Colonisation of UK wetland birds

The white stork reintroduction project in West Sussex continues to make progress. There are currently seven nests on the Knepp Estate with a total of thirty eggs between them. Two of the nests have already hatched chicks, as the parents have been seen regurgitating food.

Information comes from the Facebook page of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, who are part of the White Stork Project.
 
While it hasn't been widely-reported yet, I have recently seen news that a pair of Eurasian spoonbills are now breeding in the mixed-species rookery at Abberton Reservoir in Essex. At least two chicks have been spotted in the nest. This constitutes the first breeding record for the species in Essex.

A video of one of the spoonbills on the nest can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=402170831179965

Last year, Abberton also saw its first nesting of Western cattle egrets and in 2019 there were 31 pairs of little egrets - the first little egret nests there were from 2014.
 
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Great white egrets have had a record breeding year in Somerset, with an estimated fifty chicks now hatched on the Avalon Marshes this year. Nesting took place at ten separate locations across Shapwick Heath, Ham Wall and Westhay reserves, with 25 of the 37 nests found going on to successfully fledge young.

The great white egret first bred in the UK in 2012 at Shapwick Heath.

An article about the successful breeding season can be found in the link below:
Record year for Somerset Great Egrets - BirdGuides
 
Early indications are that Eurasian bitterns have had an excellent breeding season in England.

They have bred in the West Midlands for the first time in a century, with five young fledging from two nests at the RSPB's Middleton Lakes reserve. Remarkably, a booming male bittern was first heard on the reserve as recently as March. Both broods were raised in a new six hectare reedbed on the reserve.

In Cheshire, bitterns bred for the first time at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB.

At Leighton Moss RSPB, the number of booming males reached six this spring - the highest number since the 1990s.

In West Yorkshire, four booming male bitterns were recorded at St Aidan's RSPB, with four nests now confirmed. Two further males were booming at Fairburn Ings RSPB and another four were booming at Old Moor RSPB in South Yorkshire.

Ouse Fen RSPB in Cambridgeshire has enjoyed a record-breaking year, with twelve booming males on site. The reserve is part of a project to restore an old sand and gravel quarry to wildlife-rich wetland habitat which will cover an equivalent area of 980 football pitches by 2030.

At Dungeness RSPB in Kent, efforts to create new habitat for bitterns has paid off, with six booming males heard at the reserve this year. This total is believed to be a county record.

More information can be found in the link below:
Bittern continues to prosper across England - BirdGuides
 
The Knepp Estate is set for a record breeding season for reintroduced white storks, with thirty-seven eggs counted across nine nests so far this year.

Further information can be found in the link below:
Knepp set for record White Stork breeding season - BirdGuides

Another wetland bird doing well as a result of reintroduction - for the first time in 200 years, a pair of ospreys have laid an egg at a secret location in the Poole Harbour area of Dorset. The reintroduction to Dorset began in 2017.

Information about this can be found here:
First osprey egg laid in southern England for 200 years - BirdGuides
 
A pair of black-winged stilts have successfully hatched at least two eggs at Potteric Carr in Yorkshire. This is the first successful breeding in the county and possibly the most northerly breeding success for this species ever in the UK. The two chicks were seen on Tuesday 14th June, hatched from eggs laid about a month ago.

More information can be found in the link below:
Black-winged Stilt breeds in Yorkshire for first time - BirdGuides
 
There is a new article about the upcoming release of white storks at Knepp, with a further 37 birds (captive-bred at both Cotswold Wildlife Park and Wildwood) due to be released in the second week of August.

The project has enjoyed its most successful year to date, with nineteen young fledging from eight nests on the Knepp estate as well as a single chick fledging at another site in East Sussex - this is the first successful breeding from another site.

The article can be seen here:
Knepp boosts stork population with more releases - BirdGuides
 
DesertRhino150 said:
There is a new article about the upcoming release of white storks at Knepp, with a further 37 birds (captive-bred at both Cotswold Wildlife Park and Wildwood) due to be released in the second week of August.
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I wonder how they release them, a sudden/hard release or is it a 'softer' one, being held in an enclosure there for some time previously to accustom them to the area.? On Monday Cotswold WP still had a large number of White Stork in their netted enclosure. Either they've been sent to Knepp for this release since then, or they have a whole lot more still at the Park.
 
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Were the spoonbills introduced or flew in from Europe also have black storks been introduced yet or planned
 
No Spoonbill introductions, all self-colonised AFAIK. Similarly, no plans to introduce Black Stork; I don’t think there is any evidence that they have ever been anything other than a scarce vagrant.
 
