Get Grazing For Waders

Many of our farmland birds are ground-nesting birds. From the skylark which nests in spring sown cereals and silage or hayfields, to waders like the lapwing (peewit), snipe and curlew which nest in damp, rushy pasture.

Not surprisingly then, these birds, and their nests, can be damaged by heavy grazing and any field operations (rolling, sowing of fertiliser and so on) happening in the main nesting season between April and July.

One group of ground-nesting farmland birds that are in severe decline are the breeding waders - the lapwing, curlew and snipe. To help turn around these declines, there are wader options available within the Countryside Management Scheme (CMS) or Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) Scheme to ensure field management brings benefits to these birds.

Because these birds are ‘ground-nesters’ one of the most common assumptions to make is that no grazing is better for them, and it is better to leave fields ungrazed ‘for the birds’. But the picture is a bit more complicated than that – the lapwing likes ground that has been grazed as short as possible for the start of the nesting season (mid March), but also likes light grazing in the nesting season to prevent the grass getting up too high around the nest. The curlew or snipe on the other hand can cope with either light or no grazing in the nesting season.

Our advice is to look at your CMS or ESA Scheme agreement and check out your dates and stocking rates – if it says light grazing in the nesting season, graze lightly, no grazing in the nesting season, then no grazing it is. After this period of light or no grazing you will be able to graze more heavily. Heavier grazing at some time between autumn and early spring is needed to remove the growth that has built up during a summer’s light grazing, and ensures that sites are in good shape for the next breeding season.

For further information on grazing sites with breeding waders, contact Countryside Management staff at your local DARD office.