As part of the Bacton Sandscaping Project, North Norfolk District Council & their partners, Shell & Perenco, erected over 1.3 km of netting on Bacton Cliffs to prevent returning sand martins from nesting. After a successful campaign by #SaveTheBactonSandMartins ,the RSPB  & #NetsDownForNature half the netting was removed.

Baby sand martins, including the three in the photo, are now fledgling at Bacton, but we don't know how many sand martins have successfully nested or what impact the loss of nesting burrows has had this year. 

The sandscaping will finish this summer but over half the nesting burrows will be covered by sand. When our Bacton sand martins return next year, nesting opportunities will be severely reduced & many exhausted adult birds will discover their nesting burrows gone forever.

We are asking NNDC, Shell & Perenco to do two things:

1. Release the details of all breeding bird surveys conducted by their contracted ecologist/other parties into the public domain.

2. Fund the construction of artificial sand martin banks as mitigation for the loss of nest sites before 2020 breeding season.

We have been overwhelmed by the support from people not just in the UK but around the world. Please help secure the future of our Bacton sand martins. Thank you, wildlife heroes, you warm our hearts.