Changes in the numbers of breeding waders on lowland wet grasslands in England and Wales between 1982 and 2002

Capsule Lapwing, Snipe, Curlew and Redshank decreased significantly between 1982 and 2002, while over the same period Oystercatcher increased. Aims To provide current status and population trends for waders breeding on lowland wet grassland in England and Wales. Methods Waders were counted and mapped on three visits to 1051 lowland wet grassland sites, between April and June 2002. Data were compared with those gathered using identical methods in a survey in 1982 and related to land use characteristics and conservation designation. Results Between 1982 and 2002 there were significant declines of 38% for Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, 61% for Snipe Gallinago gallinago, 40% for Curlew Numenius arquata and 29% for Redshank Tringa totanus. Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus increased significantly by 47% in the same period. Populations of all species were highly aggregated with most of the birds found on a small number of key sites. Site designation was found to be an important predictor of breeding wader distrib...