The importance of wet areas for waders – can you get wetter?

A lapwing chick found dead (with no obvious injuries) sent in by a farmer wondering if the bird had starved in the dry weather.

This has been a hot, dry summer for much of the period, no doubt with further meteorological records broken as climate change continues to change our weather patterns, but has this impacted our breeding waders?

It’s probably too early to tell but we would love to hear from you if you think birds in your area have suffered – or indeed if you think the weather has had no impact.

Certainly, predictions from climate models are that some waders, in some areas, could be impacted by the hotter, drier summers we are likely to experience on a more frequent and prolonged basis in a few years’ time (especially in the east of Scotland). For example, moorland breeding curlew may be impacted as their high habitats dry out and vegetation changes and food becomes harder to find.

However, in theory it may be possible to counter some of the effects of climate change’s inexorable creep with some simple interventions – interventions that would be beneficial to breeding waders in most places, regardless of what the climate models predict.

We all know that many of our familiar farmland waders forage for invertebrates on and under the soil surface. Probing into the soil is only possible when it is reasonably damp which makes it soft – not rocket science! So, if our soils are becoming dry and hard on a more frequent, prolonged basis, it may be possible in some situations to counter by re-wetting.

There are a number of ways to do this. For example, wader scrapes are, as the name suggests, shallow pools which expose the water table. They can be any shape you like but should have a wide, shallow margin so that there is always a damp area as the water level falls. This may need managing to some degree to keep the margins open and clear of tall vegetation. If you’re really keen you may be able to actively manage the water level if you have control over inlets and/or outlets. Simply blocking drains – or not repairing the broken one in that damp corner – can be a big help too and is probably the simplest option. Drains which 50 years ago meant more land was workable, may soon contribute to unworkable soil that is routinely too hard and dry where nothing grows well.

For some of these things, there are payments available in AECS, so speak to your advisor or check out the AECS website, or get in touch with Working for Waders if we might be able to help. Every little helps, so please give some thought to re-wetting a bit of your ground.