Discover the hundreds of thousands of birds that flock to the UK’s mighty wetlands.
Sunday 2 February 2025 is World Wetlands Day. Dr Guy Anderson, RSPB Migratory Bird Programme Manager, explains why we should celebrate.
Look down the long list of RSPB nature reserve names in the UK and you’ll often find words like bog, brooks, cors, estuary, fen, flows, flats, haugh, lake, leans, levels, lough, loch, marsh, moss, morfa, merse, water and washes. They all refer to some kind of wet land – wetlands. Right now, in winter’s dark damp days, you might not be appreciating it, but we are lucky in the UK, we have a lot of wetlands because we have a lot of water.
Water falls from the sky quite regularly. It wanders around in streams and rivers, loiters in marshes and lakes, and blurs the boundary between land and sea. Our register of nature reserves is full of words implying inherent sogginess because these places are all fabulous for wildlife. Indeed in global terms some of the UK’s most important wildlife only graces our islands because of their wetlands.
RSPB Lochwinnoch nature reserve in Renfrewshire is just one of our many wetland havens for wildlife. Whooper Swans and ducks winter here; migratory warblers add their voices to the myriad species calling this their summer home.
Migratory waterbirds are great examples – hundreds of thousands of wading birds throng to our coastal wetlands – estuaries, mudflats, lagoons and saltmarshes. Most arrive in late summer or autumn, and either stay the whole winter or refuel and move on further south.
Knots arrive from Greenland and Arctic Canada, Grey Plovers and Bar-tailed Godwits from Siberia, Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits from Iceland. Swans and geese – some of our most visible migratory arrivals – stream in to freshwater lakes and estuaries from the north and east; Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese from Iceland, Brent Geese from Canada, Greenland, Svalbard and Siberia. A whole host of dabbling and diving ducks from all across northern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia.
All these birds benefit from the safety and food that our wetlands offer – being on the western shore of Europe gives us such a mild oceanic climate that our wetlands (mostly) stay wet throughout the winter, when large tracts of the northern hemisphere get locked in ice. That makes them ideal winter destinations, and some of the very best places to go wildlife watching at this time of year.
A blizzard of Knot at RSPB Snettisham nature reserve in Norfolk. In global terms, migratory waders like Knots, Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plovers are some of the UK’s most important bird populations. They link our coastal wetlands with other ‘pearls on the string’ from the Arctic to South Africa.
In summer, our wetlands teem with life, attracting other cohorts of birds on the move. Migratory warblers, crakes, terns and Ospreys all return from their African wintering areas to glean, flycatch, forage and fish in order to rear the next generation.
A whole host of otherwise ‘landbirds’ home in on wetlands as sources of food, especially at times when other areas provide slim pickings. Where do the first Swallows, martins and Swifts of spring often appear? Over lakes and rivers. Especially when the weather is a bit ‘British’, this is where they can still find plenty of flying insects, emerging from the watery depths. No wonder the myth of Swallows hibernating in the bottom of lakes and ponds persisted for so long. Where are the first and last places Swallows are often seen in the year? Flying over wetlands. Stands to reason.
The reality of Swallows migrating to South Africa and back – considered insanely fantastical 200 years ago – and all the other examples of globe-trotting birds, serve to illustrate how important not just our own wetlands are, but all those along our inter-continental migration flyways too.
RSPB Wallasea Island nature reserve in Essex. Here, hundreds of hectares of newly created coastal marsh, lagoons and mud, provide a winter home and flyway pit-stop for thousands of migratory birds.
Wetlands – both coastal and freshwater – form vital chains of sites for these birds, like pearls on a string. Wetlands provide food and shelter not just as wintering and breeding sites, but also as a necessary stop off and refuelling sites during a bird’s long journey across the globe. Many migratory birds rely on these networks of wetland sites, spanning thousands of miles, to successfully complete their annual cycle.
This means that we need to work hard to protect not just our own wetland pearls, but all those on the string. If the lowland wet grassy marshes of Iceland are not protected to provide breeding areas for Black-tailed Godwits, fewer will grace our estuaries in winter. If estuaries all along the flyway are not protected from damaging human development, each broken pearl could displace hundreds of thousands of birds – and its loss will kill many of them. Think of driving down a long motorway, with no satnav, and just your own experience of where the service stations are. You get to one and find it has closed down forever. You don’t know where the nearest alternatives are. Chances are you might run out of fuel before you find one.
This is one reason why wetlands are such a conservation priority – worldwide. They are some of the most threatened and valuable habitats around the globe. Not just for wildlife of course, but for people too – vital sources of water, plants, fish, many wetlands are excellent carbon sinks, water purification systems and flood prevention measures.
Black-tailed Godwit on its Icelandic wetland breeding area. Many Icelandic breeding godwits migrate to the UK and winter on our estuaries and coastal marshes. A second, much smaller, population of these elegant waders nests in the marshy fens of East Anglia. They migrate further south to wetlands in Iberia or even West Africa.
With your support enabling us to do so, the RSPB will continue to cherish and protect wetlands wherever we can – both in the UK, and much further afield. If you want to do more to help create more wonderful wildlife rich soggy bits, then why not consider helping out by volunteering at an RSPB wetland nature reserve.
Or make your own - pretty much the single best thing you can do to boost nature in a garden or greenspace is to make a pond. And be sure to get out and appreciate your nearest damp delights, soggy spectacles and watery wonders. Love your wetlands, our wetlands, the World’s Wetlands. Because they are worth it.
