Bird disturbance surveys on North Kent estuaries
During the winter of 2021/22, we undertook bird disturbance surveys for the North Kent BirdWise/SAMMS project, a partnership between local authorities, developers, and environmental organisations including KWT and RSPB. The initiative seeks to understand and mitigate the impacts of disturbance on the internationally important waterbird populations dependent on the SPA/SSSI estuaries of North Kent.
The Brief
This project, commissioned by the Bird Wise/SAMMS partnership and managed by Medway Council, helped to evaluate the success of mitigation delivered during the period that the scheme has been operational. Data collected at predefined estuarine locations included bird counts, a log of disturbance events, and a recording of responses by waterbirds. Results were compared with baseline data collected ten years before, and the final report and data analysis will be made available publicly.
The Benefits
Our survey design helped to identify the key areas of the coastline under pressure from human disturbance, particularly those associated with dog walking. We also undertook detailed observations of how wildfowl and waders responded to different sources of disturbance, which helped to increase the evidence base with respect to how waterbird species dependent on North Kent’s protected site network are faring. In evaluating the success of mitigation delivered during the first ten years of BirdWise/SAMMS, we also recommended possible areas of future research.
Star Species
A diverse suite of waders and wildfowl comprise the internationally important waterbird assemblages of North Kent’s estuaries studied in this project. A comprehensive summary of the relevant species and their population trends can be found here: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey
Follow the journey
The work on this exciting project involved a long winter of fieldwork by our dedicated team of ornithologists. We really enjoyed applying our expertise in bird identification and counting large flocks of waders in beautiful estuarine habitats, and linking this to social science through the important awareness-raising activities of BirdWise.
Full details of BirdWise/SAMMs are available here: northkent.birdwise.org.uk
