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Blacktoft Sands RSPB
Blacktoft Sands RSPB
Blacktoft Sands provides one of a large number of wildlife habitats around the Humber estuary. The reserve has a large tidal reedbed and saline lagoons, which are rare in Europe and are an ideal habitat for a variety of breeding and migrant waders, including avocets.
Opening times
Open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9 am to 9 pm (or dusk if earlier)
Highlights: Bitterns, Marsh harriers, Hen harriers, bearded tits.
Access & Facilities
There is a visitor centre and six hides.
Members free. Non-members: adults £3, under 16s £1, concessions £2, family £6.
Nearest town: Goole
County: East Yorkshire
Tel: 01405 704665
Grid reference:SE843232
Click here for more details.
Opening times
Open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9 am to 9 pm (or dusk if earlier)
Highlights: Bitterns, Marsh harriers, Hen harriers, bearded tits.
Access & Facilities
There is a visitor centre and six hides.
Members free. Non-members: adults £3, under 16s £1, concessions £2, family £6.
Nearest town: Goole
County: East Yorkshire
Tel: 01405 704665
Grid reference:SE843232
Click here for more details.
Bumper year for Marsh harriers at Blacktoft sands.
September 2007. Five pairs of Marsh harriers have managed to raise 16 chicks this year at the RSPB’s Blacktoft Sands Nature Reserve.
Although they have had some breeding success over the last few years, this is an outstanding result for the Marsh harriers. 15 years ago, a few bred irregularly on the Humber, and there are no records of any breeding success at all during the eighties on the reserve. As far back as 1964, one pair bred in the reserve, but one of the chicks died after hitting an overhead wire, one was shot and the last may have fledged. The following year one egg was stolen from the single marsh harrier nest by egg collectors, and it is now known that they were badly affected by DDT.
In 1992, they first started breeding regularly on Reads Island, a little further along into the Humber Estuary, and in 1994, they started breeding regularly on the Blacktoft Sands reserve itself. From then on, they have gone from strength to strength, from a once rare breeder to common, so much so that some of the regulars have become nonchalant about them. They have also been spreading out from the estuary and the reserve, to colonise other areas in North Britain.
Bitterns & Reedbeds
Only one Bittern nest with chicks was discovered on the Humber this year and that was at Blacktoft Sands. This was only the second nest to be found on the reserve since the birds colonised the site in 2004. Sadly however the reserve was hit by heavy rains and the nest was either flooded out or the chicks died of starvation or hypothermia.
Blacktoft Sands nature reserve intertidal reedbed habitat is managed for these species as it is for others here which include Bearded Tit and Bittern. Marsh harriers are seen daily on the reserve, sometimes in numbers of four-five in the air at once on the reserve. In the autumn, they are often joined at roost by wintering hen harrier. In 2007, despite high tidal flooding of the reserve in early April (early breeding season) which may have destroyed their initial nesting attempts, 5 pairs nested successfully, fledging between them 16 juvenile birds.
Causes
Noone quite knows why they should have had such a good season this year after the early flooding, though it seems that the recent opening of the Alkborough Flats reserve just a few hundred yards across the river will have provided the birds with a huge new habitat and hunting ground. Alkborough has just recently been created from 450 hectares of low lying farmland, primarily as a nature reserve but also as part of the Humber flood defence scheme.
Another possibility for their success this year would be due to increased numbers of farmers in the environment stewardship scheme creating grass field margins around the ditches and at the edges of fields and leaving areas of set aside, which in their turn have provided suitable habitats for small mammals and birds, increasing their numbers. These are the primary sources of food for the marsh harriers and their young. The current threat to set aside would soon put an end to this small but healthy habitat.
September 2007. Five pairs of Marsh harriers have managed to raise 16 chicks this year at the RSPB’s Blacktoft Sands Nature Reserve.
Although they have had some breeding success over the last few years, this is an outstanding result for the Marsh harriers. 15 years ago, a few bred irregularly on the Humber, and there are no records of any breeding success at all during the eighties on the reserve. As far back as 1964, one pair bred in the reserve, but one of the chicks died after hitting an overhead wire, one was shot and the last may have fledged. The following year one egg was stolen from the single marsh harrier nest by egg collectors, and it is now known that they were badly affected by DDT.
In 1992, they first started breeding regularly on Reads Island, a little further along into the Humber Estuary, and in 1994, they started breeding regularly on the Blacktoft Sands reserve itself. From then on, they have gone from strength to strength, from a once rare breeder to common, so much so that some of the regulars have become nonchalant about them. They have also been spreading out from the estuary and the reserve, to colonise other areas in North Britain.
Bitterns & Reedbeds
Only one Bittern nest with chicks was discovered on the Humber this year and that was at Blacktoft Sands. This was only the second nest to be found on the reserve since the birds colonised the site in 2004. Sadly however the reserve was hit by heavy rains and the nest was either flooded out or the chicks died of starvation or hypothermia.
Blacktoft Sands nature reserve intertidal reedbed habitat is managed for these species as it is for others here which include Bearded Tit and Bittern. Marsh harriers are seen daily on the reserve, sometimes in numbers of four-five in the air at once on the reserve. In the autumn, they are often joined at roost by wintering hen harrier. In 2007, despite high tidal flooding of the reserve in early April (early breeding season) which may have destroyed their initial nesting attempts, 5 pairs nested successfully, fledging between them 16 juvenile birds.
Causes
Noone quite knows why they should have had such a good season this year after the early flooding, though it seems that the recent opening of the Alkborough Flats reserve just a few hundred yards across the river will have provided the birds with a huge new habitat and hunting ground. Alkborough has just recently been created from 450 hectares of low lying farmland, primarily as a nature reserve but also as part of the Humber flood defence scheme.
Another possibility for their success this year would be due to increased numbers of farmers in the environment stewardship scheme creating grass field margins around the ditches and at the edges of fields and leaving areas of set aside, which in their turn have provided suitable habitats for small mammals and birds, increasing their numbers. These are the primary sources of food for the marsh harriers and their young. The current threat to set aside would soon put an end to this small but healthy habitat.
Humber Code of Conduct
Click here to see the Humber code of conduct, full of useful information and contacts for anyone visiting the Humber Estuary.
Click here to see the Humber code of conduct, full of useful information and contacts for anyone visiting the Humber Estuary.
These maps are intended as a guideline only; you must check the exact location of the reserve yourself. Wildlife Extra assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or usefulness of the information on this website.
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