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.

Wednesday, 26 December 2018

Kent nightingale habitat gets a welcome reprieve

Developers scale back housing building plans at Britain's best site for nightingales.


December 22, 2018 at 8:30 am


The threat to important habitat for the UK’s dwindling population of nightingales has receded somewhat with the decision by Homes England to scale back its plans for the Lodge Hill site in Kent from 2,000 houses to 500.

Aside from reducing the numbers of houses, Homes England also said that it is now only intends building outside the boundary of the protected area.

The long-running effort to save Lodge Hill, Britain’s best site for nightingales and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) has been going on since 2014, when it was announced that 5,000 houses were to be built.

Three rounds of public campaigning took place in 2014, 2017 and 2018, led by the RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with several other organisations.

Lodge Hill holds up to 85 singing nightingales, out of a national population of only 5,500 in a 2012 British Trust for Ornithology survey.

No comments:

Post a Comment