Avocet

21 Saturday Feb 2026

Tags

Avocet, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, Recurvirostra avosetta, RSPB Lodmoor, winter birding

I’ve just returned from my first little holiday since last September, a four-night break in Weymouth, a location that’s now a firm favourite of mine. As has become my habit, after checking in to my guest house, I headed east along the seafront to walk off five hours of train travel with a circuit of Lodmoor Nature Reserve. Though the wetlands were more full of water than usual due to all the recent rain and the paths were, as a result, quite muddy, the birdlife was a delight, and, as expected, the species were quite different from what I’d seen in the summer months. Now, there was an abundance of Teal and Shoveler, Lapwing and Wigeon, the latter two not species I see very often and both new additions to my birding year list. The other new species was a real treat and totally unexpected, this gorgeous Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta). The Avocet is such an elegant bird, crisply clad in classic black and white, with the upwardly curved beak that makes it instantly recognisable. I was entranced and lingered until dusk watching this bird feeding and preening; it was the perfect start to my holiday!

The awesome avocet

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, coastal fauna, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Avocet, Avocet chicks, Avocet in flight, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Recurvirostra avosetta, RSPB logo, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Awesome is a much overused word but I feel my use of it here is justified – I truly was in awe of these most beautiful birds, seen at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve in East Sussex last Saturday.

The Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) is one of Britain’s conservation success stories, hence its use as a logo by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. After years of being killed for food and taxidermy and having its eggs robbed by collectors, the Avocet disappeared from its British breeding sites around 1842, and it wasn’t until 1947 that just four pairs were rediscovered breeding in Suffolk. Incredibly, this was, in part, due to the Second World War: damage from an exploding bomb had inadvertently recreated their ideal habitat of shallow ponds and muddy islands near the seaside at Havergate and, at Minsmere, where the coastal marshes had been flooded to prevent enemy troops invading, shallow ponds also formed when the marshes began to dry up.

Further breeding sites have now been created and protected (at Rye Harbour, with electric fences to deter predators like foxes and badgers) in suitable areas around Britain’s coastline, and the number of breeding pairs is estimated to be around 500. Long may their success continue!