Humberston flycatcher

In 2007 I joined a new technical advisory group planning a 240 acre realignment/compensation area of tidal foreshore at Donna Nook
at that time the area was primarily cereal crops with few birds
The scheme to create the site started in 2012 ( I was the site ecologist ) and most of the works completed 2013 , due to the public enquiry re the rerouting of the public footpath the breach of the old sluice at Pyes hall has yet to be completed however the old sluice door is tethered open allowing some tidal inflow
I complete a monthly WeBS count on that area and record significant numbers of birds mostly waders wildfowl gulls but also skylarks pipits, reed buntings corn buntings etc.
This scheme was generated and paid for by the Environment Agency and they have to operate and work within strict government guidelines ,
so perhaps this should be noted in balance of the hawthorn removal and if your property was flooded due failure to maintain a sea defence
perhaps you would have a somewhat different opinion

Hear Hear! Absolutely! Officialdom everywhere seems incapable of common sense.

Thanks for your comments, John.

I agree that Bourne Leisure have done an excellent job of habitat creation within their adjacent Thorpe Park golf course and chalet park

My view remains that the Humberston seabank stretch of hedgerow was of sufficient ‘corridor’ value to birds, especially warblers and chats, to have warranted a far more imaginative approach to tackling any flooding/ badger concerns.

What is more, as far as I know, there was negligible, if any, advance publicity or public consultation. The project has thus proceeded with both lack of sensitivity and transparency.

I wonder if a cull of badgers is also included within the programme of works.

Disappointingly, the RSPB, LWT and Natural England and North East Lincolnshire Council have all been absent from the debate.

Inevitably, as I have discovered, this weekend, the yellowhammers, reed buntings, robins, wrens, linnets and long-tailed tits have now all gone.

I miss their assortment of trills, whistles, squeaks, clicks and tweets which have been replaced with an eerie and unpleasant silence. I wish now I hadn’t taken them so much for granted.

To quote the Joni Mitchell song:
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone?”

understand your concern Jim but the EA has a duty to maintain primary sea defences and if badgers dig setts then as the 2013 flood proved these become weak areas, and badgers do favour banks with hawthorns , the mini golf course and adjacent track have several good stands of bushes and trees that were not there 35 years ago, so there are some wildlife gains in the locality.
regards John

In the interests of balance, I have tried to get a comment from the Environment Agency. but so far no one has replied.
I assume there must be a solid explanation for why this fine stretch of berry-laden hawthorn is being taken out.
The contractors, incidentally, are Gnarly Tree Ltd who, I think, are based in Redbourne.

Very depressing (the destruction, not the birds). Even nature reserves and their environs aren't safe. The world goes on regardless... Very depressing.