Terns, spoonbills and visiting
hoopoes will be given protection
Science Editor
Sunday 3 December
2017 00.04 GMT
Little terns and black-throated
divers are among the seabirds that have been given greater protection after a
stretch of coastline in Cornwall was awarded special status to safeguard its
wildlife. The newly designated marine special protected area
(SPA), which stretches for 24 miles between Falmouth Bay and St
Austell Bay, is home to more than 150,000 rare seabirds.
Great northern divers and
Eurasian spoonbills are also visitors along with sandwich terns and common
terns. All are amber-listed by conservation groups because they have suffered
significant losses of numbers and range in the recent past.
The newly designated stretch of
land covers an area equivalent to 55,000 football pitches and has been set up
to help minimise disturbance to the birds that feed there and who use the
Cornish coastal areas as a safe haven during winter. The region is considered
to be a bird-watcher’s heaven because rare birds, blown off course during their
migration, also make occasional unscheduled stops. These infrequent visitors
include the exotic-looking hoopoe, with its long pinkish-brown crest, that
every so often gets diverted en route from Africa to northern Europe.
The latest expansion of Britain’s
marine special protected areas will make a significant addition to the UK Blue
Belt programme, which already protects 23% of UK waters, and
which consists of more than 300 sites across land.
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