Uncommon Pennine wading hen given enhance as RSPB survey reveals Dunlin breeding success
- First-ever large-scale survey reveals uncommon Dunlin nonetheless breeding throughout the North Pennines, providing new hope for a declining species.
- RSPB-led challenge makes use of expertise – together with drones, cameras and acoustic recorders – to uncover hidden upland hen populations.
- Partnership conservation delivers outcomes, with Dunlin chicks confirmed at Excessive Helbeck property.
A pioneering survey led by the RSPB has confirmed that Dunlin – a uncommon and declining upland wading hen – are breeding throughout giant areas of appropriate habitat within the Cumbrian Pennines, a part of the North Pennines Nationwide Panorama, providing recent hope for the species’ future in England.
Funded by Pure England, the 2025 survey is the primary coordinated effort of its variety throughout such a large upland panorama in Northern England, offering important new proof about the place Dunlin are surviving and what they should thrive.
The survey was carried out by the RSPB’s conservation workforce, funded by Pure England, and delivered in shut collaboration with landowners.
Dunlins are a small, starling-sized wading hen with putting breeding plumage. They’ve declined by no less than 20% globally because the early 2000’s and the IUCN Crimson Listing now classify the species globally as Close to Threatened. Within the UK, the species is now Crimson listed. They’ve suffered a average decline of their UK breeding vary, seemingly resulting from declines in habitat high quality.
Fourteen areas had been surveyed throughout the Cumbrian North Pennines in the course of the Dunlin breeding season from Might to July 2025, with round thirty people recorded at eight of them, and the outcomes present that the species stays current throughout vital areas of high-quality upland habitat. The surveys, assisted by dedicated volunteers, together with from Cumbria Hen Membership, targeted on distant, moist upland landscapes of the North Pennines, together with the Excessive Helbeck Property, the place conservation work has been ongoing for a number of years together with peat restoration work (led by the North Pennines Nationwide Panorama workforce).
Dunlin breeding within the North Pennines undertake an astonishing annual migration, travelling hundreds of miles to winter in West Africa. Understanding the place they breed, and the situation of their habitats, is important to securing their future. And, till now, there was no large-scale coordinated survey of Dunlin throughout this panorama, leaving main gaps in conservation information.
RSPB surveyors labored in difficult terrain, usually removed from established tracks, utilizing a mixture of conventional discipline survey strategies alongside distant cameras, acoustic recording gadgets and drones to evaluate habitat situation. At Excessive Helbeck, the RSPB workforce surveyed areas the place Dunlin had been anticipated to happen and had been delighted to substantiate breeding birds, together with digital camera footage of Dunlin chicks feeding in a lavatory pool.
Excessive Helbeck was beforehand the main focus of a Inexperienced Restoration Problem Fund challenge (2020–2022), led by the North Pennines Nationwide Panorama workforce and delivered in partnership with the RSPB, Pure England, the Woodland Belief and landowners Nicolete and Ben Blackett-Ord and work to revive habitats and enhance biodiversity continues by way of this sturdy partnership.
Dr. Elisabeth Charman, Senior Conservation Officer, the RSPB, stated: “The workforce surveyed in distant areas, properly away from established tracks and on difficult floor. To seek out Dunlin breeding in new areas was extraordinarily rewarding, and we hope our partnership efforts can contribute to their continued success within the Pennines.”
Nicolete Blackett-Ord, joint landowner Excessive Helbeck, stated: “It has been extraordinarily rewarding to participate on this challenge. We’ve learnt so much about this threatened species’ distribution and habitat wants. To substantiate breeding at Excessive Helbeck is especially particular as a result of we’ve got labored with the RSPB and companions for a number of years, bettering habitat, to allow wading birds to thrive.”
Kath Milnes, Larger Officer for Pure England in Cumbria, stated: “This incredible work throughout the Cumbrian Pennines clearly demonstrates how investing in nature delivers a number of advantages for everybody. By working with landowners and conservation companions to revive and re-wet peatlands, we’re creating the proper situations for species like Dunlin to thrive.”
The North Pennines is without doubt one of the RSPB’s ‘Precedence Landscapes’ the place useful resource and conservation efforts are focussed. The RSPB is marking over twenty-five years of wader conservation work within the North Pennines, celebrating the dedication of volunteers, native farmers, advisers and companions. The RSPB hopes these new findings will encourage extra information of Dunlin from upland areas, serving to to construct a clearer image of the species’ standing and inform future conservation motion throughout the North Pennines.
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