Farewell to the silver meadows?

The story of breeding waders on the Levels

Flooded meadow at West RSPB reserve. Richard Archer Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com

mong the pleasures of early spring the fen meadows and flood pastures of 11 grassland sights and sounds of the Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in the Aon a still morning are hard to beat. Court- heart of the Levels, and to a few non-designated ing Snipe chip and drum above the damp hay satellite sites (Fig. 1). The Levels today are one of meadows on , and Greylake’s the four most important areas for breeding waders splashy pastures resound to the urgent ‘leeu leeu’ in lowland England, despite a long and continuing calls of displaying Redshank. history of wetland decline. This article gives an overview of breeding February and March can be a noisy time on the waders on the Somerset Levels over the past Levels as returning waders display and establish century. ‘The Levels’, as the area is known locally, territories. Curlews Numenius arquata are usually consists of 30,000ha of peat and clay moors in the first to arrive, appearing from early February the floodplains of the Brue and Parrett rivers, and in older hay meadows and unimproved pasture. includes the Somerset Levels & Moors Special Unlike other Levels’ waders, Curlews are less Protection Area and Ramsar site, designated for closely tied to high water levels and adult birds its non-breeding waterbirds and rare aquatic will range quite widely to feed. They do well on invertebrates. The key breeding-wader moors – West Sedgemoor, where there are extensive, tradi- Somerset’s ‘silver meadows’ – are confined to the tionally managed swards, and on the northern

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Key: 1 Chilton, Edington, Catcott & Burtle Moors; 2 Tealham & Tadham Moors; 3 East & West Wastes; 4 Queen’s Sedgemoor & Crannel Moor; 5 Greylake & Moorlinch; 6 Butleigh, Walton & Somerton Moors; 7 King’s Sedgemoor; 8 Aller Moor; 9 ; 10 ; 11 Curry & Hay Moors; 12 West Sedgemoor; 13 Level & Hay Moor; 14 ; 15 King’s Moor & Whitcombe Bottom; 16 West Moor.

Figure 1 The key moors for breeding waders in the Somerset Levels.

part of Wet Moor. ping and drumming’ in mid-March. Snipe nest Lapwings Vanellus vanellus appear in late in taller, more tussocky vegetation than Lapwing February and early March, when it can be diffi- and Redshank, and favour peaty fields with water cult to separate breeders from departing winter- tables to within c. 20cm of field level through- ing birds. They like unimproved fields with short out the breeding season. Seasonally flooded hay swards, although up to a third of the pairs take meadows on West Sedgemoor hold the highest advantage of spring-sown maize, harvested withy densities of breeding Snipe on the Levels. Tealham beds and old peat workings. Lapwings need & Tadham Moors and Wet Moor have also held splashy pools and ditch edges for feeding from good numbers of breeding Snipe in the recent past. early spring into early June. Monitoring on Grey- Traditional wet pasture and hay meadows lake suggests that nests are particularly vulner- provide good habitat for breeding waders on the able to ground predators, especially Foxes Vulpes Levels. Moderate soil nutrient levels and low- vulpes. Butleigh, Walton and Somerton Moors intensity management encourage high inverte- have traditionally held good numbers of breeding brate diversity and an open sward, allowing easy Lapwings, as have West Sedgemoor, Tealham & passage of wader chicks, while providing good Tadham Moors and West Moor. nesting cover. Drainage is often impeded, and high Redshanks Tringa totanus usually appear in soil water levels encourage surface splash, allow- March, often accompanied by passage birds. They ing Lapwing and Redshank to take aquatic inver- favour unimproved tussocky pasture for nesting, tebrates from the water surface, exposed mud and and, as with Lapwings, need splash conditions vegetation. Soft, damp soils also allow Snipe and from early spring for foraging. Greylake RSPB Curlew access to worms and other invertebrates. reserve is the most important site for Redshank, Traditional Levels farming involves a late start to along with West Sedgemoor. King’s Sedgemoor summer grazing, usually from mid- to late May, and Tealham & Tadham Moors have traditionally and hay is mown from early July. This signifi- held good numbers as well. cantly reduces the losses of wader eggs and chicks Male Snipe Gallinago gallinago begin ‘chip- to cattle trampling and mowing.

