Page 34 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
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he kittiwakes of the The buildings replicate From the
Tyne Bridge arrived in kittiwake’s
Newcastle and Gateshead’s ledges on a clif and the perspective,
a tall urban
quayside district in the tower block has
1960s, drifting upriver Tyne provides access many of the
from foothold colonies at same features
T South Shields, where the downriver and out to sea. as a shoreline
clif face.
river opens to the North Sea. The quayside
was a forlorn place then: Newcastle was
nearing the end of its industrial heyday and
the Tyne’s years as a key manufacturing
and trade artery almost at an end. These
neat white gulls, usually cliff-nesters, marked in black and white – trapped or far as kittiwakes are concerned, the bridge
made homes on the rundown Gateshead dead in loops of sagging netting went viral is a cliff, but in a different setting. It looks
buildings and on the iconic parabolic arch on social media. A petition swiftly followed, quite different to us, but it provides most
of the steel-framed road bridge. Since then, the issue was debated in news articles and of the same features.”
the quayside beneath the kittiwakes’ nests passions ran high. The fire brigade was Helen is part of the Tyne Kittiwakes
has undergone a regeneration programme even called out to rescue tangled birds. Partnership, a coalition of conservationists
ushering in a new focus on culture, leisure Nesting 15km or so from the coast, these and council authorities that have taken
and tourism. The Baltic Contemporary Arts kittiwakes constitute the farthest-inland up the kittiwakes’ cause. “We try to work
Centre – formerly the Baltic flour mill – colony of the species, which has a huge together to raise awareness and safeguard
and the Sage Gateshead music centre have circumpolar range. All around the quayside the nest sites,” she explains. “And to
brought cutting-edge culture to the post- each spring and summer, the birds crowd increase our understanding – monitoring
industrial Tyneside landscape. onto ledges, calling ‘kitti-waaa, kitti-waaa’ has been taking place for 25 years now.”
The kittiwakes are still here – perhaps and whitening the metal girders and
2,500 of them, all along the Tyne – but stonework with their guano. Conservation threat
not everyone is happy, and some quayside “The buildings replicate the ledges that In 2017, the International Union for the
buildings have been covered in anti-bird they would use on a cliff, and the Tyne Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded
netting. This summer the distressing sight provides great access down the river and out the status of the black-legged kittiwake from
of kittiwakes – often juveniles, handsomely to sea,” says Helen Quayle of the RSPB. “As Least Concern to Vulnerable on its ‘Red
34 BBC Wildlife October 2018
