Pennines delight as drone survey offers hope for one of UK’s rarest birds

Deep in the Cumbrian Pennines, walkers might be lucky enough to spot small birds with spindly legs, long beaks and bodies like feathered balls hopping through the peat bogs.These are endangered dunlins – at risk in England because their favoured soggy landscapes are drained and burned for farming and grouse shooting.These birds fly an astonishing distance to breed in the far reaches of the heather moorlands in Cumbria, travelling thousands of miles to and from West Africa.But a new collaboration between conservationists and landowners has resulted in the breeding success of the wading birds. A team from bird conservation charity the RSPB used drones to survey the hard-to-reach areas of the Pennines in the first survey of its kind, which was funded by Natural England.They were delighted to find tiny chicks, including on the High Helbeck estate where the landowners have been creating habitat for the birds to thrive in. The estate managers have created 79 hectares of peatland restoration and 25 new wader “scrapes”, which are the shallow pools the birds pick through to find food.In one video, which particularly charmed the conservationists, chicks were seen feeding in a newly-created bog pool.Dunlins have declined by at least 20% globally since the early 2000s and the IUCN Red List now classify the species globally as near threatened. In the UK, the species is now red-listed, meaning it is one of the country’s rarest birds.Conservationists have long been raising the alarm over declining UK wader populations, pointing to the climate crisis and degraded habitats as key threats.Kath Milnes, higher officer for Natural England in Cumbria, said: “This fantastic work across the Cumbrian Pennines clearly demonstrates how investing in nature delivers multiple benefits for everyone. By working with landowners and conservation partners to restore and re-wet peatlands, we’re creating the right conditions for species like dunlin to thrive.”Out of 14 locations the conservationists surveyed, the birds were found in eight of them, and their presence corresponded with how high-quality the habitat was.Nicolete Blackett-Ord, joint landowner High Helbeck, said: “It has been extremely rewarding to take part in this project. We’ve learnt such a lot about this threatened species’ distribution and habitat needs.“To confirm breeding at High Helbeck is particularly special because we have worked with the RSPB and partners for several years, improving habitat, to enable wading birds to thrive.”