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The historical status of breeding waders There is little information about breeding waders on the Levels before 1900. The county’s first avifauna (Smith 1869) tells us little, although both Snipe and Lapwing were thought to be relatively common (Ballance 2006). Curlews probably appeared on the Levels from about 1900, although it is difficult to be certain because they were not a popular quarry species. The first evidence of breeding came from Queen’s Juvenile (left) and adult Redshank in July at Greylake RSPB reserve. Sedgemoor in 1900. Redshanks John Crispin also colonised the Levels at this time, first breeding on the Somerset coast at Steart benefited many wetland species, it did not meet Island in about 1900. By the 1930s, they had the needs of post-war Britain. There followed spread to the Brue Valley and King’s Sedgemoor, major improvements in land drainage, aimed at breeding on West Sedgemoor in 1927 and reach- extending the grazing season through the reduc- ing other parts of the central and southern Levels tion of damaging late-winter, spring and summer by 1940 (Palmer & Ballance 1968). floods. By the 1920s, Curlews had moved further onto Diesel pumps were installed on important the Levels. Birds are thought to have come from breeding-wader moors, including West Sedge- Exmoor, where traditional breeding sites were moor, which had previously drained only through lost to the plough in the 1920s and 1930s. Some gravity. Land drainage was further improved time before 1939, Curlews colonised West Sedge- through under-drainage of fields, allowing surface moor, and then spread onto King’s Sedgemoor water to drain to the new pumps through larger, and the moors south of . In the 1930s, more efficient ditches and drains. Conveyance of Lapwing was abundant on the Levels and Snipe main rivers was improved to reduce river flood- bred widely in the Brue Valley and on the Parrett ing onto the moors, and also to cope with the moors, especially on West Sedgemoor (Ballance additional water pumped from the moors into the 2006). Breeding birds were at significant risk of rivers. From the 1960s, many of the diesel pumps spring and summer flooding, occasionally suffer- were superseded by more efficient, automated ing poor breeding seasons, as in 1936 and 1937. electric pumps. Nonetheless, the best years for breeding waders on These changes had an immediate effect on the Levels were probably in the 1920s and 1930s, farming, removing excess surface water from when traditionally managed wet grassland was fields, lowering water tables earlier in the year, widespread, and a lack of agricultural investment and extending the farming season into the spring. left many areas poorly drained. We can only spec- The North Drain pumping station, installed in ulate on the breeding population at this time, but 1959, could drain surface water from Tealham & there must have been significantly more than 800 Tadham Moors ‘within hours’ (Williams 1970). pairs of waders. Such control allowed rapid intensification of The 50 years from 1939 saw serious declines grassland management: species-rich hay meadows in the fortunes of wildlife on the Levels, including and traditional pasture gave way to intensive dairy breeding waders. Flooding had always restricted and beef swards and silage; grazing and mowing the summer growing season, limiting the produc- dates moved forward as soils dried earlier; and tivity of floodplain farming. While this may have carrots and potatoes were planted on the previ-

