More than 1,600 pairs of wading birds and ducks have had their nests destroyed by flooding in a wildlife catastrophe in the Cambridgeshire fens.

Nearly 600 pairs of increasingly scarce ground-nesting waders – lapwing, snipe and redshank – have lost eggs or chicks in the flooding on the Ouse Washes, a narrow, 20-mile strip of grassland near Ely which is the best breeding site for waders in lowland England. More than 1,100 pairs of eight species of duck, including 12 pairs of the rare garganey, have similarly had nests washed away.

The Ouse Washes were built as a winter relief channel for fenland flood water in the 17th century, and were traditionally inundated every winter and dried out in spring, leaving damp grassland which was perfect for nesting birds.

But in recent years the flooding has continued through spring and even into summer. A combination of factors is to blame, including growing urbanisation of the upper Ouse catchment area in towns such as Milton Keyes – meaning the natural draining ability of the land is lessened – and heavier summer rainfall.

There are already permanent casualties. Floods in the nesting season have been the main cause for the collapse in the Ouse Washes population of black-tailed godwits, one of the UK’s rarest breeding waders. In 1972, there were 65 pairs of this elegant wader breeding; this year there were just three, all of which have lost eggs or chicks. The Washes are now flooded bank to bank, a situation which may be repeated in future summers.

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