In addition to known breeding records, would it be useful to detail the habitat areas appropriate to wader species and exclude those that where waders plainly won't breed? With local knowledge, I'd have thought this a relatively straightforward task
Also, would it be useful to suggest appropriate tree species, to give wildlife an opportunity to diversify? It would be a shame to introduce a monoculture
Additionally, with all this turmoil, are there other plants that could benefit from the opportunity?
Steve Martin's West Pennine Moors SSSI breeding waders mapping project is an important piece of work which GMBRG will support through the supply of records. GMBRG recommended that breeding waders be short-listed for priority action in GM's Local Nature Recovery Strategy, so it is good to see that they have been included in the draft strategy recently released for public consultation (pg 75).
However, to avoid creating extra work for Steve (and you) please note that if you have previously submitted records of breeding waders to GMBRG (including via GMLRC's Swift) then these will be included in the data we will supply to him. BirdTrack records will also be shared with him. If you have more detailed locations for breeding waders on the Horwich Moors and Holcombe Moor (both areas are within the SSSI) than was included in the records you originally submitted then do send the additional information to Steve.
GMBRG supplied data to Natural England to support the designation of the WPM SSSI in 2016, so please do send Steve any additional records from 2019-24 that you have not previously submitted.
You are welcome to contact me via email or pm if you have any specific questions regarding your own records.
Thanks in advance for your support.
Steve
-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Friday 29th of November 2024 05:51:07 PM
__________________
The Watergrove Skyline (January 2010) - before desecration.
Important request for information for Manchester Birding forum users
Dear Manchester Birding forum users
As many of you will be aware, the West Pennine Moors (WPM) was notified by Natural England as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in November 2016. The main notified features of the SSSI being its priority-habitat blanket-bog and its assemblage of upland breeding birds. Whilst the ‘upland breeding bird assemblage’ includes species such as Short-eared Owl, Cuckoo, Red Grouse, Stonechat and Reed Bunting, it is the breeding waders of the WPM SSSI which are perhaps its most important feature.
In recent decades, the wish to plant trees to sequester carbon in the battle to address climate change has grown apace and many landowners, especially those with stated environmental credentials, have launched ambitious projects to increase woodland cover across their estates. Such tree-planting schemes are in the main a positive move, but in some areas the existing value of the flora and fauna of sites needs to be assessed against any potential change of habitat to woodland…a case of
‘let’s get the trees in the right place’.
Breeding waders and trees largely don’t mix, with recent research indicating that many wader species suffer population declines and reduced productivity out to 0.7km from new woodland planting; this largely due the predators that new woodland can attract into previously open landscapes.
Given the diversity and numbers of breeding waders in the WPM, the creation of any new woodland in the SSSI, or within a kilometre from its boundary, needs careful consideration to ensure that plans to retain breeding waders are included in any future woodland planning.
I am an ornithological consultant who has worked for United Utilities, Natural England and others in the WPM for over 20 years and have recently been awarded the contract from Natural England for a desk-top project to map the breeding waders of the WPM SSSI. This is an important study that will aim to plot all known breeding wader territories within the SSSI (and up to one km from its boundary) recorded in the last six years from 2019 to 2024. The project will run until March 2025 when the mapping, data and report will be communicated to Natural England for use in decision making processes in the WPM SSSI moving forward. The data will also be invaluable to Natural England for their ‘condition assessment’ of the SSSI and also in their discussions with farmers when countryside and environmental stewardship schemes are in planning to facilitate management for waders in key areas.
This is where forum users can provide invaluable help as wider participation will help enormously.
The species we require records for are:
Curlew
Lapwing
Snipe
Golden Plover
Dunlin
Redshank
Oystercatcher
Little Ringed Plover
Common Sandpiper
(but not Woodcock)
The area
Basically, all the WPM SSSI plus a one kilometre buffer and an extension in places as deemed necessary by Natural England. This encompasses not only the GM section across the south of the WPM, but a huge area from Rivington and Anglezarke (including the reservoirs) in the west, through the moors of Withnell, Anglezarke, Rivington and Winter Hill through to Belmont, Roddlesworth and Entwistle and on to include Holcombe Moor, Haslingden Grane and environs in the east (all the areas coloured blue on the map below).
It doesn’t matter if the habitat is moorland, fields or reservoirs, if there are breeding (or feeding) waders, there…we need the records!
*see map attachment
The rationale
We need to plot not only the breeding sites or territories of these waders, but anywhere else that the species are using during the breeding season. So, as an example, Curlew not only need an area to nest but will fly several kilometres to feed on in-bye pastures and will also take their young a good distance (often a kilometre or more) to better feeding sites on in-bye fields. So, the fields they use are as important to breeding Curlew as the actual place of the nest itself and all need recording. So, whilst breeding records (including territory, singing and display) are needed, records of feeding birds (particularly Curlew, Oystercatcher and Golden Plover that can feed well away from the nest site) are equally important.
What we need
For the years 2019 to 2024 inclusive, we need records please of territorial, breeding or feeding waders in the period of mid-March to late June (or mid-July in the case of Curlew).
It would be great to have the data below for each record:
Species
Date
Number of birds
Location (grid reference if possible)
What was the bird/s doing (display, alarming, mobbing a predator, with young, feeding etc.)
However, if you can only recall the species and a broad location and month (or year if you are reporting an annual territory record) that will still be of great use to the project. To give four examples (below) which all would give adequate information for the project:
Lapwing – 5/5/24 – 1 pair – Fields S of Brinscall Hall (SD62182028) – pair displaying
Curlew – April 2023 – fields N of Walker Fold, Smithills – one feeding
June 2021 – 2 pairs of Lapwing mobbing Crows in fields S of Scout Road, Smithills
Common Sandpiper – 2023 – pair seen multiple times at N end Anglezarke Resr. (an ‘annual territory record’)
All records received will be in confidence to be only shared with Natural England. All records will be acknowledged, and the observer will be credited in the final report to Natural England (unless anonymity is requested). All those who contribute will receive a copy of the abridged final report too.
So please, dig out your notebooks and send us some wader records. Don’t assume that all sites for Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe and other waders are already known…they are not! Your records will undoubtedly highlight further sites to help in habitat planning in the WPM and could also help Natural England and farmers to apply for funding to manage more sites for waders.
Please send any records (by the end of December please) or any questions you may have to:
