702 
BLAKENEY POINT IN 1913. 
III. 
THE NATIONAL TRUST. 
REPORT OF THE BLAKENEY POINT 
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMEMENT FOR 1913. 
This being the First Annual Report rendered by the Blakeney 
Point Committee of Management, it will be convenient briefly 
to recall the circumstances under which the area administered by 
them became a Nature Reservation under the National Trust. 
For many years the shingle beach and associated sand-hills 
and salt marshes had been famous as a point of call for 
migrating birds in autumn, whilst in summer the outer sand 
dunes on the Headland served as a breeding ground for a large 
colony of Terns, Ringed Plovers and other wild sea fowl. 1 
Up to the year 1900, no provision existed for the protection 
of the nests, which were robbed of eggs and often wantonly 
destroyed. 
In the early spring of 1901, at a meeting held at Cley, a 
Society which called itself “ The Blakeney and Cley Wild 
Birds Protection Society” was formed, and Mr. R. J. Pinchen 
engaged as Watcher during the breeding season. 
The first Report, issued at the end of 1901, mentioned that 
there were about 140 nests of the Common Tern and about 60 
of the Little Tern. There were also nests of the Ringed 
Plover, Redshank and Sheld-Duck. Since that date, the 
number of Terns’ nests has trebled or quadrupled, and since 
1906 a pair of Oyster-catchers has nested there regularly, while 
other species have been equally benefited. On two occasions 
the Society has successfully instituted proceedings for taking 
eggs, and on a third occasion a man was prosecuted for shooting 
a Tern out of season. The Watcher has also done good work 
in keeping down the rats and other vermin which used to 
destroy a great number of eggs and young birds. 
1. See the very interesting and well-informed “Notes ou Blakeney Headland” 
included by the lamented c. A. Hamond in his Presidential Address to the Norfolk 
and Norwich Naturalists’ Society in 1907 (“Transactions," Vol. VIII., p. 333). 