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ously waterlogged peat soils of West Sedgemoor Levels survey. Round showed that most breeding and other key wader moors. waders occurred on the dampest wet grassland The impacts of this activity on wetland ecology soils on 16 key moors, including the main site at took longer to recognise. There was limited under- West Sedgemoor, which supported about 141 standing of the ecological importance of the Levels pairs. Pump drainage was clearly having a devas- until the 1970s, and species and habitat data from tating impact, as Stan Davies had suspected. For the early decades of drainage between 1940 and example, Witcombe Bottom, which held 19 or 1960 were very limited. more pairs of breeding waders in 1972, held only There is evidence that Redshank and Curlew eight pairs in 1977, three years after the Long populations remained relatively healthy into the Load Pumping Station started operating. Simi- 1960s. Redshanks continued to spread until about larly, on West Sedgemoor, where a third of fields 1960 and were still present on ‘all suitable Levels’ remained moist into May, there were eight times in 1968 (Palmer & Ballance 1968). Curlews also more breeding Snipe than on King’s Sedgemoor, a increased greatly from 1945, with birds breed- largely gravity-drained moor where there were no ing on many Parrett moors, and on the south- damp soils in 1977. ern Levels below Langport (Palmer & Ballance The political climate in 1977 continued 1968). The Levels saw an attempt at colonisation to support the commissioning of new pump- by Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa in the drainage schemes through the public purse. It 1960s, probably linked to the flooding of breed- took sustained lobbying by the RSPB and others ing areas in Holland and East Anglia. A pair first before the Government-funded pump-drainage bred on Wet Moor in 1963, and from 1969 they programme was finally wound up in the early bred at West Sedgemoor, where numbers increased 1990s, by which time a huge amount of damage to seven pairs by 1980. The last successful nest- had been done to the Levels’ wetland ecology, soils ing attempt was recorded in 1985, and the last and archaeology. known nest was found abandoned in 1990. By the The 1980s were a dreadful decade for breeding second half of the 1960s, the first signs of decline waders, as the effects of pump drainage contin- were starting to appear among the regular breed- ued unabated. King’s Moor was one of the top six ing species. Lapwing declines were noted in 1966 wader sites in the early 1970s. Drainage in 1976- on the southern moors (Ballance 2006), and Snipe 77, combined with sward intensification, reduced had decreased as a breeding species by the late the breeding-wader assemblage from 21 pairs in 1960s (Palmer & Ballance 1968). 1977 to eight pairs in 1983 (Weaver & Chown 1983). High cattle stocking rates contributed to A worrying decline this rapid decline, accounting for over half of nest A sustained conservation response was needed, but losses. it took another decade to mobilise the resources The threats to the remaining wetland wildlife to do so, as charities such as the RSPB and the were finally recognised by the Nature Conserv- Wildlife Trusts began to emerge in response to the ancy Council. During 1983-86, 12 wetland growing environmental awareness of the 1960s SSSIs were notified under the new Wildlife and and 1970s. Stan Davies, the RSPB’s first regional Countryside Act, with three further sites added manager for south-west England, wrote in 1976 by 1992. Most of the remaining breeding-wader that ‘Further drainage will have a dramatic effect moors were designated, although key sites, such on the birds of the Somerset Levels,’ and commis- as King’s Moor, Witcombe Bottom and Butleigh, sioned a Levels-wide survey of breeding waders Walton and Somerton Moors, were omitted. in 1977 (Round 1978). The estimated total of Despite supporting about 4.4% of the lowland 726 pairs of waders (including 581 pairs on the wet-grassland breeding waders in England and 16 core sites) almost certainly fell well short of Wales (Smith 1983), the Levels’ breeding-wader the totals of the inter-war years, but provided an assemblage was not recognised as an important important baseline from which subsequent popu- SSSI feature in its own right, and is still not today. lation changes on all the key breeding-wader Robins (1987) showed that declines in the moors could be assessed. Levels’ breeding wader population accelerated It is hard to overstate the importance of this first in the mid-1980s, leading to significant range

