The Gentleman Magazine Issue 4 | August/September | Page 59

Conservation success in the Avon Valley
An example of different groups working closely together to
conserve declining birds is being led by a Fordingbridge-based
charity.
Over the past 25 years, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
(GWCT) has documented a 70 per cent decline in numbers of
breeding lapwings and an 83 per cent fall in breeding redshank
(wader birds) in the Avon Valley.
Launched in 2014, The EU LIFE+ ‘Waders for Real’ project
aims to halt and reverse these declines in a time of increased
threat to wildlife. 
Establishing an environment to aid wader recovery has
included plenty of habitat work, which involved manipulating
the landscape by removing old fence lines and willow scrub as
well as re-profiling 2.9 km of ditches, digging 1.6 km of new
ditches and creating 23 scrapes to create more chick foraging
habitat.
The project also involves monitoring the outcome of these
works, from radio-tracking lapwing chicks to better understand
the fine-scale habitat structures that ensure increased chick
survival. 
So far, the project has seen increases in these endangered birds
in the Avon Valley, with lapwing pairs increasing from 62 in
2015 to 81 in 2016 and a jump in redshank pairs from 19 in
2015 to 28 in 2016. 
The scientists at GWCT are starting to better understand which
techniques are most effective in increasing breeding success
of the waders and hope to record further successes with bird
numbers, but also want to look at the possible benefits to the
wider ecosystem.
Lizzie Grayshon, the project officer and a wetlands research
assistant at GWCT, pictured below, 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 give feedback to
everyone putting in the hard work to make it happen.”
Together in the Avon Valley, scientists and farmers are working
together to reverse declining wildlife numbers, which is a
promising development in the fight to protect Britain’s wildlife
alongside maintaining economically sensible agricultural
practices.
To find out more information about the project visit :
https://www.gwct.org.uk/research/species/birds/lapwing-and-
other-waders/waders-for-real/
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