Norfolk Wildlife Trust celebrates spoonbill breeding on Broads

Rare identification books are very good now, with superb illustrations in all their plumages.

These are accompanied by distribution maps, details of each species’ habits, migration, favoured habitats and diet.

Being a child in the 1960s, with a growing interest in ornithology, there was really only one guide: The Observer’s book of British Birds.

It wasn’t all that helpful; it had a rather vague and romanticised picture of each bird and a few scant details.

But my copy was treasured, and still is, being the benchmark by which I now measure the state of our country’s birdlife.

(Image: Elizabeth Dack)

Sadly, a great many have suffered significant decline, with some of the ‘common’ British species featured having disappeared completely as breeding birds; red-backed shrike and wryneck being the most notable.

There has, of course, been a number of new additions to the UK’s breeding bird list, but few would have imagined when the Observer’s book was first published that great white egret and Cetti’s warbler would feature.

Everyone had their favourite ‘unobtainable’ Observer’s book bird, the Victorian-moustached bearded tit, or the exotic-looking waxwing, perhaps the sulphur-yellow golden oriole: mine was the spoonbill.

I thought, even then, that it was a rather odd addition, as it only ever made an occasional appearance on our east coast as a migrant bird, the young ‘observer’ had very little hope of seeing one.

I imagined, as probably did the author, that there was a forlorn hope that one day this former British breeding bird would return.  

(Image: ELIZABETH DACK)            

Last year NWT’s Hickling Broad and Marshes, my workplace, hosted the first breeding spoonbill in the Norfolk Broads for 400 years.

This year two pairs bred again, raising an amazing five fledglings between them.

At the time of writing all the adults and offspring can be seen, sometimes at close-quarters, on Brendan’s Marsh.

It is hoped that they will remain until the end of September. They will eventually head south, with Poole Harbour being a key wintering site for Norfolk’s small, but growing, spoonbill population.  

Even to the newly acquainted they are easy to spot, being tall creamy-white birds with long-necks and long-legs, but their most distinctive feature is their elongated spatula-shaped bill.

Although heron-like in appearance they belong to the ibis family, holding their neck and legs straight out when in flight.

Spoonbill fledglings – known affectionately as 'teaspoons' on account of their shorter bills - can be identified by the black in their wing tips.

Spoonbill are nearly always associated with wetlands where they are often seen sweeping their strange spoon-bills from side to side in shallow water, they use this method to syphon their food of small fish, crustaceans and molluscs. 

Historically the spoonbill was a regular nesting bird in southern Britain, visiting in summer and departing south for winter, with records of birds nesting in East Anglia as far back as the 1300s.

However, due to drainage, eggs and chicks being taken for food, and general persecution, the spoonbill was already in serious decline by the 1600s, and in the mid-1700s the last spoonbills were nesting in Britain.

(Image: Elizabeth Dack)

For more than 400 years, not a single teaspoon was raised in Britain. 

During the 20th century the bird was a rare but regular passage migrant, with some wintering on estuaries in south-west England.

The population started to expand in the lowlands of Holland, and the Dutch population increased to over 500 pairs by 1995.

Visits to the UK by spoonbill became more regular, and in 2010 a small colony became firmly established at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk. Spoonbill are also regularly seen at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Cley and Salthouse Marshes, where recently a number of nests were found in nearby private woodland.

The arrival of breeding spoonbill in the Broads marks a significant milestone in the birds expansion and a tribute to the habitat improvement work NWT has carried out at Hickling.

It is hoped that this is the start of a much larger colony of this wonderful bird.  

My colleague, NWT Senior Reserves Assistant for Broads North, Robert Smith, is from a generation that’s in the habit of seeing three species of egret in Norfolk, even breeding bee-eaters, none of which appeared in the Observer’s book of birds. But the appearance of breeding spoonbill was met, nonetheless, with delight and excitement: "It is so wonderful to see spoonbill fledglings again at Brendan’s Marsh.

It shows that our work to enhance the habitats on our reserves and across Norfolk is hugely important to the survival of our wildlife, including birds such as the spoonbill”.

But as Rob explains it is not just spoonbill that have benefited from the extensive work that has been carried out at NWT’s Hickling Broad, he added: “The mix of shallows to deeper water means there is a diversity of invertebrate and small fish for food, and the mix of islands, dykes and various vegetation creates a mosaic of wetland habitats ideal for a wide range of species, not just spoonbill.

"At this time of year, birds such as ruff, snipe and green sandpiper can also be seen on the marsh, as well as a good mix of wildfowl”.

If you’re quick you may be lucky enough to find spoonbill at NWT Hickling Broad and Marshes or perhaps NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes before they depart south.

If not, you can join us in celebrating their return next summer.