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contractions in all four species, following big increases in grass- land intensification. Designation did nothing in itself to prevent further declines, since landown- ers were not required to manage their SSSI land positively. Worse still, evidence emerged later that many moors were being drained below commissioned pump- scheme levels: by the late 1980s, ditches and drains were on aver- age 20-40cm lower than in the 1960s (Green & Robins 1993). It was clear that the situation was becoming unsustainable for breeding waders and other wetland wildlife. A ditch at West Sedgemoor RSPB reserve, showing a sluice to control The introduction of the UK’s the water levels. David Kjaer/rspb-images.com first Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) to the Levels in 1987 also failed to & Food (the Government department that had halt breeding-wader declines, because agreements funded pump-drainage schemes) rolled out the did not require high water levels. The RSPB built new ESA Tier 3 RWLA prescription in 1992. The a 50ha private ‘raised water level area’ (RWLA) first scheme was built on Wet Moor in the same on its new West Sedgemoor reserve in 1986, and year, with others soon following. New penstocks, by 1989 its expanded 170ha RWLA supported tilting weir sluices, and other infrastructure were two-thirds of West Sedgemoor’s breeding waders, installed, and water levels were agreed between despite making up only 17% of the SSSI area English Nature (EN) and the Internal Drainage (Robins et al. 1991). Boards (IDBs). By 2007, 19 RWLA schemes had been built, covering about 1,500ha, mostly within A patchy return SSSIs. However, not all RWLAs were set up with Following a public campaign in 1988 exposing breeding waders in mind, since some farmers were the disastrous effects of pump drainage and agri- reluctant to have high spring and summer water cultural intensification on the Levels’ wildlife, the levels on their land. statutory agencies set up trials on a number of It was several years before the effectiveness of moors, within which water levels were maintained non-RSPB RWLAs for breeding waders could be close to field level through winter and spring. assessed: on paper, they seemed to provide a short- The 1992 Levels breeding-wader survey (Robins term solution to the long-term wader declines, yet et al. 1992) underlined the need to establish RSPB- from the outset it was clear that such small areas type raised-water-level areas as soon as possi- on their own could not fully recover populations ble, with further declines in Snipe and Lapwing back to the inter-war years, or even to 1977. recorded. An increase in the numbers of Redshank By the time of the 1997 breeding-wader survey and Curlew was welcome news, however, (Chown 1998), RWLA schemes were operating although almost entirely due to RSPB manage- on all breeding-wader SSSIs except Moorlinch ment on West Sedgemoor. This was a watershed (which was commissioned in 2001) and Eding- moment for Curlew on West Sedgemoor, where ton & Chilton Moors. It was already apparent numbers surpassed the 1977 total for the first that some RWLAs were doing better than others, time. In subsequent years Curlew numbers have notably those on West Sedgemoor, Wet Moor and grown steadily to c.37 pairs in 2013. Muchelney Level & Hay Moor, which held the With the raised-water trials showing signs of highest densities of breeding waders on the Levels. success, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries Overall, though, wader numbers had declined

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to avoid conflict with land- owners, set conservation objec- tives based partly on how much water farmers were prepared to accept. This severely limited plans for bigger breeding wader RWLAs on many SSSI moors, and seriously compromised EN’s ambitions to restore the wader population to former levels. On King’s Sedgemoor, for example, the expanded RWLA still left 80% of the SSSI without any breeding-wader targets. The importance of Catcott, Chilton & Edington Moors for breed- Snipe in early spring plumage. Gray Clements ing waders was overlooked, and statutory efforts to recover further since 1992, and on more than half of the waders on ‘difficult’ sites such as Curry & Hay key moors wader numbers were lower than in any Moors and Southlake Moor were abandoned. previous survey. The 2009 breeding-wader survey (Masters et By 2002, it was clear that a few well-managed al. 2009) confirmed that most breeding waders RWLAs were attracting significant numbers of now nest within or close to the RWLAs on eight of breeding Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe, though the key moors. The breeding assemblage appears not so many Curlew, which favoured slightly to be low in number but relatively stable (Fig. 3), drier ESA Tier 2 land (RSPB unpublished). West although the performance of a few well-managed Sedgemoor provided another watershed moment RWLAs, notably West Sedgemoor, Greylake, in 2002, when Snipe numbers were found to have Wet Moor and Tealham & Tadham Moors, is in increased to 19 pairs – the first signs of Snipe contrast to the continued declines on other moors, recovery on the Levels since 1977 (Dawes & notably King’s Sedgemoor and Moorlinch within Leece 2002). Like Curlew, breeding Snipe have the Somerset Levels National Nature Reserve continued to increase on West Sedgemoor and in (NNR). This is also reflected in declining occu- 2013 were at their highest recorded number, with pancy rates, and Snipe, for example, now occur in 96 drumming males (Fig. 2). However, breeding only a quarter of the 1977 sites. Lapwings were at their lowest recorded number ever in 2002, and the assemblage as a whole was The future still roughly half that of 1977. Despite much effort over the past two decades, The Levels’ SSSI favourable condition breeding waders remain in trouble on the Levels, programme was launched in 2005. EN, anxious and the beautiful silver meadows which support

