As the long summer days come to an end and the weather begins to cool, the COAST team is saying goodbye to summer and welcoming the arrival of autumn and our winter visitors.

Before we tell you what we have planned for the colder months, we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of our highlights from the sunny season:

Becky’s Highlight:

My highlight of the summer was seeing so many of you at our events! Our crafts sessions at the museum were especially memorable, with visitors creating fantastic colourful coastal creatures and some amazing underwater collages! It was great to see so much creativity inspired by our coastline.

 

Sam’s Highlight:

My highlight of the summer was seeing our coastal grasslands come alive with some of our weird and wonderful butterfly species. I always love watching them gracefully gliding around and feeding on our magnesian limestone flowers. This year, we recorded a whopping 19 different butterfly species along the coast, including our first Brimstone butterfly for the project!

 

Welcoming Our Winter Visitors

As we move into autumn, it is important to remember that the cooler weather also signals the return of our wintering shorebirds. Many species travel thousands of miles to spend the winter on our coastline, relying on the rocky shore to rest and feed.

Birds such as Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers are here to build up critically important energy reserves before making their long return journey to the high Arctic in spring. For some species, this incredible migration can exceed 2,000 miles!

 

These birds are especially vulnerable to disturbance during this period. Every time a bird is forced to fly away from a feeding or resting area, it uses valuable energy reserves. Repeated disturbance can reduce a bird’s chances of successfully completing its migration or breeding successfully when it reaches its nesting grounds.

If you are visiting the coast between September to April, please follow the COAST code below and never allow your dog to chase birds. By making a few simple changes, you can enjoy the coastline while helping our wintering waders remain safe and undisturbed.

 

 

See You on the Coast

As our birds return to Sunderland, the COAST team will be out along the coast come rain or shine, monitoring our internationally important population of shorebirds. So, if you spot us with our scopes and binoculars, don’t be shy and come and say hi!