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Uist waders

Things are not as they should be for the wading bird population on the islands of Uist. The population has been in decline over the past three decades, and for some species this decline has been over 50%.

A stable population: 1983

Back in 1983 the islands had approximately 17,000 pairs of breeding waders, including:

  • 2819 pairs - 30% of the total UK breeding population of dunlin;
  • 2047 pairs - 25% of the total UK breeding population of ringed plover and;
  • 1774 pairs - 5% of the UK breeding population of redshank.

A declining population: 1983 - 2000

Between 1983 and 2000 this breeding population has declined on South Uist and Benbecula with:

  • dunlin, ringed plover and snipe falling by 57%,
  • redshank falling by 41%, and
  • lapwing by 31%.

Why is this happening?

Substantial evidence has shown that introduced hedgehogs were largely responsible for these declines.

Research suggested that the best policy would be to remove the hedgehogs through a combination of live trapping, spot-lamping (searching for the nocturnal hedgehogs by night using powerful lamps), and using sniffer dogs. Since 2007 all captured hedgehogs have been translocated to the mainland.

Removing hedgehogs will have allowed more nests to hatch out successfully and allow the wader population to grow. More wader surveys will be needed to confirm that the removal of hedgehogs is allowing recovery of the wader populations, as other factors also affect their breeding success.

Latest research 2007 and beyond...

In 2007, a further island wide survey found no obvious trends, and instead show a complex picture of changing wader populations with some changes being common across sites and other changes appearing to be more localised. As wader populations fluctuate markedly from one year the next, only changes of over 20% are considered to be statistically significant. The current research phase will help determine the key factors influencing the populations.

 

Free postcards

UWP has produced a set of postcards  PDF document to promote the six wader species. If you would like us to send you a set, please e-mail: uwp@snh.gov.uk.