The Scrape PLQ13 Plaque

The avocet is one of the most readily identified shorebirds in the UK, with its iconic silhouette featuring as the RSPB logo, but it was not always so. In truth, Victorian hunters and egg collectors nearly drove them to extinction. Their return to the Suffolk coast for breeding occurred after the land around RSPB Minsmere was flooded to protect us from invasion and is one of the great avian success stories of the twentieth century. On April 8 1947, these black and white birds with their curious blue legs returned to our shores for the first time in more than a century. Led by the landowner, Capt Stuart Ogilvie, a band of conservation brothers carried out almost constant surveillance of the nest site to protect it from egg collectors.

Now avocets thrives in the mud banks captured so beautifully in this plaque with their distinctive black and white plumage, sweeping up-turned bills, and long blue legs-flying, feeding and breeding against an amber tide as chicks waddle in the dappled waters of a shallow lagoon dotted around breeding islands – known affectionately as The Scrape.

Ex Tax: £804.17

• Designer: Emma Bossons
• Dimensions: H 38.00 x W 28.00 x D 2.00 cm
• Availability: In Stock