The Greater Wash Pspa Departmental Brief
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Departmental Brief: Greater Wash potential Special Protection Area Natural England and JNCC March 2016 Greater Wash SPA Departmental Brief version 8 FINAL Page 1 of 76 March 2016 Table of Contents Glossary of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... 3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Assessment against SPA selection guidelines ........................................................... 6 1.1. Stage 1 ............................................................................................................................ 6 1.2. Stage 2 ............................................................................................................................ 6 2. Rationale and data underpinning site classification ................................................... 8 2.1. Data collection – defining the suite of species and numbers of those supported by the Greater Wash pSPA ................................................................................................................ 10 2.2. Data collection – defining the boundary of the Greater Wash pSPA .............................. 10 2.3. Identification of important marine areas for non-breeding waterbirds ............................. 11 2.4 Identification of important marine areas for larger terns ................................................. 18 2.5 Identification of important marine areas for little tern ...................................................... 26 2.6 Waterbird assemblage ................................................................................................... 35 3 Boundary description .................................................................................................. 35 3.1 Composite boundary of Greater Wash pSPA ................................................................. 35 3.2 Seaward boundary of the pSPA ..................................................................................... 35 3.3 Landward boundary of the pSPA ................................................................................... 37 3.4 Overlaps with other existing SPAs ................................................................................. 37 4 Location and Habitats ................................................................................................. 39 5 Assessment of ornithological interest ....................................................................... 39 5.1 Red-throated diver - Gavia stellata ................................................................................ 40 5.2 Little gull - Hydrocoloeus minutus .................................................................................. 42 5.3 Sandwich tern - Sterna sandvicensis ............................................................................. 42 5.4 Little tern - Sternula albifrons ......................................................................................... 42 5.5 Common tern - Sterna hirundo ...................................................................................... 44 5.6 Common scoter – Melanitta nigra .................................................................................. 45 6 Comparison with other sites in the UK ...................................................................... 49 7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 51 8 References ................................................................................................................... 53 Appendix 1 Site Citation ............................................................................................................. 56 Appendix 2 Implementation of Evidence standards within Boundary Making decision process ................................................................................................................... 58 Appendix 3 Corroborative common scoter data ....................................................................... 74 Appendix 4 Red-throated Diver, Little Gull and Common Scoter populations within the boundary of the Greater Wash pSPA .................................................................... 75 Greater Wash SPA Departmental Brief version 8 FINAL Page 2 of 76 March 2016 Glossary of Abbreviations AEWA African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement AoS Area of Search Defra Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs EC European Commission EEC European Economic Community JNCC Joint Nature Conservation Committee KDE Kernel Density Estimation MCA Maximum Curvature Analysis MHW Mean High Water MoP Mean of Peak NBMR Norfolk Bird and Mammal Report NNR National Nature Reserve OWF Offshore Wind Farm pSPA Potential Special Protection Area pMCZ Potential Marine Conservation Zone RSPB Royal Society for the Protection of Birds SAC Special Area of Conservation SPA Special Protection Area SMP Seabird Monitoring Programme SNCB Statutory Nature Conservation Body WeBS Wetland Bird Survey WWT Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Greater Wash SPA Departmental Brief version 8 FINAL Page 3 of 76 March 2016 Summary This departmental brief sets out the scientific case for the classification of the Greater Wash potential Special Protection Area (pSPA). The departmental brief should be read in conjunction with the ‘Impact Assessment’, which identifies the likely positive and negative impacts on the UK economy, society and the environment of the proposed designation. The Greater Wash pSPA is located in the mid-southern part of the North Sea on the east coast of England, between the counties of Yorkshire (to the north) and Suffolk (to the south). The site extends from Bridlington Bay in the north (at the village of Barmston), to the boundary of the existing Outer Thames Estuary SPA in the south. The Greater Wash pSPA is proposed to protect important areas of sea used by waterbirds during the non-breeding period, and for foraging in the breeding season by the qualifying interest features of a number of already- classified SPAs: Humber Estuary, Gibraltar Point, North Norfolk Coast, Breydon Water and Great Yarmouth North Denes. The boundary is a composite of the areas used by these species. The Greater Wash pSPA qualifies under Article 4 of the Birds Directive (2009/147/EC) for the following reasons (summarised in Table 1): The site regularly supports more than 1% of the Great Britain (GB) populations of three breeding and two non-breeding species listed in Annex I of the EC Birds Directive. Therefore the site qualifies for SPA Classification in accordance with the UK SPA selection guidelines (stage 1.1, 1.4). The site supports a regularly occurring migratory species not listed in Annex I of the EC Birds Directive, extending the (currently insufficient) range coverage of the current suite of SPAs for this species. Therefore the site qualifies for SPA Classification in accordance with the UK SPA selection guidelines (stage 1.4). Greater Wash SPA Departmental Brief version 8 FINAL Page 4 of 76 March 2016 Table 1. Summary of qualifying ornithological interest in the Greater Wash pSPA. Mean of Peak (MoP) for non-breeding populations1, breeding populations taken from various sources and are summed across the relevant site specific population estimates. GB populations derived from Musgrove et al. (2013)2 unless otherwise stated. Species Count (period) % of subspecies or Interest SPA population type selection guideline Red-throated diver 1,511 (MoP 8.9% GB non-breeding Annex I 1.1 Gavia stellata 2002/03 - population 2005/06)1 Common scoter 3,463 (MoP 0.6% Biogeographic Regularly 1.4 3 Melanitta nigra 2002/03, - population occurring 1 2007/08) migratory species Little gull 1,303 (MoP No current UK population Annex I 1.4 Hydrocoloeus 2004/05 – estimate 1 minutus 2005/06) Sandwich tern 3,852 pairs (5 year 35.0% of GB breeding Annex I 1.1 4 Sterna MoP 2010-14) population sandvicensis Common tern 510 breeding pairs 5.1% of GB breeding Annex I 1.1 Sterna hirundo (5 year MoP 2010- population 2014)4,5 Little tern 798 pairs (5 year 42.0% of GB breeding Annex I 1.1 Sternula albifrons MoP 2009-2013)5 population 1 MoP non-breeding populations for red-throated diver, common scoter and little gull were calculated by Natural England using AoS data reported by Lawson et al 2015a (Appendix 5). 2 Musgrove et al. (2013) collates population estimates of birds in Great Britain and the UK, by extrapolation of previous estimates using recognised trend measures, new surveys and novel analytical approaches. 3 Common scoter biogeographic population from Waterbird Population Estimates online database (http://wpe.wetlands.org/) accessed 26/01/2016) 4 Seabird Monitoring Programme (http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-1550) 5 Direct from site managers Greater Wash SPA Departmental Brief version 8 FINAL Page 5 of 76 March 2016 1 Assessment against SPA selection guidelines The UK SPA Selection Guidelines requires that SPA identification should be determined in two stages (Stroud et al., 2001). The first stage is intended to identify areas that are important for a significant proportion of birds on a regular basis (Stage 1.1 – 1.3), or which are of otherwise outstanding ecological importance for the birds (Stage 1.4). The second stage further considers these areas using one or more judgements in Stage 2 to select the most suitable areas in number and size for SPA classification (Stroud