• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Coul Links, Embo under threat - RSPB petition (1 Viewer)

Muso

Well-known member
Scotland
Hi all

Have posted this in Conservation Forum, but thought this would be a good place too - sorry if I'm breaking etiquette.

Coul Links, a rare duneland habitat on the Sutherland coast in Scotland is being threatened with destruction by plans submitted to build a golf course.

These dunes run to Loch Fleet, and together with Loch Fleet, Coul Links is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), an international Special Protection Area and Ramsar site. Which doesn't seem to count for much.

RSPB is looking for support to challenge this proposed golf course, and to save a very special area, which supports an unbelievable amount of wildlife, including rare and declining species.

On a personal note, I've been going there regularly since 1978, and it is my favourite place in the world, largely due to the unspoilt natural environment and the conservation work carried out over many years.

It's hard for me to think that this wonderful place can be wiped out by a money-making franchise, as we saw with the Aberdeen golf course fiasco.

The closing date for submissions re the planning application is 22nd December. If you can, please help RSPB voice their objection.

Read more, and access the petition at: https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-casework/casework/cases/coul-links/

Thanks

Ian
 
Last edited:
Just to put it into perspective, Coul Links lies right next to Loch Fleet (NNR), which lies next to native woodland. Difficult to see how wiping out part of the environment wouldn't have a knock-on effect. Here's what you could have won...

From Loch Fleet NNR webpage http://www.nnr-scotland.org.uk/loch-fleet/ and my own observation:

Habitats
Sand dunes, Heath, Sand flats, Saltmarsh, Native pinewoods, Eel grass beds, Seashore.

Rare plants
Creeping lady’s-tresses, (one of the few British orchids that is almost exclusive to Scotland), the delicate twinflower, and rarer still, one-flowered wintergreen.

Birds
Arctic tern, common tern, crested tit, crossbill, cuckoo, house martin, long-tailed duck, redstart, siskin, snipe, sparrowhawk, treecreeper, willow warbler.

My List
Bar-tailed godwit, blue tit, buzzard, chaffinch, coal tit, cormorant, crow, curlew, divers, dunlin, eider, gannet, goldeneye, goldfinch, goosander, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, grey heron, grey wagtail, greylag goose, guillemot, gulls (various eg GBBG, BHG, Herring), hooded crow, jackdaw, kestrel, knot, lapwing, long-tailed tit, mallard, manx shearwater, meadow pipit, osprey, oystercatcher, pied wagtail, pink-footed goose, razorbill, red kite, red-breasted merganser, redshank, ringed plover, robin, sanderling, sandwich tern, shelduck, skylark, slavonian grebe, starling, stonechat, swallow, teal, turnstone, wheatear, wigeon, wren.

Butterflies
Green hairstreak, small heath, small blue, dark green fritillary, grayling, speckled wood, painted lady, peacock (tick), small tortoiseshell (tick).
Butterflies around Loch Fleet are monitored as part of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

Moths
Six-spot burnet moth, mother shipton, fox moth caterpillar (tick).

Mammals & cetaceans
Common seal (tick), dolphin (tick), otter (European Protected Species) common pipistrelle bats (European Protected Species), roe deer (tick), red squirrel, fox, pine marten, stoat, weasel.

Not much compared to golf and profit. Wonder if I could afford a round....?

Thanks for your support.

Ian
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top