Cumbria is home to two of the UK’s most important sites for wetland birds, with Morecambe Bay in the south and the Solway in the north. 

In fact, there's only around a 15 mile stretch of the Cumbria coastline that isn’t designated as an internationally important site for wintering birds – and that's only because there's a gap between the two estuaries!

Every year, millions of waterbirds use the UK’s estuaries, coming from as far away as Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Iceland and even the high Arctic in Canada! 

Some birds will stay with us for the winter, and others are just calling in, feeding up on the tidal mudflats before continuing their journey – a bit like stopping off at the motorway services.

It has been calculated that a square metre of mudflat, just an inch deep has the same calorie content for birds as thirteen chocolate bars do for us! There is plenty of food out there, if you know where to look.

An average of over 250,000 are using the Cumbria coastline, represented by well over 130 species of wildfowl (the collective name for swans, ducks and geese), waders, gulls, herons and other waterbirds.

Identifying them all, especially at distance can seem to be a big challenge. Here are a few hints and tips on how to get started!

Get to know the regulars

There are a few species on the mudflats present in such big numbers, that they are worth becoming familiar with – you’ll see them a lot, and once you know them other species you’re not familiar with will stand out more as something different.

Over 37,000 oystercatcher are found on Morecambe Bay, with another 25,000 on the Solway. They’re relatively big wader and somewhat unmistakeable with their bold black-and-white plumage and big red bill, and whilst they’re not easily confused with anything else, because they’re so numerous they can act as a great reference point to compare with other species to gauge size.

They're also a great spectacle when thousands come together to roost at high tide.

Curlew are another big wader, with their distinctive long curved bill. But flick through a field guide and they look a lot like a whimbrel, another species you’ll see on our estuaries.

Curlew can be seen all year, peaking at over 9,000 birds in Morecambe Bay in winter alone. Whimbrel are mainly seen in spring and autumn as they migrate through the UK, but can easily be told apart from a curlew by their smaller size and head pattern.

Get to know the curlew as a regular on our estuaries, and then when you come across a whimbrel, it will draw your attention as something to check.

Of the smaller waders, dunlin and knot are the two main species found on our estuaries that you should get to know. They're a bit more variable in their appearance than curlew and oystercatcher, having different plumage at different times of the year, and slight differences between adults and juveniles.

Dunlin are the ‘classic’ small wader shape, and knot are like larger versions of them, but still much smaller than a curlew. As you get to know dunlin and knot, you’ll notice other species mixed into flocks with them. Other small waders with slightly different appearances.

You’ll often find sanderling and ringed plover, and if you’re lucky you may see turnstone, curlew, sandpiper or little stint.

It’s the way they move

With such a vast expanse of mudflats on offer at low-tide, sometimes the birds you’re looking at can be a little far away. Through poor light conditions in the winter months, or that time when you’ve forgotten your binoculars, identification can seem impossible!

All is not lost though; some species can be identified by their behaviour. One of my favourites to show people are dunlin and ringed plover.

To look at close-up, they're very easy to tell apart. But put them in a mixed flock a few hundred metres away, and they all become indistinct dark blobs on the mudflats.

Check out the video below and pay attention to how they're moving to find food.

Ringed Plover are visual feeders, running a short distance before pausing upright, looking for food before bending down to pick up what they find. A close view will also reveal that as they pause, they vibrate a leg in front of them to try and disturb prey so they become visible.

This feeding method is something shared across the plover family, so you’ll notice golden plover, grey plover and lapwing all doing something similar. They’re all bigger than ringed plover, so will stand out as larger birds in a distant flock.

Dunlin in the same flock are feeding by touch, working the mudflats like little sewing-machines. They appear bent over with their bill constantly probing away to find food. The end of their bill is incredibly sensitive to help them find prey hidden under the surface.

Similar looking birds like sanderling and little stint feed in similar ways, but can still be told apart at distance. In winter sanderling are a pale ‘cold’ grey, which give them a paler appearance next to the dunlin, whilst little stint are tiny, much smaller than a dunlin and, for me, have a more energetic feeding method – like a really fast sewing-machine!

What time is it?

What time of day you visit to see birds on our estuaries can have a big impact, not least with the low winter sun reflecting off the wet mudflats and tidal pools presenting a problem. The biggest trick is knowing the tides.

Twice a day the birds will be forced towards the coastline as their dinner table disappears underwater. I’d always recommend getting to your vantage point to watch a roost at least 2 hours before high tide.

In this time, birds will begin to be pushed closer to shore, gathering together into larger and larger flocks, trying to stay on ever smaller islands of mud or sandbanks until the tide overwhelms their refuge and they must move again.

Large flocks can gather and tumble around in big murmurations as they look for somewhere to land. It's one of nature’s great wildlife spectacles, so even if you can’t identify what you see it's still an experience that should be on everyone’s bucket list! And all this activity doesn’t go unnoticed.

Often birds of prey will visit roosts at high tide, trying to grab themselves a meal as birds are distracted by escaping the rising tide. Look out for peregrine and sparrowhawk, or if you’re lucky even hen harrier and goshawk are possible on the Cumbria coast!

We also need to think of time in a longer scale, relating to the age of the bird or time of year. Different species have different plumages for breeding and wintering, and as they moult back-and-forth between their chosen colours they can look a bit confusing!

Juvenile birds can also look different to adults. There is no quick and easy way to master these differences, but getting used to the species and how they behave can be a good starting point to try and work it out.

My favourite places to visit

We have two great nature reserves where you can experience the birds of Morecambe Bay – South Walney and Humphrey Head.

South Walney is well known for its birds, with several bird hides around the nature reserve offering you great view points as birds come in to roost on the beaches and pools.

Head out to the hides around Lighthouse Bay for the best views, and look out for curlew, oystercatcher, redshank, brent geese, eider and red-breasted merganser.

Humphrey Head is famous as an important site for rare plants, so it might seem strange to suggest heading here for estuary birds.  But from the top of the reserve, you’ll have panoramic views of birds coming to roost along the shoreline below.

This stretch of coastline regular attracts over 30,000 birds to roost, often resulting in tumbling murmurations over the saltmarsh edge. The area can also be a favourite spot for a flock of pink-footed geese during the winter months.

Other stretches of the Morecambe Bay coastline can also be very productive. The shoreline between Grange-over-Sands and Kent railway viaduct, just east of Holme Island, can attract a few thousands birds to roost, whilst the seemingly bleak open coast road between Barrow-in-Furness and Ulverston, through Roosebeck and Baycliff can be good no matter what state the tide is in.

At high tide, large flocks of birds will be bought in closer whilst at low tide birds often congregate along the freshwater streams which flow out into the Bay. Here you’ll often see redshank, oystercatcher, pintail and wigeon.

Wherever you end up watching this amazing spectacle, remember to do so responsibly. Stick to footpaths and vantage points, and don’t approach too close to roosts.

Disturbance at roosts can be a big problem for birds, especially during the cold winter months. Disturbance can force them to move, using up precious energy they’re unable to replenish as their dinner table on the mudflats is locked away under the tide for several hours.