Distributions of wintering red-throated diver, little gull, and common scoter in the Greater Wash

Published by:
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Last updated:
14 April 2026
Topic:
Not added
Licence:
None

Summary

This dataset provides distribution data (Kernel Density Estimates) for waterbirds in the Greater Wash area. The methods used to generate these shapefiles can be found in JNCC Report 574.

The European Council (EC) Directive on the conservation of wild birds, commonly known as the 'Birds Directive' (Directive 2009/147/EC), requires Member States to classify the “most suitable territories” in number and size as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for species listed on Annex I of the Directive and regularly occurring migratory species. The UK SPA selection guidelines for the identification of SPAs advise that sites should be identified in two stages (Stroud et al 2001). While Stage 1 identifies areas that are likely to qualify for SPA status, Stage 2 further considers these areas to select the most suitable areas in number and size for SPA classification.

In order to help identify inshore areas that might be suitable for SPA classification for waterbirds (mostly divers, grebes, and seaduck), 45 areas of search (AoS) were selected where potentially important numbers of these birds congregate outside the breeding season. The Greater Wash was one these areas of search, as the existing literature indicated that large numbers of red-throated diver occurred there annually outside the breeding season.

More from this publisher

All datasets from Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Search

Data links

Link to the data Format File added Data preview
JNCC ResourceHub Page N/A 14 April 2026 Not available

Additional information

View additional metadata
Added to data.gov.uk
2025-08-13
Access contraints
No limitations
Harvest GUID
9f1f8fb8-de83-444f-b643-9946b019c622
Extent
Latitude: 54.04° to °
Longitude: -0.24° to 2.0°
Spatial reference system
Dataset reference date
2025 (publication)
Frequency of update
Responsible party
Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC (owner)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng
Source Metadata
XML
HTML

Contact

Enquiries

Contact Joint Nature Conservation Committee regarding this dataset

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

JNCC Freedom of information requests for this dataset