Estuary waterbirds experience mixed fortunes - State of the UK's Birds 2011

A new report shows signs of dramatic changes for our wintering waterbirds, with a few reaching their highest levels while others have dropped to their lowest.

The State of the UK’s Birds 2011, published by a coalition of conservation organizations, pulls together data from bird surveys and monitoring schemes from across the UK to produce the latest population figures on a number of species including waterbirds. Since the first report was published 12 years ago the results shows that overall numbers of wintering waterbirds have been in shallow decline.

In Kent their fortunes are mixed. The Medway Estuary which is one of the principal monitoring sites for the report, and supports internationally important numbers of avocet, black-tailed godwit and pintail, has seen its total number of waterbirds decline by 60% since the late 1990s. However in contrast, the Swale Estuary has seen its waterbird numbers increase by 8% over the same period. Ranked the 13^th most important site for waterbirds, internationally important numbers of gadwall, little egret and teal are supported here.

Source:RSPB

(Published 30/11/2011)

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