Gathering Data - by Dave Parish

Dave Parish, Working for Waders’ Chairman preparing to fill in a Wader Calendar.

It is that exciting time of year again when the waders have (mostly) returned to their breeding grounds and are displaying and hopefully producing their first clutches. I hope that those of you lucky enough to see this increasingly rare sight are enjoying it, but I would also make a plea for you to share what you see so that we can learn as much as possible about what is going on around the country.

I recently took on the Chair of Working for Waders (WfW), which I must say is a delight and a privilege. My predecessors, Alastair MacGugan and Davy McCracken, did a fantastic job in getting WfW off the ground and building it into the multi-faceted collaboration that it is today – I have big boots to fill (two pairs!). Waders have always been close to my heart, as lapwings were the first birds I ever properly studied when I carried out my PhD in the north of England, and I relish the opportunity to try to help these precious birds in any way I can.

Working for Waders is once again promoting its Nest Camera and Wader Calendar projects. These are simple surveys which allow practitioners to share what they see on their ground. That may not seem like much, but as a scientist I can tell you they have the potential to provide extremely valuable information on what is happening to these ever-decreasing birds in different parts of the country. Even if you don’t have many birds, every scrap of information tells a story that we can learn from, and we will use that information to ultimately produce better advice and feedback to policy makers wherever we can.

The Nest Camera project can advise you on how to set-up a camera to capture the vital goings-on that are otherwise missed at a nest when you’re not looking: did the eggs hatch or were they eaten? If they were eaten, which species made a snack of them? We even have a stock of cameras that we can loan out if needed (please get in touch), but anyone with a camera can give it a try.

The Wader Calendar project has been developed in partnership with the British Trust for Ornithology, and is basically a small booklet with a page for each week of the breeding season, on which you can record any wader sightings and supplementary information you wish to share. It doesn’t matter if you don’t complete each sheet and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have many birds (and keeping an eye on those fields that don’t have birds in them is useful too – it all helps) – you can share as much or as little as you are willing/able, but I promise you, it is all useful and we will extract every last nugget of information from whatever you send us.

And you don’t have to be a farmer or land owner to take part. As long as you have access (with permission where needed) to land, you could put up a camera, or fill in the Wader Calendar. I myself am taking part in the latter project by noting what I see on the farmland around me when I cycle round southern Angus. I’m able to cover a number of fields – not always in their entirety – across a number of farms and have been lucky enough to have discovered a bit of a hotspot nearby.

All this information that you could gather isn’t just of use to us, it could be just as helpful to you too. This kind of evidence could contribute to a farm plan and help with agri-environment applications, for example. So please, consider getting involved and monitoring the waders in your area. You can find all the information you need on the WfW website – and if you do take part, please keep in touch as you go through the season via email or social media, we’d love to hear how you get on. Here’s to a productive season full of fluffy chicks!