The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Fitties end.
Singles of Lapland and Snow Bunting, 11 Whooper Swan 'nth'!, a flock of 40 very mobile Twite, Merlin, Peregrine and 10,000+ Golden Plover in the general area. 5 Jack Snipe and 37 Common Snipe in a traditional hotspot on the saltmarsh was just a quick count and there will be more jacks, as the birds are not viewable the only method is to go in and flush the birds which is not ideal hence the reason why i only do this just once or twice thru the winter, ( if at all ), will do a more thorough count in a week or two, *my record count of Jacks here is 22 a few years back.

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Regards, DJB. http://bradderscleebirding.blogspot.co.uk/

Good that Dave is keeping a watchful eye on Tetney Marsh. I tend to feel that it's somewhat neglected by the RSPB

The reserve is a very popular runabout spot for dogs. Are the jack snipes are out of canine range?

Yes.

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Regards, DJB. http://bradderscleebirding.blogspot.co.uk/

A minimum of 18 Jack Snipe this morning. with Howard Bunn.

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Regards, DJB. http://bradderscleebirding.blogspot.co.uk/

Does Howard take Jack Snipe with him every where he goes

Firstly apologies for my late posting on this matter, I have been away on Holiday. Now although I'm not against the odd flushing of Jack snipe at the Fitties to get a year peak I do think everyone should take on board that birders, particularly LBC members should set examples to the dog walkers by not regularly walking the Marsh. Interestingly in a recent disturbance study done on the Humber birders were in the top 5 most regular causes of disturbance (yes big brother is watching)

And Jim or anyone else - if you think the RSPB does not do much on this site then you are always welcome to come and see me and I will take you through the vast amount of work that my team of staff and volunteers do for the Tetney reserve, including trying to control people with dogs who like to physically and verbally assault us on a fairly regular basis and people who think that there is a footpath across the marsh when there is not.

My number is 01724 798915, as said happy to discuss.

Cheers

Pete Short (RSPB Humber Sites Manager)

Many thanks, Pete, for that clarification. I didn't realise so much work was being undertaken.

Obviously the reserve is not being "neglected" and I unreservedly withdraw my inapproriate comment

For the benefit of the wider LBC membership and others, is there any chance of posting an update on the various initiatives undertaken by the RSPB at Tetney Marsh? Is there an annual report?

Re the problems with irresponsible dog walkers, migh it not be worth pinging off a Letter to the Editor to the Grimsby Telegraph and the Cleethorpes Chronicle appealing for restraint? Most of the walkers are likely to come from within their reader catchment area, so that might provide some respite (if only short-term)

It could also be worth highlighting the issue in a slot on regional news programmes such as
Look North and Calendar.

Finally, some of the signage at the reserve is looking very tired and half-hearted, espcially the notices relating to dog-walking restrictions. Could the RSPB HQ at Sandy be persuaded to invest in some replacement/ additional interpretive signs, not just explaining the importance of the saltmarsh and the areas of public accessibility, but also highlighting (boldly but also politely) the reasons why dogs should be restricted from running free - namely, because they are likely to cause disturbance to species such as jack snipe etc etc?

Given its significance, I somehow feel the reserve is punching below its weight.

jim you are not the first to trudge down this lonely path, but tetney is constrained by probably an access issue over land owned by other interests and the cost of putting an access road even if you could get permission would be enormous and funds are desperately needed elsewhere. The dog walkers are a permanent real pain who seem to think it is their right to totally ignore the signs to be kept under close control and not clear up after them. pete and the wardens do a grand job at tetney within the budget constraints put upon them and deserve our wholehearted support. I also have been verbally abused many times after making a simple request if they noticed the signs about dogs etc throwing balls into the marsh with those slings they have, great fun the dogs really enjoy it, one lady told me the ducks were really enjoying themselves dodging her water dog eg spaniel, it is all good fun for them all. what an idiot. terry whalin rspb group leader

Thanks for the info, Terence. That's helpful.

What is the legal position? Is the advice to dog owners advisory only or is there a by-law?

At Spurn, restrictions imposed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust seem to be better respected (though by no means always) than at Tetney Marshes?

Looking at it from the dog-walkers' perspective, I can see why they might regard the ban as petty, small-minded officialdom. "Wide open space, not a bird in sight - what's the problem with these binocular nerds?" This is probably what they think.

That's why I believe the RSPB needs to spell out the message loud and clear (but politely) on new/refreshed signage.

Just out of interest, I guess the Little Terns no longer nest on Tetney Marsh? If not, when did they last nest on there?

