World Heritage Site status beckons for Grimsby as part of 'East Atlantic Flyway' for migrating shorebirds

In winter, waders such as these knot, are conspicuous on Cleethorpes beach

 

GRIMSBY and other East Coast locations are along a route being proposed as a World Heritage Site.

The East Atlantic Flyway - used by millions of  migrating birds - is one of the candidates submitted to Unesco.

The Government says it supports the nomination "in recognition of its vital importance to bird populations and wildlife".

The flyway stretches from North East Canada, where many wetland birds (such as ducks, geese, swans and waders) breed, all the way to warmer climes in South Africa where some spend winter.

En route, many of these birds (such as dunlin, knot and sanderling) take an extended feeding and resting break, on sandflats and mudflats in Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Humberston and Immingham as well as at coastal sites in Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and the Thames Estuary.

There are already bird sanctuaries - for instance, in  China and Senegal - on the existing Unesco list, but, if approved, this flyway would be the first bird route to be recognised.