10 hours agoShareSaveVictoria GillScience correspondent, BBC NewsShareSaveVictoria Gill/BBC NewsHesketh Out Marsh has been restored – bought by the wildlife charity RSPB and re-flooded by tide. Now, in late spring, it is teeming with bird life. A variety of species, including avocets, oyster catchers and black-tailed godwits, probe the mud for food and nest on the land between lagoons and streams.The researchers hope the findings will help make the case to restore and protect more of these muddy bufferzones between the land and the sea.”The mud here is so important,” explained Alex Pigott, the RSPB warden at Hesketh Out Marsh. “It’s is like a service station for birds.”With their differently shaped bills – some ideal for scooping and some for probing – marshland birds feed in the tidal mud.”We know these sites act as a natural flood defences, too and that they store carbon,” said Ms Pigott. “Any any of these habitats that we can restore will be a big win for nature.”
