AVOCETS ON THE EDEN
Local birdwatchers and visitors to the Eden Estuary Centre at Guardbridge were delighted by four Avocets which appeared on the Eden on 31st March and stayed until 9th April. The birds could often be seen from the Centre feeding in the main channel of the river and at high tide from the lay-by on the A91, roosting with other waders on the salt-marsh.
The Avocet is a charismatic bird and is of course the emblem of the RSPB. Older birdwatchers will remember the excitement when Avocets returned to breed in England in the late 1940s (at Havergate Island and Minsmere in Suffolk), after an absence of almost 100 years. Since then they have increased and spread north; they are now breeding in East Yorkshire and Lancashire but are still unusual in Scotland. There have been only three previous records on the Eden, the last a single bird in 1984. Three birds were seen by a very few people at Kilconquhar Loch in April 2002 but had moved on by the following morning; this year’s visitors stayed around for ten days and gave excellent views to many. Let’s hope that it is only a matter of time till Avocets are recorded breeding north of the border!