Wildlife ‘firsts’ include Norfolk’s only sighting of a Balearic shearwater and a beetle not seen in Northern Ireland for more than 100 years

The biggest survey to date of nature along Britain’s coastline has uncovered a host of “wildlife firsts”.



More than 3,400 species were recorded at 25 National Trust locations along the coastline of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the charity’s largest ever wildlife survey. A handful have either been seen in a new habitat for the first time or “rediscovered” after going unseen for many years.



Results included the first ever recorded sighting of the Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) at Blakeney on the Norfolk coast. This bird is normally seen far out to sea off the coast of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and west Wales, but a sighting off the east coast is more unusual, rangers said.

At Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, a slow worm (Anguis fragilis), was found for the first time since 1966 and a rare forest cockchafer beetle (Melolontha hippocastani), was found in the dunes of White Park Bay, Co Antrim for the first time in Northern Ireland in more than a century.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Four thousand nature lovers and expert volunteers helped survey 25 National Trust coastal properties. Photograph: Zoe Frank/National Trust

Over six months last year, 4,000 people took part in “bio blitz” surveys, with the aim of recording as many species as possible over either 12 or 24 hours.



Some 53 species “red listed” by the IUCN were recorded, including the Dartford warbler, spotted on Brownsea Island in Dorset for only the second time since the 1980s. The surveys also recorded 95 of the UK’s most threatened species – among them water vole, found at Dunwich Heath on the Suffolk coast for only the second time in more than 40 years, and the red-shanked carder bee (Bombus ruderarius), seen at Birling Gap in East Sussex for the first time.

Dr David Bullock, the trust’s head of conservation, said the results would help provide the trust with a greater understanding of the species that live along Britain’s coastline.

“The shifting nature of our shoreline means that we need to think ahead about what is happening to coastal habitats and how we might secure the future of the wildlife that lives by the sea,” he said.

The site with the most species recorded was Brancaster on the north Norfolk coast, with 1,018 species recorded on 20 June 2015. Blakeney Point, also in north Norfolk, came second, followed by Brownsea Island, Dorset; Dunwich Heath, Suffolk, and Cwm Ivy on Gower, south Wales.

Species recorded in the highest numbers were land-living invertebrates (1,511) such as the oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus), found at Cwm Tydu on the Ceredigion coast in Wales for the first time since 1994. Second were flowering plants (899) and lower plants (mosses and lichens). Only four species of reptile and five marine mammals were recorded.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The oil beetle ( Meloe proscarabaeus) was found at Cwm Tydu on the Ceredigion coast in Wales for the first time since 1994. Photograph: Iain Perkins/Buglife/National Trust

Other findings included a jumping spider (Phlegra fasciata), recorded at East Head, West Sussex, for the first time. There are less than 10 sites for this spider in the UK. Otters were found at Murlough reserve in Co Down, Northern Ireland and at Cemlyn in Anglesey, north Wales. The UK’s only venomous snake, the adder (Vipera berus), was recorded at Ravenscar on the Yorkshire coast for the first time.



The surveys were organised to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the National Trust’s Neptune Coastline Campaign. The trust now owns more than 775 miles of coastline.