wasn't a hand-operated or digital alarm clock or the wake-up sound of a smartphone, but a cheerful flock of sparrows, chirping loudly on the gutter and exchanging the latest sparrow news. And these cheerful little restless guys are now very much missed by many people, including us!

The silent disappearance of our building-dwelling bird and bat species from our cities, towns and villages is accelerating unabated. Legal requirements for energy-efficient building renovations, perfect wall, roof and roof truss insulation, the sealing of every gap, and the conversion of attics into living space are robbing our native bird and bat species, which are dependent on buildings, of the roof over their heads thousands of times every year.

Without replacement building habitats, these wildlife species will die out quietly and ever faster. Extinction is irreversible!

Every spring, thousands of House Martins, Common Swifts, Common Starlings, Wagtails and Black Redstarts perch homeless in front of renovated buildings after their exhausting return from the south. There is no more room for them in their traditional roosts.

Why do we get so worked up about the continuing illegal killing of birds in southern Europe when, at the same time, the vast majority of politicians responsible for nature conservation show hardly any interest in species conservation regulations and concrete protection measures for building-dwelling bird and bat species?

Unfortunately, most house and flat owners also lack the awareness and willingness to get involved in protecting existing nesting and breeding sites or creating new ones on their buildings. However, both together have the same sad consequences for our birdlife as the mass illegal murder of birds in Southern Europe. Bird numbers are plummeting, so it inevitably becomes quiet and empty around the house and garden.

Former common bird species such as the Common Starling and the House Martin are already on the German Red List of Threatened Birds. The Tree Sparrow, which has been on the "early warning list" of endangered breeding birds since 2020, has been disappearing from our villages and from entire German federal states at breathtaking speed for the past three years!

What began in 2007 with the construction of our first species conservation tower in Wünschendorf/Elster in the district of Untitz, East Thuringia, has developed into an unparalleled species conservation success story over the years! This year alone, 430 pairs of birds and two Pipistrelle bat colonies bred and settled in our now 37 species conservation buildings and almost 1,800 bird chicks have seen the light of day in their safe and well-protected nests!

In spring 2023, near our wetland project "Seeländereien bei Frose" in the Salzland district of Saxony-Anhalt, we discovered a rather dilapidated disused transformer tower in the municipality of Winningen, a district of the town of Aschersleben, which, presumably because of its listed status, no one seemed to want to take responsibility for.

This transformer tower was just what we needed for our species conservation project work to benefit building-dwelling wildlife. Based on the easement to preserve the tower on the municipal property, which has now been entered in the land register for our Foundation, and the conversion permit under listed buildings protection law, we will begin converting this dilapidated transformer tower into our 38th species conservation building in autumn.

Our goal for this transformer tower is also to provide species-appropriate accommodation with suitable niches for roosting and wintering bird species, such as the Common Kestrel, Barn Owl, Eurasian Jackdaw, House and Tree Sparrow and bat species, by the end of November 2024 at the latest, and to provide secure sites for the migratory bird species that return from the south in the spring, such as the House Martin, Common Swift, Black Redstarts and Wagtails, for their breeding and rearing their young.

The conversion of the Winningen species conservation tower will cost us around 23,600 euros. We are still about 14,000 euros short of our target! Please help us, today if possible, with your dedicated project donation.