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Golden plovers roosting on the saltmarsh

About us

Bird Aware Solent raises awareness of the ducks, geese and wading birds that spend the winter on our special coastline.

Every year up to 125,000 migrate here from as far as the Arctic to take advantage of the abundance of food that lives in our coastal mudflats. This makes the Solent coast of worldwide importance for wildlife. These birds need to feed and rest undisturbed so that they can survive the winter and build up enough energy to fly back to their summer breeding grounds. Their survival and breeding success relies on everyone on the Solent sharing our shores.

Our rangers engage with visitors and communities along the coast around the New Forest, Southampton Water, Portsmouth, Chichester and Langstone Harbours and the northern Isle of Wight. We help people learn about the different species of bird and understand the impact of bird disturbance. We’re always happy to hear from you, please contact us

Brent geese on the Solent
Bird Aware Solent region

How we are funded

Additional housing will lead to more people visiting the coast. This has the potential to cause more disturbance to the birds. We are taking action to prevent that disturbance, funded by developer contributions from house builders.

The Partnership

Bird Aware Solent is the brand name of the Solent Recreation Mitigation Partnership. We are made up of fifteen local councils, Natural England, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, and Chichester Harbour Conservancy. Our terms of reference explain our organisational structure and political governance.

Saltmarsh at Newtown, Isle of Wight

Our strategy

Bird Aware Solent delivers mitigation to address recreational impacts associated with new housing growth on wintering birds that are the qualifying features for three Special Protection
Areas (SPAs) around the Solent.

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