Guest Blog by Rhian Pierce - Conservation Advisor, North Wales
Golden plovers need blanket bog. The importance of this habitat is explained in more detail here. In Wales, we are working with farmers in the upland areas of the Migneint from Ffynnon Eidda to Y Gylchedd, in Snowdonia National Park, to protect this important habitat and its associated species.
Up here the farmers are proud to give nature a home by looking after the habitats where hen harriers, merlins, red and black grouse, curlews and golden plovers breed. I have been heartened by working with them – they enjoy telling me about the birds they see and love hearing the returning call of curlew and lapwing in the spring. Everyone has been supportive of the RSPB wanting to manage the blanket bog for the benefit of these birds, by creating nesting and foraging areas for them.
This area is recognised internationally as being very important for nature. It is a National Park, Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). This means there’s a lot more paperwork to do before getting down to habitat restoration, but the farmers have demonstrated their commitment to wildlife-friendly farming by patiently working with us to get through it all.
Working together to save golden plovers and their homesAreas on the Migneint still hold breeding golden plovers, but the numbers of pairs have fallen. We are currently working across these sites with the aim of doubling the breeding population of golden plover from four to eight pairs by 2018.
But how do we do this?! Well, we know that golden plovers require a short sward to strut their stuff in and to forage, adjacent to where they nest. So to create this habitat, patches of long, dense heather were mown last winter with 14.8ha cut in a variety of different sizes and shapes. We worked with 2 farmers on the Migneint who were happy for us to access their land and mow the heather. We were rewarded this summer with three pairs of golden plovers recorded on the mown areas, with one of the pairs even seen with chicks!
This winter we therefore had the contractor mowing a further 25ha across 2 sites, in patches of about 0.5ha. This is no easy task! For starters we had to work with 7 farmers, a grazing association and a large estate. Then we had the actual task of taking a vehicle across the wettest, most sensitive habitat in winter weather without getting stuck, lost or damaging any vegetation, such as the sphagnum layer.
We are also working on re-wetting areas of the peat which in turn will provide the invertebrates needed by the golden plovers to feed their chicks. By blocking gullies to hold the water in the uplands, we're creating a sequence of upland pools. As you can imagine, we had to assure the farmers that this would not be detrimental to their farming activities. On the contrary, slowing the flow of rainwater off the hills reduces flooding downstream!
For a variety of reasons, sheep grazing in upland Wales has declined in recent years. To ensure that the shorter sward areas are maintained, we are working with the farmers to get an appropriate number of their sheep back on the hill to do the work for us! This way the sheep are doing conservation work and the farmer is happy to see his sheep grazing back in the uplands of Wales.
Golden Plover breeding site on blanket bog in the Migneint. Image: Martin Clift
Why working with upland farmers is so important for nature
Over 80% of Wales’s land is managed by farmers, which means they are right at the heart of saving nature in Wales. Without their skills, expertise, and generosity, we wouldn’t be able to work together to bring back and protect homes for special Welsh wildlife, or to protect habitats that provide other amazing benefits for people, like blanket bogs!
Heathland on the Migneint. Image: Rhian Pierce