It’s been a great few months for the UK’s skies. Not because of the weather – although that hasn’t been half bad either – but because of the birds.
Golden eagles, the largest of the eagle family, were spotted last month in England for the first time in a decade, and sea eagles have also been reintroduced into our ecosystems after 200 years of absence. On top of that, the common crane, which was hunted to near-extinction in the 16th century, has made a comeback. As if all of that wasn’t enough to keep Britain’s birdwatchers busy, we’ve got some big news about spoonbills.
The uniquely-beaked Eurasian Spoonbill used to be a common sight across the UK, but, like so many great things, once humans got involved things went downhill. By the 1660s we had killed and eaten almost all of them, and it wasn’t until last year that the species began to recover.
Last August, the RSPB reported that there were around 90 groups of Eurasian spoonbills at various nature reserves across the country, and that there were high hopes for their future. Those hopes seem to be being realised, as another pair has managed to breed, as conservationists found them with ten baby birds across four nests in Wild Ken Hill nature reserve in west Norfolk.
This is a big deal because it’s the first time that birds at this particular park have managed to breed successfully, so it’s a very positive sign.
Hetty Grant, conservation manager at the reserve, shared her support for the birds saying that ‘Spoonbills are such odd-looking birds you can’t help but be enthusiastic about them, especially considering the struggles they are enduring as a species’.
Hopefully this trend will continue, and more and more spoonbills will manage to have more hatchlings until the species become ubiquitous enough across the country that we can all have a look at their weird, wonderful beaks in real life.
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