It’s been a great year for breeding birds at Farlington Marshes nature reserve in Portsmouth. Survey results from the summer are in, and we are delighted to have seen bird numbers soar.

Careful management of the site, combined with creative thinking and innovative conservation solutions have seen lapwing, redshank and avocet numbers reach the highest they have been in 20 years. We also had two pairs of oystercatcher nest successfully on site; an exciting first for this nature reserve.

The tern raft proved its worth by providing three pairs of common terns with a safe place to nest. While this may not sound like many, each pair produced two chicks, which is a huge success in terms of productivity. We plan to install four more tern rafts at Farlington Marshes later in the year and have high hopes that the colony will grow exponentially, so watch this space!

Approximately 36 pairs of lapwings nested on the various scrapes; an enormous improvement on last year. In 2018 two ravens set up home near to where the lapwings were breeding, and heavy predation from the pair meant that no chicks fledged at all.

This year, in an attempt to keep the ravens and resident crows away from breeding waders, Reserves Officer Chris Lycett distracted the predatory birds by feeding them a mixture of eggs and tiny chicks (the kind you might feed to a pet snake). Chris’ cunning plan worked like a charm, and most of the lapwing chicks fledged unhindered.

To the east of the reserve in the lake, a large number of black headed gulls descended on the two islands, and many of them nested successfully. This sudden influx had wide ranging benefits for other species including lapwings and avocets, as gulls are excellent predator deterrents - by gathering in large, loud groups they chase off potential predators.

We are delighted to see so many species thriving at Farlington Marshes nature reserve – why not visit and see them for yourself? With autumn fast approaching, we are anticipating the arrival of some of our favourite winter visitors, including Brent geese and short eared owls.

Find out more about this stunning wetland: www.hiwwt.org.uk/nature-reserves