Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus has been nesting on a barge anchored in the Thames

Dear GMRA Members and readers,  

We recently received this lovely email  and photos from Greenhithe resident Andries Loots which we are pleased to be able to share this with.

Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus

Hi There

We stay in Carmichael Avenue, Greenhithe in Kent overlooking the Thames and have been observing a pair of Oyestercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus ) nesting on a barge anchored in the Thames, for the last three years

This year in May we noticed two small chicks but not long after the chicks disappeared.

We saw one more chick a month later but then there was a lot of activity on the barge with a crane stacking scrap metal where they were nesting and the third chick was also not seen again.

The pair have just made a new nest at the front on the Eastern side of the barge.
Can something be done to protect them to ensure these chicks survive ?

Kind regards

Andries Loots

Background and Justification

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. 

Further information can be found by clicking on the following link:

Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We would be happy to help and if you wouldn’t mind I’d like to post this along with some additional information about Eurasian Oystercatcher to our blog.

In the meantime we can contact the PLA and the Barge owner to make them aware of the nesting birds hopefully that will help keep the chicks safe until they are strong enough to leave the nest.

We would love to hear from our readers if you have any interesting stories or photos of Greenhithe (Past or Present) please get in touch.