It is an important habitat for wading birds and a great recreational resource for Copenhageners.

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The salt marsh provides a habitat for wading birds and other animals and plants.

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The authority said 40, 000 wildfowl and wading birds migrated to the protected tidal estuary habitats each year.

BBC: Orwell estuary, Suffolk

But most of the species affected - guillemots, razorbills, gannets, cormorants, and some wading birds - have fairly stable populations.

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"The problem is that we have the most amazing communities of ground nesting wading birds, " said George Anderson of SNH.

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The mammals are not native to the isles and have been blamed for preying on the eggs of ground-nesting wading birds.

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But the board of SNH has now agreed to increase its funding for research into predation on wading birds on the isles.

BBC: Hedgehogs may have returned to cleared areas of Hebrides

Species of beach-nesting terns and gulls, beach-nesting shorebirds, large wading birds, marsh birds and ocean-dwelling birds are also at risk, along with migratory shorebirds and songbirds, the Initiative said.

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It said the animals were having a devastating impact on the islands' internationally important populations of wading birds - like the dunlin, lapwing, redshank and snipe - by eating their eggs.

BBC: Hedgehogs get 'stay of execution'

Wading birds dart at the base of the reeds.

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The scene was blissfully beautiful: a placid expanse of water with patches of lotuses floating here and there, birds swooping and settling, children splashing, adults wading with fishing nets.

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