'Alarming' decline of UK wading birds

By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

Several wetland birds which used to be abundant across much of England and Wales are undergoing "alarming" declines, researchers say.

Lapwing in its breeding habitat (Image: Andy Hay)

They say numbers of wading birds like the lapwing, redshank and snipe have fallen sharply since 1982.

They believe the problem is the long-term effect of land drainage in the lowlands.

But careful management by farmers and land-owners can help the birds to recover.

The research, published in The Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows survey, was carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

It was funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the government's wildlife advisers, English Nature.

Flocking together

The survey says the three species used to nest commonly on flood meadows in Britain's lowland river valleys.

Snipe: Down by 60% (Image: Andy Hay)

But with land drainage meaning the countryside becomes increasingly dry, the survey says, populations of these "charismatic" birds are dwindling.

In the last two decades, it found, 60% of snipe, 40% of lapwing and curlew and 20% of redshank had disappeared.

More than half the combined population of the three species in lowland England and Wales is now thought to live on just six sites, mainly nature reserves or areas managed for wildlife.

Phil Rothwell of the RSPB said: "Seeing lapwing, snipe and redshank in the spring should be a familiar part of the countryside.

"It is a tragedy that once-widespread birds are now largely confined to the oases of nature reserves within the desert of the wider countryside.

Management works

"To halt further declines we need urgent action through a range of government-backed measures, such as more funding for wildlife-friendly farming, and measures to restore wetland areas to our thirsty countryside."

A traditionally managed wet meadow (Image: Chris Gomersall)

An earlier survey, in 1982, was carried out because of concerns about the loss and degradation of wet grasslands.

The RSPB says: "Since then the situation has improved only where special, targeted management has been put in place. This is a powerful message the government must heed."

Andy Wilson of the BTO, who organised the survey, said: "Half the sites visited during the survey contained no breeding waders at all... The contrast with those sites that are carefully managed was stark.

"In parts of England and Wales, snipe are now approaching local extinction - in the West Midlands, for example, only four were recorded from a total of 106 sites."

Surprise success

The chief executive of English Nature, Dr Andy Brown, said conservationists, the government and farmers all needed to work together.

The redshank is in trouble (Image: Chris Gomersall)

He said: "The government's commitment to significantly increase the funding over the next five years of agri-environment schemes, which encourage sympathetic management of farmland for wildlife, is a step in the right direction. But we must ensure these resources are properly targeted."

The survey found numbers of one wader, the oystercatcher, had increased by 51% since 1982.

Mile Everett of the RSPB told BBC News Online: "Oystercatchers like dry ground, and although they need the wet bits to feed, they're much more catholic in their choice of nesting sites.

"We know from the 1982 survey the waders were declining then, but it's got much worse in the last 20 years.

"What we need is the restoration of some of these wet habitats, and for farmers to go back to the old meadow grazing regimes, with lower stock densities."

Images courtesy of Rspb-images.com