I can confirm that Pete Short provides the Lincolnshire Bird Club (on behalf of the RSPB) with ALL breeding bird data from the RSPB Tetney reserve (and other sites, such as Read's Island etc..). This data is incorporated into the (i) annual Lincs RBBP report (produced by the LBC and sent annually to the RBBP) and (ii) presented within the LBC annual report. The bird club is very grateful to Pete and this staff for compiling the data...

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

In terms of the day to day conservation management and survey of Tetney I will endeavor to put together something in the next week to show what we do. However three projects have made the last year and a half a very busy and intense work period for the site. This includes the £147 million pound oil Phillips66 oil pipeline project planning phase which has meant many hours of liaison and meeting to try and ensure that the work does not impact on the reserve. There is also the proposed offshore wind farm cables that will come ashore across the site in the near future and this has taken a lot of resource to cover. Lastly there was the onshore Wind farm proposal that the RSPB had to put a lot of time and effort into trying to stop and if needs be mitigate against, this included lots of data analysis and collection and consultation by the team on site and our conservation officer. And Just so it is clear RSPB has not received or asked for any payments (nor is currently entitled to) to the many thousands of pounds in time and travel that it has cost.

In regards the usage of the site with people with dogs we have tried many approaches to try and solve this and currently have plans to try and produce anti vandal proof signs as they are usually vandalized by one or two rather aggressive individuals. Hopefully this will take place soon but we are trying to get the wording right - hence the temporary signs. We have approached the press before and had bits published but we have also been on the receiving end of press articles instigated by dog walkers that have claimed that the RSPB is stopping public access to an area that is there right to access and is a public footpath. Although the land is private and there is actually no public access the press as usual covered it in rather unsympathetic way giving the impression that people could go where they wanted with dogs rather than actually they were trespassing. They even had a quote from a member of another conservation body who owned a dog who thought that we were out of line. Unfortunately the dog lobby is very strong and vocal and at times the odd individual very aggressive.

Therefore ideally we would like to solve the dog walking problem sensibly and this is being tackled via the Relevant Authorities who have undertaken a disturbance study and are formulating recommendation of how to manage problems of disturbance. This may include introducing car park charges to some car parks or creating specific areas for dog walking with free car parking. There will be other approaches like the recently created Humber Hounds that are promoting responsible dog ownership along the estuary and I feel that this is very positive. Ideally we should be trying to educate the majority of dog owners and work with them, trying not to alienate them against the conservation cause but this will take time.

In regards the little terns we have had to take a different approach to their conservation at Tetney as it was clearly apparent that the habitat had degraded and even when the terns did try to nest they were pretty unsuccessful (last time they produced more than two young was back in the early 1990's over twenty years ago).

So we decided to look at how we could get the Humber little terns back on the feet by working with and providing support for the Spurn colony protected by the bird Obs. The Tetney Warden Mike has been intensively involved with supporting the protection of the colony over the last three years and although the credit goes fully to the bird obs this has resulted in an amazing 130 young little terns fledging from the Easington colony thanks to Mike and RSPB's species protection advice. Mike has also been involved in the EU little tern funding which has also helped support work all over the UK and made 2014 breeding season one of the best for many years in the UK. Little tern protection is complicated and expensive (15K per year for a small protection scheme 30K per year for a big one) and sometimes problems have to sorted in a sensible and targeted way, yes we would love nesting little terns back at Tetney but when the time and habitat is right. I feel that our current approach is working well and if we are supported then in the future the Humber will be able to support a few successful colonies of this fantastic little seabird.

And lastly (sorry about the length of this post) the Humber Team do care passionately about Tetney and would love to be able to develop an even better wetland for this site (Yes I do agree Tetney is already one of the most important reserves in the North of England in terms of conservation). However, it is not easy to develop any wetland on the SAC saltmarsh and agricultural land is expensive. We have ambitions to try and purchase land and create supporting freshwater habitat but at the moment land is expensive and no one is selling or wanting wetlands on farmland in this area. When these opportunities do occur I can assure everyone that the RSPB will do its best to make a world class wetland that will support even more birds, however until that time we will have to hope that someone will want to sell some farmland cheap or we win the lottery.

Cheers

Pete

Brilliant!

What a superbly comprehensive round-up from Pete. Huge respect for him and his team!

Many thanks for taking the trouble to put together such an informative piece which, I am sure, will be of interest to LBC members and others who view this website.

Really impressed - Tetney Marsh is in good hands!

well said pete you and the team keep up the good work, many thanks terry whalin

Appreciate your comments Terry.

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Regards.
Del.

To err is human. To really louse things up takes a computer