The Forvie National Nature Reserve is a national nature reserve owned and managed by NatureScot. It is located north of Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, in the northeast of Scotland. The reserve includes the Sands of Forvie, which are the fifth largest sand dune system in Britain, and the least disturbed by human activity. The dune system is an integral part of the Ythan Estuary, which also forms part of the reserve, and separates the sands from Balmedie beach.
The reserve contained at one point the largest breeding colony of breeding common eider in Britain and while they are still a protected feature of the reserve the eider colony suffered dramatic losses starting in 2006 and the subsequent years. The reserve also hosts an internationally important ternery and a protected seal haul-out containing both common seals and grey seals, predominantly the latter.
The area is designated as a both a Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation under the Natura 2000 scheme, as well as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is designated a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The sands were the site of the village of Forvie that was abandoned due to drifting sands.
Sands of Forvie
The Sands of Forvie are one of the largest areas of blown sand in Scotland. The sand at Forvie is formed from the remains of sediment that was transported by rivers to the coast at the end of the last ice age. The sediment settled in the sea, but was gradually washed onshore by the action of waves and wind.
The sand dunes at Forvie can be divided into three distinct parts. The southernmost point of the reserve consists of a sand spit at the point where the River Ythan enters the sea. To the north the sand rests on raised beaches terraces and glaciated rocks. North of this region is an area where the sand lies on top of a rock plateau, with glacial deposits of varying depths sandwiched between the rock and the sand. The dunes are highly mobile, and can reach up to in height. As there is relatively little plant life on these mobile dunes, they have been likened to the Sahara Desert.
Flora and fauna
The reserve contains large areas of sandy foreshore, mobile and fixed dunes, dune pasture and lowland heath and the successional development of vegetation. The sand dunes are of various stages of evolution and contain plethora of plant species including marram grass (Ammophila arenaria), red fescue, (Festuca rubra), crowberry, (Empetrum nigrum), the cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix), common sedge, (Carex nigra), marsh pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris) and the invasive creeping willow (Salix repens ssp. argentea). Vascular plants are an identified and protected feature of the reserve under the Sands of Forvie and Ythan Estuary SSSI. 15 species are identified on reserve with 10 of which are red book listed species (Astragalus danicus, Carex maritima, Coeloglossum viride, Corollarhiza trifida, Gentianella campestris, Platanthera bifolia, Salsola kali, Mertensia maritima, Radiola linoides and Teesdalia nudicaulis) and five of which are classified as UK scarce species (Equisetum variegatum, Festuca arenaria, Ophioglossum azoricum, Potamogeton filiformis, Puccinellia distans).
Four species of tern breed at Forvie, building their nests among the dunes and on the beach. Little terns and arctic terns favour the foreshore and raised beaches, while the sandwich terns and common terns nest amongst the marram tussocks of the dune system. The breeding success of the terns has fluctuated widely over the years, and since 1995 NatureScot have undertaken selected culling of predating species, specifically crows, gulls and foxes. In addition to culling, NatureScot have also trialled the use of decoy terns to attract little terns into the areas protected from foxes by fences, as well as providing artificial shelters for tern chicks to use to avoid crows and gulls. In recent years the colonies of sandwich tern and black headed gulls have had great success in breeding with some of the highest populations recorded to date in 2019.
The mudflats of the estuary provide an important wintering ground for migratory birds such as wigeon, oystercatcher, golden plover, lapwing, dunlin, curlew and redshank, and around 15,000 geese may be seen on the estuary each spring. The reserve hosts a population of protected breeding eider that spend the breeding season on reserve, with many heading to the Tay estuary for the winter, although there is also a smaller population that remains year-round. In 2005 the reserve held a population of over 5000 eiders but has since suffered losses and in 2019 recorded a spring peak of 1323 eiders.