Farmers leading the way in conservation project for endangered birds

EU LIFE+ 'Waders for Real' project has seen increases in these endangered birds
EU LIFE+ 'Waders for Real' project has seen increases in these endangered birds

Together in the Avon Valley, scientists and farmers are working together to reverse declining wildlife numbers.

A project launched in 2014 to conserve bird numbers has seen numbers increase this year.

Over the past 25 years, the number of breeding lapwings has declined 70%, a fall also documented in redshank (wader birds) in the Avon Valley.

But the EU LIFE+ 'Waders for Real' project has seen increases in these endangered birds.

The number of lapwings has increased by 62 to 81 last year and a jump in redshank pairs from 19 to 28.

The scientists at Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) are starting to better understand which techniques are most effective in increasing breeding success of the waders.

So far, the project has seen increases in these endangered birds in the Avon Valley
So far, the project has seen increases in these endangered birds in the Avon Valley

They hope to record further successes with bird numbers, but also want to look at the benefits to the wider ecosystem.

'Positive results'

Lizzie Grayshon, the project officer and a wetlands research assistant at GWCT, pictured, said: "The Waders for Real project has given us the opportunity to work closely with a whole network of farmers, land owners and keepers to target lapwing conservation.

"Being able to see some positive results after the first two years is really encouraging and really good to feedback to everyone putting in the hard work to make it happen."

February saw the fourth annual Big Farmland Bird Count, with record numbers of participants and species recorded.

More than 970 farmers took part and recorded 112 species across around 900,000 acres.

Sseveral of these birds are in decline and efforts to monitor their numbers varies across the country.