Spring 2022
pic: Kinclune
As wading birds return to their breeding grounds during March, preparation for the season ahead has been gathering pace at Working for Waders. Building on the progress made during 2021, we’re really excited to push on with a number of different projects which were set up in previous years. Monitoring work and surveys will continue with our partner organisations in a number of locations across Scotland, and we’re also looking to rerun our Nest Camera Project to find out more about breeding successes and failures for important birds like lapwings, curlews and oystercatchers.
In 2021, twenty five cameras were sent out across Scotland to a number of farmers and gamekeepers who wanted to find out more about wader breeding success on their land. The results were complex and varied, and we learned a great deal about how waders are faring in different parts of the country. Several wader nests hatched out into fine young chicks, but most were lost through a variety of different reasons, from agricultural operations and human disturbance to predation by animals like badgers and foxes. This can hardly be described as a major breakthrough or a discovery of new or hitherto unknown material, but it did help Working for Waders to get a clearer view on how difficult it is for wading birds to breed successfully in modern Scotland. Using this data, we can start to understand how some of these challenges might be addressed where possible.
The Nest Camera Project will run again over the coming weeks, and more cameras are being purchased to expand the work. If you would like to take part in the nest camera project with a camera of your own, we’d love to hear from you. We’ve developed some excellent guidance materials on monitoring wader nests over the last few months, and we are always happy to help with gathering data around wader breeding productivity.
It’s also been encouraging to hear of work going on to improve wader habitats thanks to the first round of the Small Grants Fund which was approved in the autumn. A number of projects were brought forward for development during the application process, and many are now being turned into action on the ground for waders from Ayrshire to Aberdeenshire. We’re looking forward to catching up with some of these projects in due course, and updates will follow during the summer.
More information on how you can help with wader conservation will appear on this blog and on our social media platforms over the coming weeks, so please stay tuned and “follow us” for news and updates during spring 2022!