Wintering Golden Plovers and Lapwings

The last time they were counted, we think there were at least 250,000
Golden Plovers and 1.5 million Lapwings in Britain in winter. Since then,
much has changed in the plover world, with ongoing breeding population
declines and major shifts in wintering range. During winter 2006/07 BTO ran
a major survey of Britain's winter plovers involving casual recording and
visits to selected tetrads. These results are presently being analysed but
see below for preliminary results and information.

 

Plover links:

Casual Recording now closed for this season
Click here to go directly to the Casual record form for the Winter Plover Survey.

Click here to see results for October to December

More about winter plovers in Britain
Click here to find out how BTO surveys have shown major changes in the status of Golden Plovers and Lapwings in Britain.

Things that go pee-wit in the night
Click here to find out what plovers get up to when the rest of us are safely tucked up in bed.

October 2003 International Golden Plover Survey
Click here to see the results of this first attempt to coordinate counting of Golden Plovers in Britain with elsewhere in North-west Europe.

Towards European monitoring of Golden Plovers
Click here (pdf 1.24 MB) to find out about initiatives elsewhere in Europe, and proposals to undertake a coordinated count of Golden Plovers across Europe in October 2008.