THE £1.1million Dartmoor Mires project has boosted the numbers of a rare wading bird, organisers have this week claimed.

Cotton grass and sphagnum moss also appear to have benefited with both species important in the production of peat.

The aim of the five-year scheme, funded by South West Water and led by Dartmoor National Park Authority, began in 2010.

The aim is to create a network of small ponds in some of the moor's most remote upland areas in response to fears that large parts of blanket bog are drying out.

Now research has suggested that dunlin numbers have increased at Winney's Down east of Fernworthy Reservoir, the first site where restoration was carried out.

RSPB monitoring has confirmed that Dartmoor had always supported Britain's only population of breeding dunlin, the most southerly in the world.

Now the charity has observed a 'modest' increase in the small flock.

Project officer Frances Cooper said: 'It is very encouraging that dunlin are choosing the restored habitat so soon after the work is done.

'Current restoration is part of a pilot project to trial techniques that we hope will safeguard blanket bog habitat for a whole range of plants and animals which depend on it.

'The result seems to provide precisely what dunlin like, pools and small hummocks.

'It is too early to be certain what effect, if any, restoration will have on Dartmoor's whole dunlin population in the longer term and it is important to continue to monitor dunlin and other species, too.

'Our monitoring has shown early indications of some positive effects of restoration for blanket bog plants too.'

Despite the apparent benefits the project has been criticised by the Dartmoor Society.

When bulldozers began work between the rivers Tavy and Cowsic last year, chairman Dr Tom Greeves called for an immediate halt.

He claimed it was 'grossly misleading' to suggest the project was restoring the landscape and that there was no evidence to show the 8,000-year-old peat bog was drying out more than could normally be expected.

At the time he said: 'We consider the machine work associated with the Mires Project to be the most damaging and pointless activity generated by Dartmoor National Park Authority and its project partners on the high moor of Dartmoor since the creation of the national park more than 60 years ago.'