Pertinax said:
I wonder how they release them, a sudden/hard release or is it a 'softer' one, being held in an enclosure there for some time previously to accustom them to the area.? On Monday Cotswold WP still had a large number of White Stork in their netted enclosure. Either they've been sent to Knepp for this release since then, or they have a whole lot more still at the Park.
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They've been at Knepp since late July.
 
A pair of ospreys have successfully bred in Yorkshire for the first time since records began in 1800. The young adult pair, at Bolton Castle Estate near Leyburn, have produced two chicks - a male and a female.

The colonisation took place after the pair was seen lingering in the area (sightings of osprey in the area have become increasingly frequent over the past 20 years), and were encouraged to remain by the use of nesting platforms and by stocking two ponds nearby with trout.

More information can be found in the link below:
Osprey breeds in Yorkshire for first time in 'hundreds of years' - BirdGuides
 
Holkham Estate in Norfolk have recorded another record year for Eurasian spoonbills, with 43 pairs fledging 77 chicks. Since the birds recolonised Norfolk around 12 years ago, the marshes at Holkham have had almost 500 chicks fledge.

Given the success, Holkham Estate have announced plans to expand spoonbill habitat with new ditches and tree-covered islands being made to futureproof the colony. The hope is that other species such as little, cattle and great white egrets will also benefit.

Until 2017, spoonbills only nested at Holkham in the UK. Since then, they have spread to another site in Norfolk (Cley Marshes, in 2022), Yorkshire (Fairburn Ings RSPB in 2017), Suffolk (Havergate Island in 2020) and Essex (Abberton Reservoir in 2021 - I know they have bred here again in 2022).

More information can be found in the link below:
Spoonbill numbers reach all-time high at Holkham - BirdGuides
 
The Rare Breeding Birds Panel report for 2020 has recently been released which has some interesting information, even if it is two years after the recording was done.

Although surveying was made extremely difficult by coronavirus lockdowns, it was established that twelve species had their best-ever breeding seasons. Most of these were wetland birds, including Eurasian bittern (their breeding numbers have increased every year for 15 years now), common crane, European spoonbill, great white and cattle egrets, white-tailed eagle and red-necked phalarope. A good year was recorded for the breeding whooper swan population, which had at least 26 breeding pairs.

Among non-wetland birds, the goshawk had a new record year and the number of honey-buzzards has also shown a substantial increase since the last survey twenty years ago.

The marsh warbler had its best breeding season since 1997 and the Savi's warbler had its best year since 1992. Red-backed shrikes and fieldfares were both recorded breeding and a pair of wryneck were found prospecting for nest sites in west Wales - the first pair seen since 2002.

Some birds had very poor years - 2020 was the first year since 1975 that the Montagu's harrier completely failed to breed in the UK.

An article about the survey, with particular emphasis on the harriers, can be seen here:
Montagu's Harrier disappears as UK breeding species - BirdGuides

The official RBBP press release can be found here:
2020 report overview

The summary table for the 2020 survey can be seen here:
https://rbbp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2020-RBBP-report-summary-table.pdf
 
A pair of common cranes have fledged two chicks at the recently-created Snape Wetlands reserve on the Suffolk coast, the first time this species has been recorded breeding in the area. The news has only been announced now that the pair and their chicks have left the site, to ensure they were not disturbed.

More information can be found in the link below:
Cranes fledge young on Suffolk coast for the first time - BirdGuides
 
I figured I would put a couple more updates here about arriving wetland birds:

Common crane numbers continue to rise in Lincolnshire, with no fewer than four pairs now suspected to be breeding in the county:
Common Crane on the rise in Lincolnshire - BirdGuides

Also in Lincolnshire, a pair of black-winged stilts has bred for the first time, hatching four chicks at RSPB Frampton Marsh, within a fenced area to protect wading birds from ground predators:
Black-winged stilts breed for first time in Lincolnshire

It is hinted at in the end of the article above, but this year has seen a big influx of certain southern wetland birds. It is suspected that this is because of extreme droughts in southern Spain. An article in the most recent RSPB magazine talks about the need to create habitat to support these species travelling north, and includes some figures about the numbers of certain species.

From 15th March to 10th May 2023, the UK saw arrivals of:
26 glossy ibises, 10 on RSPB reserves
29 purple herons, 3 on RSPB reserves
71 black-winged stilts, 20 on RSPB reserves (record numbers)
76 black-crowned night herons, 7 on RSPB reserves (record numbers)
 
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