DOI: 10.15468/wyfn5p
title: Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows surveys in England and Wales, 1982 and 2002

description: Wet lowland grassland as a habitat has been disappearing quite fast over the last few decades as more and more has been drained or rendered less suitable for breeding birds.  In the 1970s, an estimated 8000ha of the habitat was drained each year.  The loss of wet lowland grassland and reduction in quality has particularly affected some wader species, which in the past have been more or less dependent on it.  The BTO and RSPB have run two main surveys (1982 and 2002) to identify all areas of damp lowland grassland in England and Wales and to count the numbers of breeding waders using them.  Five main species were counted: Lapwing <i>Vanellus vanellus</i>, Snipe <i>Gallinago gallinago</i>, Curlew <i>Numenius arquata</i>, Redshank <i>Tringa totanus</i> and Oystercatcher <i>Haematopus ostralegus</i>.  Other rare breeding waders, which they came across were recorded, including Avocet <i>Recurvirostra avosetta</i>, Little Ringed Plover <i>Charadrius dubius</i> Ringed Plover <i>C. hiaticula</i>, Black-tailed Godwit <i>Limosa limosa</i>, Ruff <i>Philomachus pugnax</i> and Common Sandpiper <i>Actitis hypoleucos</i> as well as any Yellow Wagtails <i>Motacilla flava</i>  However, this dataset only includes records of the five main species.
 
 The surveys were intended to give an assessment of the remaining grasslands and their bird populations, and provide an inventory of the most important sites to aid the conservation of the species.  The data included in this dataset are a summary of the number of birds in a site, which is represented as the central 1km grid square.
 
 The problems of agricultural improvement are no less acute in Scotland, where the breeding wader populations of the straths and glens are under severe pressure.  In 1982, a parallel survey of Breeding Waders of Scottish Agricultural Land was launched by Hector Galbraith and continued in 1983, looking at the same five wader species on all agricultural land (see Galbraith & Furness 1983 <i>Scottish Birds</i> 12: 148-153).
 
 In both surveys, many of the birds found were on nature reserves, or other sites which had some form of protection from detrimental agricultural practices.  Despite the protected nature of these sites, it is thought that the declines have continued and so careful management of all sites is essential to try to halt the declines.  On a wider-scale and in the longer term, more carefully targeted agri-environment schemes may hold the key to reversing declines.
 
 1982 survey:  1178 grassland sites in England and Wales were surveyed in 1982.  In addition, a pilot survey in 1980 and 1981 covered 104 sites, which were not repeated during the main survey of 1982.  Although the pilot survey data are not included in this dataset, a total of 1282 sites were surveyed covering approximately 240000ha.  The area could be measured for 944 sites, and ranged from 2 ha to 1097ha with a median of 71ha (upper and lower quartiles 146ha and 30ha).  Of the five key wader species, 11995 pairs were reported (6721 Lapwing, 1979 drumming Snipe, 540 Curlew, 2218 Redshank and 537 Oystercatcher).  The total number of pairs exceeded 1000 in three counties: Norfolk (1983 pairs on 149 sites), Cambridgeshire (1422 pairs on 60 sites) and Kent (1262 pairs on 50 sites).  It was particularly noted that 48% of the Snipe and 36% of the Redshank were found on just five sites - the Ouse Washes, Nene Washes, North Kent marshes, Derwent Ings and Somerset Levels.  Even in 1982, both species were unusual breeding birds over most of the lowlands.
 
 There was more than 30% artificial habitat on 97 sites (7.6% of the grassland sites surveyed). Artificial sites included 53 gravel pits, six sewage works, eight reservoirs and 30 other unclassified industrial sites.  In total, these sites held 840 pairs of waders, and although a small fraction of the overall total (7.0%) the sites were very important in some counties, especially some inland ones.  On another 79 sites surveyed, there was m