As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday, 7 July 2017

Spoonbills hatch three chicks at RSPB Fairburn Ings


4th July 2017

Rare protected birds have hatched three chicks at a bird reserve near Leeds, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has confirmed.

The presence of breeding spoonbills at the RSPB's Fairburn Ings reserve in West Yorkshire had been kept secret.

Spoonbills have not nested regularly in the UK since the 1700s but are now returning.

There are about 20 birds wintering in the country and this is the first hatching in the north, the RSPB said.

There are fewer than five pairs of the tall, white, heron-like birds breeding annually in the UK, according to the charity.

The four adult birds at Fairburn Ings, near Castleford, have black legs and an enormous spoon-shaped bill used to sweep through the water from side to side when scouring for food.

Continued

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