During the first week of the new year, I try to get to RSPB reserves that I haven't yet visited. Shockingly, until last week, I hadn't been to our sites on the Ribble (Marshside and Hesketh Out Marsh) or the Dee (Burton Mere and Parkgate) estuaries. These are remarkable places and I was lucky to witness the wildlife spectacles provided at high tide last week. On the Dee, I was one of hundreds of people lining the banks of the estuary watching the drama unfold as the incoming tide flushed birds roosting on the saltmarsh such as short-eared owls while herons and egrets waited for tidal refugees seeking safety. Like crocodiles waiting for wildebeest on the Serengeti, the avian predators calmly hung around until the small mammals and small waterbirds came their way. Voles and water rails were targeted - mostly successfully but some did manage to escape.
RSPB reserves on the Dee and Ribble Estuaries: (clockwise from top left) Burton Mere, Marshside, Hesketh Out Marsh, Parkgate
Seeing the density of birds at these reserves (especially at Marshside where the concentration of waterbirds was extraordinary) was a great reminder of the the importance of UK estuaries for wildlife (we have 90 which is a quarter of all in Europe). Millions of waterbirds overwinter on the UK’s wetlands, many of which use estuaries to take advantage of their rich food supplies: c100,000 on the Dee and c300,000 on the Ribble. Yet, these estuaries are under pressure from climate change, fishing, recreation and development which is why we have been working hard to restore lost habitat. On the Ribble, we completed a managed realignment project to restore >300 hectares of saltmarsh while at Burton Mere we have converted arable fields into a freshwater wetland. Both projects (supported by Environment Agency, Natural England, local authorities and funders like WREN) took more than a decade to complete but the results are really impressive.
While much conservation attention has rightly focused on our declining summer migrants (especially those that winter in West Africa), we must not lose sight of the importance of protecting our internationally important estuaries and wintering waterbird populations. The State of UK Birds report gives an annual assessment of the health of our wintering birds (thanks to the Wetland Bird Survey - WeBS - led by BTO) and the 2017 report shows that "populations rose steadily from the mid-1970s into the late 1990s... [but the] numbers fell by 8%, with declines being particularly marked amongst wintering waders". While some species such as pink-footed geese are doing well (with 30,000 visiting the Ribble over the past few years) wintering numbers for some waders such as curlew are down. This is of particular concern as their breeding numbers are also down and is why we have established our curlew recovery programme. So, while we find ways to increase the breeding performance of curlew (where the UK provides up to 27% off the global population), we mustn't neglect the importance of its wintering sites.
The RSPB has been involved in a number of campaigns to protect UK estuaries over the past few decades (including protecting the Severn from an unsustainable tidal barrage and the Thames - repeatedly - from airport development) and we will be ready to take a stand again whenever the need arises.
Our estuaries are incredible places for wildlife and, if you need reminding, check the tide tables and visit one this winter. You won't be disappointed.
Just at the moment I am visiting the Solaway Estuary and Mersehead
for the first time it is a stunning area with the barnacle geese, the pink feet geese and the whooper swans. As you say our Estuaries are simply superb and so vitally important for these birds that have come all the way from eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, andSvalbard.