Common Eider breeds in Cornwall for first time
Common Eider has bred in Cornwall for the first time.
On Thursday 23 May, a female was photographed with three ducklings at Spit Beach, Par, on the Cornish south coast. This record, according to the Cornwall Bird Watching & Preservation Society, constitutes the first time the duck has bred in the county.
The female Common Eider with three ducklings at Spit Beach on 23 May 2024 (R Hampshire).
South-coast breeding records
In Britain, Common Eider is at the southern edge of its wider breeding range. Birds winter all along the south coast in moderate numbers, but breeding is generally confined to northern England and Scotland, with North Wales the nearest traditional area to Cornwall.
However, in recent years the species has nested in Hampshire in the west Solent, coinciding with increasing numbers of summering birds along the English south coast. The first Hampshire nest was found in the Pennington area in 2003 with attempts suspected annually since, though not always confirmed.
The presence of eider spending the summer in southern England perhaps makes the Cornish breeding record less surprising as a result.
Common Eider has a rather broad, disjointed range across Europe, including breeding populations in Brittany, France, as well as in Belgium, northern Italy and the Netherlands, as well as an isolated population in the Black Sea.
Today, something astonishing has occurred in Cornwall!
— Steve Rogers (@RunnelStone) May 23, 2024
The @CBWPS1 has announced today that at Par, Spit beach, 6 Eider (2f 4m) including a female with three ducklings has been photographed.
This constitutes the first breeding record of this species in Cornwall. How amazing…