Figure 2 Change in the number of breeding Snipe Figure 3 Total breeding wader assemblage on the 16 on West Sedgemoor from 1976 to 2013. core Somerset Levels sites from 1977 to 2009.

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them have all but disappeared outside the core rubetra – a widespread summer visitor on all the areas within SSSIs. RWLAs have become an essen- main moors in 1977, with some 153 pairs. Yet as a tial part of the breeding wader landscape, yet breeding species it was extinct by the early 1990s, many still do not work for breeding waders owing its demise linked to the conversion of hay mead- to low farmer motivation and inadequate support. ows to silage. The best non-reserve RWLAs, such as Wet Moor, How do we set about getting the step-change to have seen only slow and limited recoveries. At breeding-wader recovery on the Levels while we about 275 pairs, the 2009 assemblage remains still can? Here are a few suggestions: a long way below 1970s levels, and the prospect • We need more Greylakes – intensively managed of recolonisation from the few productive moors sites able to help recover the assemblage popu- seems unlikely. lation more quickly, so that it is better able to It is tempting to conclude that future public survive the next decade; investment in RWLAs for breeding waders should • Get the Somerset Levels NNR working better. be limited to nature reserves, where we know The NNR should support the ‘best of the best’ we can successfully deliver ‘bums on nests’. The wet-grassland habitat on the Levels, yet is decline of Moorlinch SSSI, which supported only clearly failing for breeding waders; two pairs of breeding waders in 2009, offers an • Farmers need much more care and maintenance interesting contrast to adjacent Greylake, which support on wet grassland, because managing for was acquired by the RSPB in 2003. The Society breeding waders is difficult to get right. RSPB, has gradually restored 114ha of former arable Somerset Wildlife Trust and FWAG currently peatland to wet grassland, establishing a RWLA provide extra advisory capacity to Levels farm- on the moor in 2007. It also installed a network ers through the Value of Working Wetlands of foot drains and scrapes to provide spring and (WOW) EU Interreg programme, but more, summer feeding, particularly for Lapwing and longer-term, input is needed; Redshank, but also for Yellow Wagtail Motacilla • We need to give farmers more feedback and flava. Crucially, it also erected a predator-exclu- encouragement for what is working well on sion fence. The response from breeding waders their land, and not just for breeding waders, but has been spectacular, with numbers increasing for all nature; from 13 pairs in 2002 to 119 pairs in 2013. This • We need simpler ways to manage land, e.g. has been achieved in part through exceptional through bigger hydrological units, perhaps Lapwing productivity because of minimal preda- even ‘whole moor’ schemes, with water levels tion by Foxes, taking the Lapwing population managed at pumping stations; to 58 pairs in 2013, and Redshank to 40 pairs. • We need to consider whether pump settings In short, Greylake has managed to achieve in six could be changed for the critical spring months, years what Moorlinch, as part of the NNR, has and whether gravity drainage could be rein- not been able to able to achieve in over 20 years stated on some moors, e.g. King’s Moor and – a rapidly increasing breeding-wader population. Witcombe Bottom; But do we really want the breeding waders of • Predator fences are generally impractical off the future to be confined solely to nature reserves, reserves. Fox predation elsewhere might be accepting that even NNRs may no longer be fit for reduced more sustainably by creating rough purpose? We know little about the metapopula- grassland for small mammals, the preferred tion dynamics of breeding waders, so a ‘reserves- prey of Foxes; only’ strategy would seem very risky. And what • We need to be clearer about whether we ask sort of message does such an approach send to farmers to manage their fields for splash species those who wish to see the Levels drained even (Lapwing and Redshank) or high soil-water- further? We dare not turn our backs on the chal- levels species (Snipe and Curlew), and zone lenges facing nature on the wider Levels. these objectives within a site, and according to Yet the breeding-wader ghettos remain, vulner- the management needs of other key species and able to further land-use changes driven by global habitats; economics and changing government policy. We • The 2016 ‘New Environmental Land Manage- need to heed the lesson of the Whinchat Saxicola ment Scheme’ needs to be incentive-led, with a

