Hope for endangered bird after breeding success

An endangered wading bird has been breeding among peat bogs, a survey has discovered.

An RSPB survey found dunlin chicks - one of the UK's rarest wading birds - at High Helbeck Estate, near Brough, in the Cumbrian Pennines last year.

The RSPB said the starling-sized bird had an estimated 800 breeding pairs in the UK, with numbers declining since the 2000s, meaning it is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as near threatened.

Landowner Nicolete Blackett-Ord said the discovery was "particularly special" after working for years with the charity's senior conservation officer, Dr Elisabeth Charman, adding that the results were "extremely rewarding".

Surveyors at High Helbeck used traditional field methods, as well as motion cameras, recording devices and drones to identify the isolated areas where the birds were living across 14 areas between May and July.

The RSPB said its team was "delighted" to find breeding birds and get footage of dunlin chicks feeding in a bog pool.

The North Pennines is one of the RSPB's priority landscapes, where conservation efforts are focused.

Landowners Nicolete and Ben Blackett-Ord said over several years they worked to improve the site and they had "learned such a lot" about dunlins' distribution and habitat needs.

• Listen to the Dunlin here

"Until now, there has been no large-scale coordinated survey of dunlin across this landscape, leaving major gaps in conservation knowledge," the charity said.

It also said dunlin breeding in the North Pennines had "undertaken an astonishing annual migration, travelling thousands of miles to winter in West Africa".

The decline in breeding numbers was "likely due to declines in habitat quality", it added.

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