Wader Week - by Dave Parish

Waders really are incredible. Of course, I may be biased: you don’t get involved with Working for Waders (WfW) unless you are passionate about these birds, but I do find them endlessly intriguing. As a group they have a diverse array of lifestyles, including a variety of breeding systems (more on this in another blog), and are found in open habitats all round the world.

But most waders across Europe are declining sharply in number. Waders are very strongly associated with farmland and changes in agricultural practices in the past have taken their toll. Drainage of wetlands, increased use of fast-growing grass species that are also often heavily fertilised, and increases in stocking rates in some areas, have made farmland less hospitable to waders. But these days farmers can receive agri-environment payments to help waders and many are working hard to do so.

Outside some great examples of progress, there are many areas that look like prime wader habitat which still can’t sustain populations. The main problem causing waders to decline today and preventing population recovery even where we have good habitat, is high rates of predation on eggs and chicks. Predators like foxes, crows and badgers are abundant across our countryside and together they currently prevent too many pairs from raising sufficient young to maintain populations (see our later blog on egg/chick predation and how to help reduce it). And if that wasn’t enough, another potential threat for waders in Scotland is the ever-expanding area of woodland which is taking over some of our open spaces. There are some benefits to having more woodland but without careful consideration of important congregations of waders, we could lose more crucial areas of habitat.

These pressures on wader populations have resulted in some worrying declines in Scotland. All of the ‘Big Five’ farmland waders (curlew, lapwing, redshank, snipe and oystercatcher) have been lost from historical parts of their breeding range in Scotland, up to a staggering 44% retraction for redshank. With the exception of snipe, these species have also shown long-term declines in numbers, this time with lapwing having the dubious honour of leading the way with a 62% decline between 1995 and 2021. And there is no sign of these declines stopping or slowing down: all five species declined between 2016 and 2021, and redshank and lapwing are notable again with a staggering 10% decline each in this five-year period.

Given the pressures they face, the final strongholds of these birds are now mostly confined to wherever good habitat and few predators are found together, like in some remote parts of northern Scotland and the islands, and on-and-around grouse moors where they benefit from the management aimed at this gamebird. In the remainder of the wider countryside, they are becoming a scarce sight.

But there are examples where groups of people have come together and reversed the declining trends. Work delivered by farmers in Lanarkshire as part of the Clyde Valley Wader Group has pioneered new techniques for conserving lapwings which could become a national standard, meaning that other farmers can be supported to deliver positive actions through government schemes. The work has been backed by RSPB Scotland and Scottish Agricultural College, and it’s facilitated by Jennifer Struthers of SAC. Speaking about the group, Jennifer said “Governments lead on big national targets for conservation, but it’s often hard to turn ideas into action on the ground. The Clyde Valley Wader Group is great because it’s actually driven by local people who live and work in the landscapes where waders are found. We all want to do our best for birds like curlews and lapwings, and this project has put farmers into the driving seat”. Similar projects in the Borders, Skye and Angus are underway, and it’s clear that waders are a great way to bring people together for a common cause.

An excellent way for anyone to help waders is to join one of the WfW data gathering projects. Each spring and summer we run the Nest Camera project and the WfW/BTO Wader Calendar. As the name suggests, the Nest Camera project helps anyone with safe access to a nest to set up a camera which will allow the capture of important information about the nest’s outcome – how many chicks hatched, or did a predator take the eggs? We have guidance to help you set up your own camera, and we have some cameras we can loan out.

The Wader Calendar is small booklet which helps you record the number of birds seen in a particular area each week, although it doesn’t matter if you can’t complete the whole thing and you don’t have to have your own farm to take part. As long as you can revisit an area reasonably often (with permission if needed), you could take part. With both projects, any information that we get could be extremely valuable and help us better understand the issues waders face in different parts of Scotland.