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Lapwing in breeding plumage in a flooded meadow. Andy Hay/rspb-images.com

significant part of annual payments based on References real outcomes, including breeding-wader densi- Ballance, D K 2006 A History of The Birds of Somerset. Isabelline Books ties and productivity. Chown, D J 1998 Somerset Levels and Moors Breeding Wader Survey 1997. RSPB, Sandy And what of climate change? Lowland wet-grass- Dawes, A, & Leece, J 2002 Somerset Levels and Moors Breeding land sites are likely to become less suitable for Waders of Wet Meadows RSPB Survey 2002. RSPB, Sandy Green, R, & Robins, M 1993 The decline of the ornithological impor- breeding Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe (Hunt- tance of the Somerset Levels and Moors, England, and changes ley et al. 2007) as drier spring conditions become in the management of water levels. Biological Conservation 66: 95-106 more frequent. Although it may be possible to Huntley, B, Green, R E, Collingham, Y C, & Willis, S G 2007 A Climatic mitigate these effects by increasing water supplies Atlas of European Breeding Birds. Durham University, RSPB and Lynx Edicions, Barcelona to sites, drier conditions are likely to increase Masters, S, Archer, R, & Leece, J 2009 Somerset Levels and Moors demand for water for farming and other uses, Breeding Waders of Lowland Wet Grassland RSPB Survey 2009. RSPB, Sandy especially as the growing season lengthens. It is Palmer, E M, & Ballance, D K 1968 The Birds of Somerset. Longmans, therefore doubly important that the remaining London Robins, M 1987 Somerset Moors Breeding Birds 1987. RSPB, Sandy ‘silver meadows’ in existing nature-conservation Robins, M, Davies, S, & Buisson, R 1991 An internationally important sites are maintained in good condition, and, where wetland in crisis. The Somerset Levels & Moors: a case history of wetland destruction. RSPB, Sandy opportunities arise, expanded and linked. Even Robins, M, Smallshire, D, & Street, L 1992 Breeding waders of the if the Levels ultimately no longer remain suitable Somerset Levels and Moors 1992, and change 1987-92. RSPB, Sandy Round, P D 1978 An Ornithological Survey of the Somerset Levels for all breeding waders, other species are likely 1976-77. WWA & RSPB to colonise in future decades (as they have in the Smith, C 1869 The Birds of Somersetshire. Van Voorst, London Smith, K W 1983 The status and distribution of waders breeding past), e.g. Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himan- on wet lowland grasslands in England and Wales. Bird Study 30: topus, which attempted to breed on Curry Moor 177-192 Weaver, D J, & Chown, D J 1983 Somerset Moors Breeding Bird Survey in 2012. The recent spectacular colonisation of the 1983. RSPB, Sandy Brue Valley by Great White Egrets Casmerodius Williams, M 1970 The Draining of the Somerset Levels. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge albus suggests that some avifaunal changes are already afoot.

Acknowledgements Richard Archer has worked for the RSPB for 18 I am grateful to David Ballance, Richard Bradford, years. He is currently the Somerset & Severn Phil Brewin, John Leece, Harry Paget-Wilkes and Wetland Conservation Officer and can be contacted at: [email protected]. Mark Robins for comments on the draft article.

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