Today, Chris Baker from the RSPB on the spoonbill.

Many continental birders wouldn’t give them a second glance, but in Poole Harbour spoonbills are a head turner. And there are more than 60 there this autumn.

Spoonbill numbers peak in October – there were 60 last year, compared to 49 the year before, and 28 the year before that – then drop off with a few staying for the winter, fewer still over the summer.

Spoonbills are what could be termed one of climate change’s winners, able to exploit warming and live in places where until very recently they were a rarity, or unknown.

Paul Morton, of the conservation group Birds of Poole Harbour, speaking a few weeks before Autumnwatch, said: “At the moment we only have 37, but I expect that number to increase over the next few weeks.”

And increase they did: by mid-October there were 60 at RSPB Arne alone. Spoonbills bred regularly in southern England and Wales in the Middle Ages, as the long list of old names testifies; as does their regular appearances on medieval menus. But numbers were falling by 1600, largely because wetland was being drained for agriculture.

Their long spoon-like bill makes them unmistakable at close range. Although the bill gets hidden among back and wing feathers when the bird’s asleep, which occupies a lot of its time.

When feeding, the bird paddles vigorously in shallow water, sweeping that exotic bill from side to side to catch small invertebrates disturbed by its footwork. They also have a taste for small fish, crustaceans and amphibians, abundant in shallow, open-water habitats such as Poole Harbour.

Rob Farrington, the RSPB Dorset’s Visitor Experience Manager, said: “The spoonbills here are mainly Dutch birds we know that from their rings. They are coming across because we have good habitat for them and at some point they will start breeding, it is only a matter of time.

“Birds like spoonbills and great white egrets are coming here because of climate change, and conditions are such that they can survive if we plan for them.”

Spoonbills are not alone: the great white egrets, now breeding in Somerset, a UK first, visit more and more often; little egrets, once more commonly associated with southern Europe, first bred in the UK at Poole Harbour in 1996 and are now commonplace.

Black-winged stilts, common in France but until recently only an occasional vagrant here, so occasional in fact that at Poole Harbour it was only recorded once in the 1960s and once in the 1970s, are beginning to be a regular sight.

Black-winged stilts – notable for their unusual, long pink legs – need shallow brackish water and salt marsh to breed; spoonbills prefer to nest where there is low tree cover near wet areas, often in inter-tidal areas.

Salt water lagoons are being created in some parts of Poole Harbour, bespoke spoonbill islands at others – although both should be attractive to other species.

Some new habitats get created by accident. Lytchett Fields is now being managed by the RSPB as a tidal lagoon after the old sea wall collapsed, and has proved popular with many wading birds, particularly those passing through on their spring and autumn migrations.

RSPB wetland ecologist Matt Self said: “We’ve got a responsibility as part of a Europe-wide network of wetland sites, if these birds are moving this way we should be providing different habitat for them.

“In terms of location Poole Harbour is outstanding, it is on the south coast and it has got great potential.”

To keep up to date with all of the autumnwatch news, follow RSPB Arne on: Facebook.com/RSPBEastDorset @RSPBArne www.rspb.org.uk/arne

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