Spoonbills breed in Scotland for the first time

This is a video of a spoonbill in the Netherlands.

From Wildlife Extra:

Spoonbills breed in Scotland for the first time

September 2008. A pair of spoonbills, usually found in the Mediterranean, have successfully bred for the first time in Scotland and only the second time in the UK. An adult pair of the tall, elegant birds with bizarre spatula-like bills have raised and fledged three chicks on Kirkcudbright Bay in Dumfries and Galloway.

Ribble Estuary

It is only the second time the species has bred in the UK after a pair nested successfully on the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire in 1998, which was the first successful breeding attempt for 330 years.

The birds were discovered by Keith Kirk, a countryside ranger for Dumfries and Galloway Council, after a tip-off from local contact Gary McKie, who runs wildlife watching boat trips into the bay and up the River Dee.

Spoonbills

With pure white plumage, lanky dark legs and their long, bizarre-shaped bills, the birds make a rare and arresting sight on the mudflats and marshes of British wetlands and lagoons. They use the bill to feed – sweeping it back and forth with the bill slightly open, it filters out small invertebrates, crustaceans, amphibians and small fish disturbed from the sediment by vigorous paddling of their feet.

There are normally about 75 records of the species in the UK a year, but these are usually non-breeding birds and confined to coastal sites in north west and south west England, and East Anglia. They can nest on the ground or in trees, and tend to stay close to related species including herons and egrets.

Inaccessible area

Keith Kirk said: “There was one adult bird in early June, then another joined it in the couple of weeks following that. Now they have been seen with three juveniles. We have taken a boat out and watched them, and two of youngsters were coming in behind the adults, clattering their bills and begging to be fed, and one of the adults appeared to turn round and give it a feed. We haven’t seen the nest, as it’s a very secluded and inaccessible area, but with the way they were behaving I’m sure this is a successful breeding attempt, which is brilliant news for us.”

He added: “In the past Dumfries and Galloway has probably not been everyone’s first thought for wildlife watching in Scotland, but this just goes to show what an amazing spectacle is on offer here. We haven’t got capercaillie, ptarmigan or crested tit, but pretty much everything else Scotland has to offer in terms of great wildlife is all here.”

From towns to seas, climate change is affecting UK birds: here.

New salt marsh to be created at Grangemouth: here.