As you may know, we are celebrating 50 golden years of giving nature a home this year. Given that our first avocet of 2014 arrived on Wednesday, I thought this week I would have a look back at their story....

Avocets once nested in many parts of the UK, but  due to the loss of important wetlands where they live, they were extinct as a breeding bird in this country by around 1840. However, during World War Two, the coastal marshes of East Anglia were flooded for defence. This created perfect breeding habitat for avocets and a very small number of them returned. Early protection at our Havergate Island and Minsmere reserves in Suffolk helped their numbers to increase and they spread out to other sites. It is because of this amazing success by the RSPB, that the avocet is the bird on our logo.

When you chat to John Wilson, the first Warden here from 1964-2000 (and who is still a very active volunteer today), he says how in the early days, it was unthinkable that avocets would ever breed here at Leighton Moss. We are very much further north than their range at the time. You can imagine the excitement in May 1997 when the first avocet was spotted on the saltmarsh, just a single bird that year!

  Avocet by David Mower

It wasn't for another five years however, that they first bred here. It was the first ever nesting attempt in north west England so was incredibly exciting, with staff and volunteers watching over them day and night. Sadly, the first nest failed, but they had a second attempt. Two eggs hatched, with one of the chicks fledging the nest! The first young avocet for Leighton Moss!

  Avocet chick by David Tipling (rspb-images.com)

The following year, there were three pairs.Two of them nested, but both flooded out. They re-nested and raised seven young between them.  The third pair hung around but failed to lay.

Avocets have had their ups and downs here since then, with high tides, floods, droughts and predators to contend with. Some years there have been no young fledged, other years there have been small numbers. The years from 2007 to 2010 were particularly hard for them, with either none, or one chick fledged. 

  Avocet turning eggs by Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)

However, in 2011 this picked up and nine young ones fledged. The following year however was absolutely unbelievable. 48 young avocets fledged from 19 nests! It was SO exciting and caused much celebration here. It was around the time that the London Olympics were on - our avocets were certainly gold medal breeders!

Last year, though not quite so phenominal, was still an exceptionally good year for them, with 22 successfully fledging.

Since 2001, Leighton Moss and Morecambe Bay nature reserve has added a staggering 109 new avocets to the population in the UK (and who knows, they could all be out in the world somewhere still). Many hundreds of hours of effort has been put into ensuring their success, from both staff and volunteers, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our members, whose generosity allows us to carry out all of our important work, to help save nature. To all of our members, a huge THANK YOU!! If you are not already, we'd love you to join next time you visit us.

  Avocet flock by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)