From their unexpected first appearance in June 2006, to their earliest ever arrival on February 16 2019, the buzz surrounding our avocets builds each year.
These striking black and white waders may look dainty, with their slim upturned bills and delicate legs, but boy, are they tenacious.
They return to Wader Lake each breeding season, having overwintered anywhere from estuaries on the South coast to places as far away as Spain and Morocco, and are often met with harsh weather conditions, but soon set about courting unperturbed.
The shingle islands of our lake were created especially to provide vital breeding and nesting habitat for a range of bird species and after pairing off, the avocets set up home here beneath our grey heron colony, as a way of protecting their young from predators vicariously.
This is a risky bet, given that the herons will also soon have hungry mouths to feed, but worth it on balance and if you’ve ever seen a feisty adult avocet ward off a potential threat to its brood, you might argue that they don’t need such help!
In heavy spring rain, the islands can also flood, sweeping away nests and eggs in the process, but if it’s early enough in the season, the undaunted adults will lay again.
This determination against the odds seems fitting for a bird which first colonised Britain in the 1940s, when coastal marshes in East Anglia were flooded to provide a defence against possible invasion by the Germans. The subsequent increase in numbers is one of the UK’s most successful conservation and protection projects.
So with February underway and the weather seemingly mild (for now!), it’s all eyes on the skies to see when these remarkable birds will make their welcome return this year…
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