Inshore aggregations of non-breeding waterbirds

Many areas of the UK’s inshore waters are used by waterbirds (seaducks, divers and grebes) outside the breeding season as moulting and feeding areas, and also as migration staging posts. JNCC, in conjunction with the four country nature conservation agencies, has compiled a list of around 50 inshore areas that are being considered in identifying possible SPAs for non-breeding inshore waterbirds.

This initial list of inshore areas formed the basis of an inshore survey programme started during winter 2000/01. The surveys aim to collect up-to-date, detailed data on the distribution and abundance of inshore waterbirds using these areas.  Data have so far been collected  either by JNCC (mainly Scottish sites) or the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust/British Trust for Ornithology (other UK sites).

Data from the inshore survey work, and from other sources, are used to estimate population sizes and to model the spatial distributions of the main target species using each survey area outside the breeding season. JNCC then makes recommendations on which areas should be considered as possible SPAs, as well as making scientifically based recommendations on the positioning of appropriate boundaries for such sites.

Based on this work, the first entirely marine SPA in Britain, the Bae Caerfyrddin/Carmarthen Bay SPA in Wales, was classified in 2003 for its internationally important wintering population of common scoter. Two further wholly marine SPAs were classified in August 2010:

• The Outer Thames Estuary SPA has been classified for its nationally important wintering red-throated diver population
• The Liverpool Bay/Bae Lerpwl SPA has been classified for its internationally important numbers of wintering common scoters and nationally important numbers of wintering red-throated divers.

Further reading