Thursday 9th August 2007

Farmers have given a refuge to birds flooded on a nature reserve in the Fens.

The RSPB’s Ouse Washes nature reserve in Cambridgeshire usually supports around 170 pairs of breeding lapwings. Heavy flooding in spring 2007 left the reserve under a metre of water when the birds should have been nesting.

With grassland under water, the importance of adjacent farmland for nesting lapwings was even greater this year. RSPB staff and volunteers from the reserve helped with farm surveys to locate lapwing nests.

Nests of lapwings in arable fields were marked with canes to make the position of the nests clear to tractor operators, so they can avoid accidentally crushing the eggs.

Seven farmers took part initially, all owning land adjacent to the Ouse Washes, but work soon concentrated on two farms.

Lapwings are ground nesting birds and typically choose open land where there is sparse vegetation. They often attempt to breed in potato fields, where their eggs are easily destroyed by farm machinery.

Farmer Cameron Allen, from Manea, was pleased to be able to do something to help a declining farmland bird. Thirteen nests were counted on his farm, and young hatched from about a half of these. “Farmers need to be able to farm, but we still care about wildlife. We don’t farm every inch of land,” he said.

Nine pairs of lapwings bred successfully on land belonging to Mike Fairey of Merrymac Salads. He said “The lapwing project was just one of these opportunities to practice what you preach and make a real difference on a local level. The success of this season’s lapwings has been a real bright spot in an otherwise rather depressing summer of rain!”

RSPB staff members and volunteers carried out the survey work. The Society hopes to expand the project in future years to involve more farmers. Assistant Warden Niki Williamson said, “It's great that such a simple measure, introduced at no cost to the farmer, can help improve lapwings’ breeding success.”

For further information contact
Ouse Washes:    Alex Thomas or Niki Williamson, Assistant Wardens  01354 680212
RSPB regional office: Chris Durdin 01603 660066 or mobile 07734 717020
Cameron Allen, Kings Farm, Manea  07748 937504
Andrew Hurley, Technical Manager, Merrymac Salads Ltd.  01354 637809

Additional notes

1. The UK population of lapwings as a breeding bird fell by at least 46% between 1970 and 2004 (Data source: State of the UK’s Birds 2005. RSPB, BTO, WWT, CCW, EN, EHS and SNH, Sandy, Bedfordshire).
   

2.      Lapwings typically nest on open land where there is sparse vegetation. This can be short grass, spring sown cereals or field beans, root crops such as carrots or sugar beet, or on specially prepared plots on set-aside. Lapwing chicks are mobile as soon as they hatch so can then be ushered to safer areas such as field margins. A damp area within walking distance helps as this provides areas for feeding, especially for chicks. The decline of mixed farming in the southeast and the use of winter wheat (which has a long sward by breeding season) have resulted in losses of available nesting habitat, which is largely blamed for their decline.

3.      Lapwings are around in winter in flocks, often in hundreds and sometimes thousands, which sometimes causes confusion with their decline as a breeding bird. Late wintering birds may be around into April, and the first non-breeding birds return in June.

4.      The Ouse Washes are a 19 mile (30 km) stretch of seasonally flooded wet grassland between Earith and Denver, intersected by ditches which are noted for their aquatic flora and invertebrates. The Ouse Washes cover some 2,400 hectares, mostly in Cambridgeshire, partly in Norfolk. The RSPB manages 1227 hectares including 184 hectares owned by The Wildlife Trust, Cambridgeshire. Constructed during the 17th century, as a winter flood storage reservoir for the waters of the River Ouse. It is the largest regularly flooded washland in Great Britain. The Ouse Washes were flooded in June, causing the loss of some 1,000 nests of ground-nesting wading birds, and have remained under water since.

5.      The RSPB in the Fens: the RSPB intends to create 5,000 hectares of new wetlands in the Fens in the next 20 years, and is part of the Wet Fens Partnership that is promoting wetland creation. New wetlands will prove a lifeline for birds and other wildlife, and provide local communities and visitors a chance to discover the unique fenland environment. The RSPB manages wet grazing marshes at the Ouse and Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire and is creating new freshwater wetlands at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk, at the Hanson-RSPB wetland project at Needingworth in Cambridgeshire and adjacent to the Wash at Freiston Shore and Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire.