Page 65 - Discovery Guide

Snipe nest
Wading Bird Conservation Equipment RSPB
Oystercatcher, redshank, lapwing and curlew are a familiar sight in the Forest of Bowland – but unfortunately, these
A team of RSPB staff and volunteers has been monitoring wader populations in the Forest of Bowland in order to better understand the population dynamics in the area. Of the five species, the only one showing a trend over time is lapwing decreasing at about 1.8% per year.
Across England however, there has been a steeper decline of 23% from 2015 to 2020 – largely due to habitat loss and degradation. Curlew and oystercatcher populations appear to be stable – likely due to positive habitat management including appropriate levels of grazing during the breeding season, availability of wet features for feeding and legal predator control.
The data collected in Bowland is valuable in advising farmers in other areas of
the country how they can help protect dwindling populations elsewhere.
In 2023, thanks to a £35,000 grant from the FiPL programme the RSPB was able to significantly scale up its wader monitoring operations in Bowland. The grant paid for trail cameras, thermal imaging equipment and electric fencing kits to help find, monitor and protect wader nests in greater depth than
Trail cameras were installed on 29 nests of all five wader species, with nine of the curlew nests also protected by an
birds are disappearing from farmland across England.
Curlew and lapwing numbers nationwide have plummeted over the last 25 years and both species are now on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern. Redshank, snipe and oystercatcher are Amber listed. Many farms in Bowland work hard to maximise their wader habitat, and these farms are bucking the national trend of steep declines.
Curlew nest
ever before.
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