12 : Pied Avocet

Pied Avocet - Avocetta recurvirostra

This is another bird that has suffered from a double barrelled name change.

This picture was taken in 2009 at Minsmere in August. My brother is lucky enough to live about an hour's drive from this place so its somewhere we'll go to together when I am visiting him or my parents who are also in Suffolk.

Avocets are another UK conservation success story. Rendered extinct in the UK by the usual collection of pressures (shooting, habitat loss, egg collecting) it wasn't until the second world war that the Avocet staged a return. Part of the defence against invasion was to flood areas of coastal East Anglia. Creeping back across the North Sea from Holland the birds took hold once again.

The first stronghold was on Havergate Island where my brother has done a stint as a volunteer. The first breeding pairs appeared at Minsmere about the same time - they are of course now the symbol of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and are well established at this flagship reserve.

Minsmere itself and the whole East Anglian coast is now threatened by flooding from rising sea levels. I am not sure of the ins and outs but as I understand it if we give up the sea defences as we did in world war two large areas of brackish marsh will be created. Avocets could be one of the species to benefit from such a retreat.I have not read enough about the whole issue.

The birds themselves are exquisite. The long upcurved and needle thin bill is sythed backwards and fowards through the water to catch small larvea and other marine animals. Their looks do decieve - they are agressive birds and will mob other birds and bully and fight to carve out an area in which to feed and breed. The long bluish legs aren't all visible in this picture but they will swim to shallower water to find different spots to feed. They are long legged and graceful. The black and white plumage is truly one of the birding greats.

I had not seen an Avocet when I was young. I couldn't travel and you still had to go to either Havergate (which needed a special pass) or Minsmere to ge a view. The birds have had an explosion over the last 10 or 15 years - colonising the UK right round the coast. As I moved North they followed me up to the Dee estuary in Cheshire. My first Avocet was at Welney WWT in Cambridgeshire from the main hide when I was an adult. They just do not disapoint. Its good news that for many birders they will now just list them off at the end of a day as a relatively common species. In some circles they are beginning to be considered a pest as they do shift other rarer waders away from feeding sites.For me every time they have turned up somewhere new I have just felt very pleased.I think established populations of birds that belong hold more interest than wind blown rarities. Avocets belong in Britain and again, with half a chance, they made it home.

(Pied) Avocet - Avosetta recurvirostra
Minsmere - August 2009