Rare birds to be protected at Poole Harbour

22 January 2019

Rare and endangered birds will be protected with the expansion of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Dorset, Natural England has said.

A further 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres) of land and sea at Poole Harbour is to be moved into the SSSI.

Its saltmarshes and mudflats are a feeding and breeding ground for seabirds including spoonbills, avocets and black-tailed godwits.

They are all listed on Schedule 1 of The Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Spoonbills are also described as a "very rare breeding bird" in the UK by the RSPB.

Natural England said: "Below the waves, seagrass beds flourish in the shallows while the channels hide the spectacular peacock worm and a rich variety of other marine species including sponges, sea squirts and tube worms."

Emma Rance, marine conservation officer at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said the seagrass beds "provide refuge for juvenile fish and shellfish which become a rich food source for overwintering and roosting seabirds".

More than 4,100 hectares (10,100 acres) of the harbour are already protected within the SSSI.

This SSSI extension connects to heathland as well as marine habitat protected under the Bluebelt programme, including Poole Rocks Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), and Studland Bay proposed MCZ.

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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.

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Dorset records largest flock of spoonbills ever seen in Britain

The largest flock of spoonbills ever to be seen in Britain was sighted on the Brownsea Island Lagoon of Dorset last month.

The spoonbill is still rare in the UK, and is listed as Amber status of European conservation concern.

“To have 47 spoonbill in the harbour is a fantastic sight, and goes to show how successful their breeding colonies are doing elsewhere,” says Paul Morton from charity Birds of Poole Harbour.

“After looking at their colouring and from previous years’ data, we suspect they have come from Holland or Belgium. For around 50 years Poole Harbour has only ever had two to three spoonbills during the winter, but this last decade has seen numbers grow year on year as youngsters follow their parents back to their wintering quarters."

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