View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - WHERE HAVE ALL THE WADERS GONE?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WADERS GONE?

The RSPB handbook is a free gift given to all members when they join the organisation. The book tells you details of each RSPB site around the country and what birds you might see when you visit. Really old copies said, under the section about Old Moor and the Dearne Valley, that one of our regular highlights was up to 10,000 Golden Plover that would visit each year.

That was then. This year we've had the tiniest fraction of those numbers, a hundred birds or so at most. And it's not just the Goldies. Every migratory wading species has been conspicuous by its absence from our valley this Autumn and Winter. We've had some Sandpipers, but they've been here in their ones and twos. Same for the Red and Greenshanks that we would previously have expected to see quite a few of. And the Ringed Plovers and their Little Ringed cousins have been almost completely absent this year as well. A couple of decades ago I learned to tell the difference between these two delightful birds here, spotting both species in reasonable numbers at Old Moor, each year. Not any more. A report published in 2021 listed 67 bird species on the 'Red List' – the species whose populations are declining the fastest. Of those 67, nine were waders including such formerly common birds as Ringed Plover, Curlew, Ruff and Dunlin. Those findings are certainly reflected in our sightings in the Dearne Valley.

So what's happened? Well sadly there's not a single, simple answer. It's a combination of things, mostly (and not surprisingly) caused by the way mankind runs the world.

Agricultural intensification has removed the large pastures of damp grassland that these wading birds need to live in and find food. Wetlands have been drained for more intensive grazing land. More 'efficient' ways of producing hay and silage have also meant that there are fewer wetlands overall. No modern farmer wants a field that's damp or flooded for part of each year, in the UK or anywhere else. This is a global change that's affecting these kind of birds worldwide. And while farmers are draining their damper fields, many of the natural wetlands that remain are under threat from the weather. Conversely, this is due to them becoming flooded regularly because of our increased annual rainfall caused by climate change.

Happily we provide this kind of wetland habitat at Old Moor and several other RSPB sites around the country but the sad truth is that there is no longer the massive network of farmland nationwide that there was in decades past. That's why we're providing as many Homes For Nature as we can. Thanks for helping us.

But we can only house these birds if they come, and it seems that fewer waders are flying over to our shores each year. Once again, climate change is a major contributing factor to this. Imagine you're a Redshank living in Iceland. You spend your summers there each year until the temperature drops below a certain point, several degrees below zero. That's your trigger, that's what will make you take off on the long flight to Britain where it's approximately the same temperature in Winter as an Icelandic Summer. So you wait for the trigger temperature and you wait and... and suddenly it's Spring. The temperature in Iceland never fell below the trigger point for long enough that you needed to get away from it so you stayed. And why wouldn't you? That 900 mile journey is brutal on little wings and many don't survive it. Why take the risk if you don't need to? Far better to stay in one place all year round if you can, so that's what the Redshanks have started doing.

This non-migration is happening the other way around too. Older readers will have noticed that the average British Winter is nowhere near as cold and snowy as it was when we were kids. The birds have recognised this too. For example, far more Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps are staying here in Britain all year round as our Winters aren't too harsh for them to survive any more. We don't have the long months of knee-deep snow and sub-zero winds so they no longer need to travel to warmer places such as the Mediterranean or North-West Africa to stay alive. It's warm enough here for them to stay alive. Again, why would they make that long trip when they don't need to spend all that energy? Life's hard enough for a little songbird as it is.

So keep a look out for what's on the reserve at the moment. Some of them may not be around forever.