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Birds of shingle
Shingle provide important habitat for a number of birds, which can be divided
into three groups. Most of these occur more abundantly elsewhere. These can
be divided into three main groups:
- breeding birds include specialist ground-nesting species of open habitats
such as oystercatcher; ringed plover; Kentish plover and little ringed plover
as well as several passerines nesting in grassland and scrub. Stone curlew
and Kentish plover formerly bred on coastal shingle in Great Britain but are
no longer present, though they do nest on shingle in parts of the rest of
Europe. Wintering birds such as snow buntings use the east coast shingle beaches
as a place to search for food;
Cadbury & Ausden (in Packham et al. 2001)
regard shingle as also being significant for two other groups:
- colonial breeding seabirds (principally gulls). Five species of gull, including
the rare Mediterranean gull, four terns and cormorant breed on shingle. Many
sites are particularly important for tern nesting and Orfordness
has one of Britain's largest colonies of lesser black-backed and herring gulls;
- waterfowl of flooded water-bodies (gravel
pits). Among the waterfowl, avocet is restricted as a breeding
species to coastal lagoons. Nationally high numbers of little grebe, gadwall
and, at Dungeness,
smew congregate on shingle water bodies in winter and Chesil Fleet, Dorset
is famous for its large flocks of brent geese and mute swans which graze on
the beds of Ruppia and Zostera.
| Guidance: For the ground nesting waders open shingle with sparse
vegetation is important, although there are differences between species
such as Kentish and little-ringed plovers in their preferences. The first
of these tends to favour the more open, seaward ridges with little of no
vegetation. The second tolerates areas with some vegetation. |
Caveat: The above requirements can lead to the removal of vegetation
at some sites to help restore suitable nesting areas (e.g. Cayeux sur Mer, site
included in the Guide "Coastal Habitat Restoration,
towards good practice"). There is the potential for conflict between
management which seeks to retain or restore vegetation and its removal to accommodate
birds nesting on open shingle where vegetation may restrict nesting activity.
This may be partly overcome by creating
islands for nesting birds as has occurred at Pagham
Harbour. Although not an issue considered in detail in this guide
controlling
predators may also be required.
References
Packham, J.R., Randall, R.E., Barnes, R.S.K. & Neal, A.
2001.
Ecology & Geomorphology of Coastal Shingle. Westbury Academic and Scientific Publishing, 459 pp.
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