Britain’ s oldest bird reserve threatened by airport expansion plan

This is a common goldeneye video from The Netherlands, Hellegatsplaten.

From British daily The Independent:

Plans for a huge airport expansion on the south-eastern tip of Kent are threatening the oldest reserve under the management of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Businessman, Sheikh Fahad al-Athel, is proposing a huge expansion of the small airport near the village of Lydd.

Mr Athel is the majority shareholder of the airport, which lies at the edge of the internationally renowned and ecologically unusual Dungeness nature reserve.

In winter it hosts about 60 species of birds such as goldeneye, smew and bittern.

Update January 2008: here.

Smew photos: here.