Rare chicks hatch from rescued eggs at nature reserve on Cambridgeshire border

Rare black-tailed godwit chicks have hatched from eggs that were rescued from severely flooded fields fields. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) said the birds have struggled to find suitable nest sites this year as severe flooding his happening more often.

They added that without human intervention, their critically low numbers would fall further. The chicks, which can walk and feed themselves just hours after hatching, will be looked after by WWT staff for up to a month until they are able to fly.

Each bird will be ringed and named, with a cohort released back into the wild near WWT Welney on the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire border. There are fewer than 50 pairs of British black-tailed godwits left in the wild, according to the WWT, and they rely on a handful of wetland sites to breed.

Read more: Thousands of illegal vapes and cigarettes seized from two Cambridgeshire shops

Read more: New Cambridge cafe and bar applies to serve alcohol and play live music

The eggs were collected from the Nene and Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk as well as nearby arable fields and specially constructed "lifeboat" wetlands near the Ouse Washes.

The "lifeboat sites", managed by the WWT and RSPB, are designed to be healthy wetland habitats. They are accessible even when the surrounding area is flooded, giving birds somewhere suitable to nest.

William Costa, project manager and lead aviculturist at WWT, said: "Without ongoing efforts to restore wetlands around the Fens there would probably be no black-tailed godwit chicks fledging in the UK this year. This rescued generation of black-tailed godwits will be crucial to helping the species remain as a breeding bird in the UK.

"By releasing a minimum of 20 of them this year and establishing the world's first captive breeding population, we will be giving this subspecies the lifeline it needs to survive as our wetland restoration work ramps up around the UK."

Partners including Natural England, the Environment Agency, WWT and the RSPB are working together to maintain and improve breeding sites. They are also working to increase the extent of lowland wet grassland in the Fens and to further understand and act on the pressures that godwits face from predators.

In subsequent years, birds produced by the captive breeding population will be reintroduced to restored wetland sites where godwits formerly bred in the UK.

As part of the project, WWT, together with the RSPB, will track the movements of these migratory birds from their breeding sites to their wintering ground along the west coast of Africa, releasing more chicks each year to help boost the number of birds that return to Britain to breed.

WWT's Godwit "head-starting" work in which eggs are collected in the wild and the chicks raised to fledging in captivity to boost their survival chances and the captive breeding programme are part of a project named Godwit Futures. This is funded by Natural England's Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme.

Do you want more of the latest Cambridgeshire news as it comes in? Sign up to our dedicated newsletter to make sure you never miss a big story from Cambridge or anywhere else in the county. You can also sign up to our dedicated Peterborough, Traffic and Crime newsletters for the latest updates on the topics you are most interested in.