Birdwatch News Archive

Northern Lapwing numbers fell by 18 per cent between 2010 and 2011. Photo by Chris Gomersall (www.rspb-images.com).

Further declines in breeding wader numbers

Birdwatch news team
Posted on: 25 Jul 2012

Figures released this week show that numbers of four of Britain’s waders have fallen drastically, according to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Results from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) show that Northern Lapwing, Common Snipe, Oystercatcher and Eurasian Curlew numbers were at their lowest in spring 2011 since the survey began in the 1990s.

These birds breed on wet grassland and upland habitats, and previous declines have been blamed on habitat loss, land drainage and potential increases in predation pressure. However, all four species saw sharp declines between 2010 and 2011 – of 19 per cent for Oystercatcher, 18 per cent for Northern Lapwing, 40 per cent for Common Snipe and 13 per cent for Eurasian Curlew – which may have been due to unfavourable weather conditions during the year exacerbating long-term declines. These worrying figures don’t take into account extreme conditions in the first half of 2012.

Grahame Madge, RSPB Media Officer, said:“The spring of 2012 has seen the wettest April-to-June period on record, and it’s likely that populations of these ground-nesting waders will have also been hit hard this year. Flooding at several key sites has seen hundreds of wader nests washed out, including 600 at the Ouse Washes RSPB in Cambridgeshire.”

The BBS is jointly organised by the BTO, RSPB and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). ) It is a national project aimed at keeping track of changes in the breeding populations of widespread bird species in the UK. The BBS involves around 2,500 participants who survey more than 3,200 sites. Click here for more information.

Kate Risely, BBS organiser at the BTO, added: “It is very worrying to see sharp declines in numbers of breeding waders such as Northern Lapwing and Common Snipe, typical birds of open country. The long-term decline in breeding Eurasian Curlew has contributed to the species now being listed as globally near-threatened. BBS results are crucial in understanding the causes behind bird declines, and we owe this information to dedicated volunteer birdwatchers across the country.”