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Artificial Islands Became Poland’s Only Permanent Pied Avocet Breeding Site

A pied avocet sweeping its upcurved bill through shallow muddy water
Conservation · Management

Two artificial islands built from dredged sediment in Poland’s Szczecin Lagoon became the country’s only permanent breeding site for pied avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) within five years. A study published on 29 May 2026 recorded 85 breeding pairs on islands W22 and W28 in 2025, but also found that the open habitat on which the birds depend was closing rapidly as reeds and willows spread.

The researchers followed breeding birds and vegetation from 2021 to 2025. They used complete breeding surveys, mapped nesting distributions, deployed camera traps and analysed drone photographs. The two islands cover about 3.7 square kilometres when surrounding water is included, with roughly two to three square kilometres of land. Despite this small area, ground-nesting waterbirds colonised immediately and several nationally rare or regionally scarce species established breeding populations.

By 2025, 85 Pied Avocet pairs were breeding on the islands

Pied avocets showed one of the clearest responses. By 2025, 85 pairs were breeding on the islands. The authors describe the sites as the only permanent breeding location for the species in Poland, meaning an established site used repeatedly rather than a guarantee that the habitat itself will remain suitable without management.

Together with black-winged stilts and several other rare waterbirds, the avocets made the islands disproportionately important: for some species, W22 and W28 held almost all breeding pairs in the Pomeranian region and a large share of the Polish population.

Rapid vegetation growth could close the open nesting habitat

The benefit may be temporary without active management. On the completed island W22, tall vegetation formed by common reed and willow increased from less than one per cent cover in 2021 to 23 per cent in June 2025. When lower grasses were added, vegetation covered about half the island. A no-intervention model projected that tall vegetation could approach full cover around 2028, removing much of the bare or sparsely vegetated ground required by avocets and other early-successional specialists.

The projection is not a precise forecast. The authors emphasise that disturbance, vegetation removal, new sediment work or hydrological change could produce a different trajectory. Camera traps did not record terrestrial mammal predators during the 2023–2025 breeding seasons, although otter tracks were found on both islands later in 2025. This supports continued predator surveillance rather than assuming the islands will remain inaccessible.

The study concludes that beneficial use of dredged sediment can create high-value refuges very quickly, but construction alone is not enough. To keep the Szczecin Lagoon islands suitable for pied avocets, long-term plans need to include vegetation control, continued bird monitoring and predator checks. The rapid arrival of 85 breeding pairs demonstrates the opportunity; the equally rapid habitat succession shows why that opportunity can disappear.

Sources and image credit

  1. Marchowski, D., Kajzer, Z., Sołowiej, M., Michałowski, S., Zientek, P., Barcz, M., Stańczak, P., Jasiński, M., Sikora, A., & Jankowiak, Ł. (2026). Dredged-Sediment Islands as Temporary Ecological Refugia: Rapid Waterbird Colonisation and Fast Habitat Closure in a Baltic Lagoon. Estuaries and Coasts, 49, 126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-026-01737-yPrimary open-access study published 29 May 2026 under CC BY 4.0. Five years of monitoring on islands W22 and W28 in Szczecin Lagoon recorded 85 breeding Pied Avocet pairs in 2025, making the islands Poland’s only permanent breeding site for the species, while rapid reed and willow succession threatened the open nesting habitat.

Image: Mike Prince / Wikimedia Commons — pied avocet feeding in shallow water; representative species image, not photographed on the Szczecin Lagoon islands · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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