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The Lowestoft Kittiwake Partnership

Kittiwake - Chris Gomersall/2020VISION

The Lowestoft Kittiwake Partnership seeks to safeguard nesting birds while reducing conflict with businesses and building owners in the town. Our Planning and Advocacy Manager, Rupert Masefield, explains more...

Spring is finally here and with it, kittiwakes are returning to their nesting colonies on the Suffolk Coast at Sizewell and Lowestoft.

No one begrudges blue tits nesting in any available nook in their gardens, but Lowestoft’s kittiwakes aren’t always viewed with the same benevolence.

They have their fans and champions – I count myself among them – but it can’t be denied that kittiwakes nesting on buildings can make a bit of a mess.

In response, some businesses and building owners have been turning to deterrents to stop the birds nesting in places where they are perceived to be causing problems. But this has not been without its own problems for the birds.

Last year, images posted on social media showing kittiwakes tangled in netting that had been installed on buildings to prevent them nesting sparked public outrage from wildlife lovers concerned about the birds’ welfare – as well as being a worry for a Red List species vulnerable to global extinction.

Kittiwakes - Adam Jones

Kittiwakes - Adam Jones

Whether you love Lowestoft’s kittiwakes or just wish they wouldn’t make such a mess, it’s clear there is a challenge with where kittiwakes are nesting in the town and the use of deterrents that put the birds themselves at risk.

Finding solutions that keep the birds safe and provide them with places to nest that minimise any conflict with businesses and building owners needs people in the town to work together.

That’s why Suffolk Wildlife Trust has come together with the RSPB, councils, business groups, community members, and local MP Peter Aldous, to form the Lowestoft Kittiwake Partnership.

The aim is to make sure kittiwakes can continue to nest safely in Lowestoft, while helping businesses and building owners to deal with the challenges of having kittiwakes nesting on buildings in a way that doesn’t harm the birds.

Kittiwake - Margaret Holland

Kittiwake - Margaret Holland

As a first step, the Partnership is offering advice and support to businesses and building owners considering using nesting deterrents to make sure these are only used where absolutely necessary, and that where they are used, they are safe for kittiwakes.

This month, Lowestoft Town Council confirmed that it was awarding £10,000 to Lowestoft Vision to part-fund the salary of a Kittiwake Officer who will work with local people and businesses to keep kittiwakes safe and reduce problems associated with nesting on buildings.

Ultimately, we want Lowestoft to continue to be a place where kittiwakes can thrive alongside people and businesses and be recognized as an asset not a nuisance.

If you see a kittiwake or a wild bird trapped in netting, please contact the RSPCA immediately (0300 1234 999) and, where possible, alert the property owner. 

About Suffolk’s kittiwake colonies

  • Kittiwake numbers globally have fallen by 40% since the 1970s due to climate change and overfishing, so looking after our kittiwake colonies in Suffolk is important for the conservation of the species.
  • Suffolk’s Sizewell kittiwake colony once laid claim to being the most southerly in the UK – an accolade now held by a colony in Kent. Here, the birds have for years nested on the mini oil rig like structures that mark the inflow and outflow pipes of the now defunct Sizewell A’s cooling system – and evidently make very good sea cliff substitutes.
  • It is in Lowestoft though that kittiwakes have shown just how adaptable they are – and have to be in the face of a changing environment – nesting on window ledges and other architectural appendages that mimic rock outcrops on many of the town’s buildings.
  • Lowestoft isn’t the only place with urban kittiwakes – there is another well-known nesting colony at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside. Kittiwakes are a much less common sight though than the herring and lesser black-backed gulls we are used to seeing in coastal towns.
  • Kittiwakes won’t be making a bid for your bag of chips – they eat exclusively fish, and not the battered kind. Kittiwakes are true mariners, only coming ashore to breed and spending the rest of the year at sea in the north-west Atlantic nearly 2,000 miles away from the closest land.

Kittiwake factfile

Listen to Mark Murphy on BBC Radio Suffolk interview Rupert Masefield, our Planning and Advocacy Manager, and Lowestoft Councillor Andy Pearce here (from 3:41-3:48). 

Listen on BBC Sounds

(Tuesday 5th April, 2022)

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