Graham Appleton has been writing blogs about waders for five years, under the WaderTales banner. Twenty-four of his articles have featured projects that RSPB Science researchers have either led or been involved in. We asked him for his highlights:
The conservation of waders is a key study area for RSPB scientists, from dotterel at the top of Scottish mountains to redshank nesting around our coasts. It has been a pleasure to highlight some of the key research findings in WaderTales blogs. Links to the original papers are included in the articles.
Top priority Curlew
As it says in the RSPB’s Curlew Action Plan, “the curlew should now be considered the UK’s highest conservation priority bird species and a recovery programme is urgently required”. Working with partners, the RSPB is trying to understand what is going wrong and to provide emergency support.
Curlew at Geltsdale RSPB reserve (c) Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
The approaches to the problems are discussed in Curlews can't wait for a treatment plan, which is based on a joint BTO/RSPB paper about the causes of the species' breeding decline in Great Britain. There is a stark warning from Ireland, where the number of breeding pairs dropped from 3300 to just 138 in thirty years (see Ireland's Curlew Crisis). Helping the curlew is not easy, as was discussed in Sheep numbers and Welsh Curlew, based on research by RSPB Cymru scientists.
Project Godwit
One of the interventions that is being used to help waders is head-starting – the process of raising chicks in captivity. The Project Godwit team of RSPB and WWT staff did not know if head-starting would work when they removed the first clutch of black-tailed godwit eggs in 2017. Two WaderTales blogs describe the anticipation in 2017 (Special Black-tailed Godwits) and the elation when the first head-started birds returned from Africa in 2018 (Head-starting Success). The number of breeding pairs in the Fens increased from 38 to 45 pairs between 2016 and 2019.
Black tailed godwit at RSPB Cliffe Pools Nature Reserve (c) Gordon Langsbury (rspb-images.com)
Mountain tops
Much of current shorebird research focuses on climate and habitat change. Scotland's Dotterel: still hanging on reveals that Scotland’s dotterel are nesting at higher elevations, following the snow-line uphill as conditions have become warmer. Fewer than 500 male dotterel now hold territories in the highlands of Scotland – half the number found in the 1980s. RSPB Scotland scientists were part of a team that showed that declining numbers are probably linked to conditions in African wintering areas.
Raising more Lapwing chicks
In a twenty-year collaboration, RSPB England and University of East Anglia scientists have been trying to work out how best to raise more lapwing and redshank chicks in lowland wet grasslands. The work from several papers about habitat improvement and predation is summarised in Tool-kit for wader conservation , a paper that was delivered at the 2018 International Ornithological Congress.
Lapwing adult with young (c) Amy Millard (rspb-images.com)
Money for saltmarshes
Farming subsidies provide some of the main drivers of wader conservation – but do they work? In Redshank - the 'warden of the marsh' RSPB research shows that, while it is possible to graze saltmarsh in ways that maintain unique plant communities and provide nesting opportunities for redshank, much of the land for which conservation payments are made is not delivering the expected ecosystem services. Saltmarsh populations of redshank are thought to have dropped by half between 1985 and 2011, despite millions of pounds having been spent on subsidies.
Restoring peatlands
The restoration of the Flow Country in northeast Scotland has been a high priority for the RSPB. Trees are great in the right place but not when planted in peat bogs that store carbon and create unique habitats for breeding waders, such as greenshank and dunlin. Trees, predators and breeding waders explains how the presence of woodland affects the distribution of mammals. After the trees were cleared and drains were blocked, it took over ten years for predator numbers to drop back to pre-forestry levels.
Forestry harvester removing non-native conifers from a plantation at RSPB Forsinard Flows Nature Reserve (c) Paul Turner (rspb-images.com)
International campaigns
The conservation of migrants only works if threatened species are protected in all of the countries that they visit. Two WaderTales blogs have supported RSPB calls for action to help curlew and black-tailed godwit.
In France, thousands of waders are shot each year, as you can read in Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew in France. France is a winter home for some British-bred curlew, with estuaries acting as stop-over sites for England’s breeding black-tailed godwits. RSPB scientists have been supporting LPO, the French BirdLife partner, as they resist attempts to reintroduce shooting of curlew and black-tailed godwit.
The latest threat to ProjectGodwit’s black-tailed godwits is a planned new airport for Lisbon. This is to be built in The Tagus Estuary – one of the most important wetland sites in Europe. The impact on Project Godwit is covered in Black-tailed Godwits are on their way home, but this is only part of a much greater threat, as discussed in Martin Harper’s blog.
Much more
There is no space to mention all of the twenty or more RSPB and former-RSPB scientists who I have worked with in the last five years. If you want to know how ticks affect chicks, whether cattle help or hinder redshanks, where Scottish greenshank migrate to at the end of the breeding season, and much more, the full catalogue of WaderTales blogs can be found here.
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