Spring in the air

I had a very early morning start at Spurn yesterday.

I was in the hide at Kilnsea Wetlands for just after half past five. The mist was heavy and I could only just make out the avocets only a few metres away.

the air was full of birdsong, mostly skylarks but interspersed with any number of others all joining in on a fantastic dawn chorus.

As the sun rose the light improved and it made way for some interesting photo opportunities , the obliging avocets were also a help.

Soon after the sun rose it became quite harsh so I made my way out of the hide and headed for Sammy’s Point. There had been a few decent birds reported here recently so hopes were high.

There was still a fair amount of mist around and a small group of thrushes flew up as I took up my position.

It didnt take long for the thrushes to fly back down and there was a nice mix, blackbirds,redwing song thrush and a couple of smart ring ouzel.

I could hear the chakking of squabbling wheatears and then the call of the yellow wagtail one of my favourite birds. Firstly there was a single male then he was joined by a very smart looking female. The white supercillium was striking-it was the day before’s female blue-headed wagtail.

The early morning dew added to the scene ad it made for great photography.

A marsh Harrier headed south, curlews headed out east and whimbrel were calling over the humber.

As the sun rose further activity died down but a hunting short-eared owl was nice to see. The radion crackled with the news that 4 arctic skuas were heading out of the Humber and I managed to get distant views through the haze.

The last bird of the day was a cuckoo callling at the last paddock-a rather fitting end to the most Springlike of days at the UK’s premier wildlife watching hotspot.

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Greylag Goose

Teal

Mallard

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Ring Ouzel (female)

Ring Ouzel (female)

Ring Ouzel (male)

Meadow Pipit

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Yellow Wagtail (male)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Wheatear (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Blue-headed wagtail (female)

Baltic at Bempton!

I hade a cracking morning with the camera today.

I started at Bempton and wanted to be there for sunrise. Anticipating it being a bit chilly I was dressed in full-on winter mode. As it turned out every layer was justified-it was freezing. I knew that the onshore wind would help with the photography as the birds like to ‘hang’ in the wind just off the edge of the cliff.

The first good bird was a barn owl hunting in the field outside the visitor centre.

As the sun was rising there was a little bit of cloud-this always helps as the effect creates a myriad of colours.

The gannets were very obliging as were the fulmars, There were also the usual suspects in the form of razorbill, gulliemot, kittiwake and a few distant puffins.

It was the gannets I’d really come to see and O always like to try and get something different-early morning sun is a great help.

After an hour or so I moved on to Filey Dams- I was really hoping for a garganey but the great white egret was a nice surprise. Fighting coots also made for a good photo opportunity.

Then on to Tophill Low-its the first time I’ve been for a while and I was very pleasantly surprised. They have creaated a single entrance into the reserve with a nice wlk through open wood;and to get to each end of the reserve.

Blackcaaps, willow warblers and chiff-chaffs were aplenty despite the chilly easterly wind.

O reservoir was full of hirundines-mainly sand martin but also accompanied by the odd swallow and house martin. A little gull was seen distantly patrolling along the far bank.

I then went to have a look at the new members hide-it was very impressive and no doubt will ne great in the summer when the migrating waders arrive.

All in all a super Sunday despite the distinctly wintery feeling.

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Fulmar

Coot at Filey Dams

Coot at Filey Dams

Great White Egret at Filey Dams

Great Crested Grebe at Tophill Low

Sand martin at Tophill Low

The Bacton Sand Martins-A Case of Black and White

I saw through social media that some netting had been put up along the cliffs at Bacton, North Norfolk last Monday.

It had caused an outcry as returning sand martins had been seen perching on the netting in a vain attempt to get back to their burrows in readiness for the breeding season.

This prompted me do do some further investigation and having some knowledge about the planning process, the first place to look was the North Norfolk Councils Planning portal on the web.

I wanted to see if or what planning conditions were in place relating to the works.

It took me to a page where all of the documentation was stored that had been submitted for planning approval. Along with these documents were comments back from consultees. Natural England are a Statutory Consultee and the RSPB are a non-statutory consultee. The most important point here is that they had read and commented upon the documentation.

It would appear that North Norfolk District Council is the applicant for the works, so it is effectively appealing to itself for Planning Permission.

One of the key documents is the Environmental Statement this is a huge document that highlights the impact of the work on the environment and provides information on how those impacts can be mitigated. The mitigation measures are key to consultees forming their opinion and determining whether they will object to the scheme or not. Statutory consultees have the power to impose planning conditions to ensure that mitigation works are carried out before, during or after the works.

A key extract from the Environmental Statement is here

Key comments from Natural England are;

Key comments from the RSPB are;

The Council then imposed a Planning Condition based upon the advice they had been given.

Planning condition 5 is set out in full below;

Once the parameters have been set the 'rules' if you like they are set down in black and white. They are there to be followed and it is the role of the Enforcing Authority (The Council) to ensure the rules are being followed. Itis quite evident that the rules in this game have not been followed and the consequences to the sand martins are clearly quite damaging.

Once the rules are set it should be a simple process of following them step by step in order to protect whatever was required to be protected in the first place,in this case the sand martins.

Planning Condition 5 is known as a condition precedent that is to say work cannot start until the requirements of the Condition have been approved by the Local Authority(NNDC)

The advice from the council was that all of the documentation relating to the project was located in a single place, however having looked through it there was no evidence to suggest that the Planning Condition had been discharged nor was the Construction and Environmental Management Plan available for perusal. I queried this with The Council and they replied by sending me a link here that took me to the documentation specific to Condition 5. In their response they also told me that 'this has not yet been agreed'.

That sent alarm bells ringing

One look at the documents on the link revealed a very well put together CEMP but crucially no letters of conformation that the Condition has been discharged.

The pre-commencement condition has not been discharged which means the work has started without planning permission-contrary to national planning protocol.

I have written to NNDC asking why the work had commenced without the Condition being discharged.

They rather disingenuously passed on my email to another department who sent some cut and pasted response giving a vague overview of why the works were being carried out, who they had spoken to and that some agreements had been made.

What they didn't do was respond to the black and white.

Why have the works been allowed to start without the pre-commencement conditions being approved?

Why did the Council permit circa 1.6km of netting to be erected when the Environmental Statement said 20-50m would be installed?

Why did the council permit the use of netting at the lower levels when geotextile (which is more rigid and less prone to entanglement) was specified?

Why did the Council go out to Natural England and the RSPB then ignore their recommendations?

The Council need to come clean on this. They claim it has taken 5 years to plan the work, maybe it has but clearly 5 years wasn't enough.

Imagine the cost of all of putting up all of that netting. someone has sanctioned this it has been done with the knowledge of the project team.

There will be a further significant cost in taking it down.

No doubt this will now have caused a delay to the project and as the nesting sand martins are quite rightly protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act, any disturbance to those birds will now amount to a criminal act. It is most likely this will cause even further delays.

I'm not certain who is funding this, however given that there is close involvement with the NNDC you can bet a substantial amount of the funding has come from public money.

It is clear that the black and white, was was written down and agreed has not been followed here. What has happened is not right it's wrong, where answers should have been yes they have been no.

This process has caused serious damage to the publics faith in the planning system it is now up to the Council to put right the wrongs, go back to black and white and re-plan the work so that it is carried out ensuring a) their own protocols are properly followed and b) the project is managed with as least damage to the environment as practically possible.

The good news is that NNDC had made a U-Turn, they have started taking down the netting and already sand martins have began to visit the burrows.

The fact remains that if NNDC had stuck to the black and white, none of this would have happened in the first place.

Thanks for reading.