I spent an hour or so with my son at Grafham Water on Sunday watching a great northern diver swimming and fishing amongst the dozens of great crested grebes that spend the winter on the reservoir. It was Jack’s first great northern diver and I explained that at this time of year their natural home is out at sea, this one ended up in the middle of England as a result of the winter’s storms.
Writing this in the depths of Bedfordshire I’m conscious that I’m in danger of sounding like a landlocked landlubber! But news from two parts of English coastline is a cause for some celebration – two new marine areas are now in line to be designated as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) recognising their international importance for bird conservation.
The two areas are Falmouth Bay to St Austell Bay in Cornwall and East Yorkshire’s Flamborough and Filey coast which is an extension of the Flamborough Head and Bempton Cliffs SPA. Both are now out for consultation - I’ll return to Flamborough in a future blog.
My colleague, Paul St Pierre is RSPB Conservation Officer for Cornwall (and definitely not a landlubber) sees the potential designation as an important step forward: ‘The coast is Cornwall’s biggest asset and it is the quality of this environment that makes it so valuable. Long known to be important for its wintering population of black throated and great northern divers and wintering Slavonian grebe this designation recognises the south Cornwall coast between the Helford River and St Austell Bay as one of the best places for wildlife in Europe. A designation that further recognises the area’s outstanding natural quality and helps secure it for the future.”
At this time of year the divers and Slavonian grebes are still in their battleship grey winter plumage, the coastal waters supporting around 20% of the UK’s black-throated divers, 3% of our great northern divers and over 1% of our Slavonian grebes.
Shades of Grey - great northern diver (top), black-throated diver (middle with winter and summer plumages) and Slavonian grebe (bottom with winter and summer plumages). Illustrations by Mike Langman
In welcoming the progress locally in Cornwall and East Yorkshire it’s important to realise that these are only the 3rd and 4th marine SPAs to come forward in England in the three decades since our network of marine sites should have been completed. Clear and evidence-based designation of the most important sites at sea (as on land) is crucial if wise decisions are to be made in terms of how they are managed or developments that can go ahead – our marine wildlife has been short changed for decades and these two announcements can only be a start.
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