Nature Site Status Boosts Tourism Hope

The creation of the RSPB’s latest nature reserve on a nationally- important breeding site for wading birds in the far north is expected to boost the local economy by attracting more birdwatchers to the area.

The wildlife charity is also hoping its acquisition of Broubster Leans – a rich and beautiful wetland that has developed on the floodplain of the Forss Water, about four miles south-west of Thurso in Caithness – will enable it to reverse the decline in the number of waders breeding there.

In the past decade, numbers have fallen from about 100 pairs to just 50, and the RSPB is hoping to get the population back up to about 250 pairs.

The Leans offers a diverse mosaic of wet grasslands, pools, mires and drier pastures, which provides a haven for wildlife.

It is already subject to a number of designations, including Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation.

A new reserve warden post is being created to take forward management of the reserve – 494 acres of which has been bought, with a further 247 acres under a management agreement – and the wider Caithness wetlands area.

And modest visitor facilities are to be developed at Broubster and elsewhere to attract more birdwatchers to the area.

Hen harriers, twite and short-eared owls are present on the reserve throughout the year, with greenshank, golden plover, lapwing, snipe, redshank and common sandpiper breeding there in the summer, and, in winter, it serves as a refuge for 200 Greenland white-fronted geese and up to 80 whooper swans.

The rare spotted crake and the water vole can also be found there.

RSPB’s senior conservation manager for north Scotland, Peter Mayhew, said the charity had worked hard for many years to acquire the reserve.

He added that, over the past 20 years, there had been an alarming decrease in some of the wader and farmland bird populations, together with the loss of wetland habitat and changes in land management practices.

“Working with local farmers and crofters, we hope to restore the habitats for breeding birds, like lapwing, snipe and redshank, while maintaining the wintering populations of geese and swans.

“We also hope to bring back the great yellow bumble bee to Broubster,” said Mr Mayhew.

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