Black-Tailed Godwits want our assist. That is why.

Black-tailed godwits are massive, migratory wading birds that breed in wetland landscapes throughout Europe, Siberia and  Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, West Africa and elements of Western Europe.

They’re categorised as close to threatened on the IUCN Pink Checklist, and their breeding success has been hampered within the UK by the draining of wetland habitat, for use as a substitute for agriculture.

The UK’s first Black-Tailed Godwit headstarting venture

Lately, I used to be invited to view the UK’s first headstarting venture for black-tailed godwits, because it reaches the tip of its 5-year trial (prolonged over 6 years, because of the pandemic).

Having accomplished at Welney Wetland Centre simply yesterday, the venture — a partnership between The Wildfowl & Wetlands Belief (WWT) and The Royal Society for the Safety of Birds (RSPB) — was the primary of it’s variety, and has quadrupled the breeding success of all the UK inhabitants of black-tailed godwits.

Headstarting relies round amassing the eggs from pure nests (on this case, solely the primary clutch of eggs from a breeding pair); artificially elevating the younger and releasing them again into the wild.

This give the chicks the perfect likelihood of reaching maturity by defending them from environmental threats, sabotage by people, and the danger of encountering predators.

Challenge Godwit began in 2017, when all the UK inhabitants consisted of simply 45 breeding pairs — 38 of which had been within the Fens, breeding at simply two websites: the Nene Washes and the Ouse Washes.

Recognising the world as having such excessive significance, a partnership was fashioned by Pure England between WWT and RSPB, with funding from the EU LIFE Nature Programme and assist from many others, to start this headstarting venture.

The historical past of Black-Tailed Godwits within the Fens

The muddy wetlands of the Fens have all the time been an necessary place for godwits; in reality, an Previous East Anglian identify for the species was ‘Cambridgeshire Plumber’, used all through the 1800s.

Though they had been as soon as widespread within the space, populations declined over time, because the wetlands themselves had been misplaced.

Native populations had been discovered to be extinct by the nineteenth century.

Within the Fifties nonetheless, godwits returned after discovering the Ouse Washes. Twenty years later, 65 pairs had been breeding.

Over time, elevated flooding within the spring and summer time made it tough for godwits — and different waders — to nest on the positioning, and the inhabitants started to say no as soon as extra.

In response, moist grassland habitat was created to offer nesting area for the birds, however the godwit inhabitants had change into critically small, at simply 3 breeding pairs on the Ouse Washes. To make issues worse, just one chick survived that yr.

  Headstarting for future fledglings

A plan was launched to assist the godwit inhabitants across the Ouse Washes get better and use the newly created moist grasslands.

Starting in 2017, the headstarting venture concerned amassing breeding pairs’ first clutch of eggs (often 4 to five eggs per clutch) from Pure England licensed areas, and incubating them within the cell unit.

Right here they had been watched by employees 24-hours a day, and robotically turned over at common intervals.

In some circumstances, the place the grownup birds had been wanted to be caught to retrieve information tags, eggs collected from the nest websites had been changed with dummy eggs.

As soon as the information tag had been retrieved, the eggs had been eliminated in order that the birds didn’t proceed to take a seat on false eggs for a protracted time frame.

The breeding pairs’ second clutch of the yr was then left to be naturally hatched and parent-reared.

After hatching, the godwit chicks incubated on the WWT web site had been moved to a nursery pen in teams of 4, earlier than graduating onto fledgling pens.

Godwits develop extremely rapidly; reaching ‘teenage dimension’ in simply three weeks.

Contained in the fledgling pens, they learnt important life expertise beneath the safety of an electrical fence, which stored predators, resembling badgers and foxes, at bay.

It was important that the netting on the fledgling pen was tender sufficient to cease them from hurting their wings as they practiced shifting about.

The birds spent 4-7 days within the fledgling pen, the place their poo was checked for any indications of well being points, and as soon as cleared; the younger godwits had been fitted with their lifelong leg tags (a inexperienced ring with an E on it).

Life within the wild for headstarted godwits

This week, the ultimate group of headstarted black-tailed godwits was launched onto the Welney wetlands reserve.

Going ahead, the conservation efforts for these birds will concentrate on monitoring and recording their life within the wild. A few of them have even been fitted with transmitters to assist the duty.

So far, launched godwits and wild-reared godwits have been recorded in 10 international locations exterior of the UK: France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Senegal and Mauritania.

To this point, 50 launched birds have returned to breeding websites within the UK and a number of other others have bred in continental Europe.

Additional birds from the Challenge Godwit programme are anticipated to return to the UK, after they’ve reached 2 years of age — nevertheless it’s price noting that godwits have a survival charge of roughly 50% of their first yr / over their first south and north migrations.

What has Challenge Godwit achieved?

I like to share success tales on this weblog, and the devoted work from the Challenge Godwit workforce has actually yielded some nice conservation success tales!

In 2021, the UK inhabitants of black-tailed godwits had elevated to 58 pairs with 54 of those (93%) within the Fens.

When the venture started in 2017, all the UK inhabitants consisted of 45 pairs. Based mostly on wild productiveness, these pairs had been predicted to fledge round 50 chicks in 5 years.

Challenge Godwit has seen 155 headstarted birds reared and launched, alongside round 50 wild fledglings that had been naturally parent-reared, which means they’ve quadrupled the breeding success of all the UK inhabitants.

108 of the 155 headstarted godtwits have been launched on the Ouse Washes. It could have taken this particular inhabitants (which consisted of simply 3 pairs in 2017) over 90 years to provide that variety of fledglings!

WWT’s modelling confirmed that in a worst case situation, with out the assistance of the headstarting venture, the black-tailed godwits on this space had a 50/50 likelihood of being extinct by 2050.

A future for godwits — and how one can assist!

The success of Challenge Godwit, as the primary venture of its variety within the UK, has proven that this conservation methodology works for enhancing small populations of godwits.

It’s a software that may be utilized throughout the a number of international locations that the birds might be discovered; or as soon as once more within the UK if obligatory.

The venture as an entire has been profitable in boosting inhabitants dimension, and has additionally helped to lift public consciousness of the birds and their plight, by participating native faculties, educating visiting members of the general public, and securing excessive degree press protection, together with a function on BBC Springwatch.

Nevertheless, regardless of Challenge Godwit’s outcome being excellent news for the inhabitants numbers; it’s not sufficient for godwits to be thought-about secure. Will probably be the breeding success of those birds within the wild that determines their long-term future.

The work at WWT Welney Wetland Centre has helped conservationists to study much more in regards to the issues black-tailed godwits are dealing with within the wild, and hopefully we will discover options to those.

The workforce proceed to observe the threats the birds are dealing with, and say conservation work must happen throughout the panorama, to make sure the species’ very important habitat is protected: godwits feed in coastal areas and breed in wetlands.

For godwits to thrive within the Fens, we’d like larger, higher and extra related wetlands the place there’s a steadiness between predators and prey.

Increasing the vary of wetland habitats is more likely to require native councils and personal landowners to become involved, to attach ranges and create habitat corridors.