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Breeding Wader Survey
of Northern Ireland - 1999

The 1999 Breeding Wader Survey (BWS) was organised by the BTO in conjunction with the RSPB in Northern Ireland, and was funded by the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS).

The aim of the survey was to repeat the 1987 RSPB Breeding Wader Survey of selected tetrads in order to calculate the change in breeding numbers of waders between the two survey periods. Northern Ireland is especially important within Britain and Ireland for Curlew, Snipe, Lapwing and Redshank, many of which breed on lowland wet grassland, sadly a rapidly disappearing habitat. A recent BTO survey of breeding Lapwings in England and Wales has revealed a 50% decline since 1987, and there are concerns that the number of breeding waders in Northern Ireland has also undergone a marked decline over this period.

The fieldwork for this survey involved the recording and mapping of singles, groups and breeding pairs of waders within 2 km x 2 km squares (tetrads). Tetrads were selected from within every land-based 10 km square in Northern Ireland; they were the same tetrads as those covered in the 1987 wader survey. The results of the survey revealed widespread declines in Curlew and Lapwing exceeding 50% since 1987, and probable declines in Snipe (down 30%) and Redshank (down 50%) over the same period.

Please contact for further information. Also see Henderson et al. 2002.