WETLANDS - LAPWING FALLOW PLOTS |


Chicks spent most time off plots when the surrounding crop was short, as is the case with maize, peas and beans at the time of peak chick hatch in late April. They spent more time on plots when they were adjoined by grass or spring cereals. Given that some of the chicks we recorded as predated could have been


scavenged after dying from starving, the availability of invertebrate food for chicks must also be important. Chicks on plots adjoined by grass and spring cereals possibly had to travel shorter distances into these crops to obtain sufficient food. We observed that some broods spent a lot of time at plot edges, foraging along the boundary with the crop, where in some cases there was greater cover of arable weeds than near the centre of plots. Vegetation such as this is likely to fulfil two functions: providing a source of invertebrate food for chicks and providing escape cover in which chicks can hide in the presence of avian predators. It is likely that food availability and predation interact to influence chick survival, with chicks in poor condition, owing to the low abundance of food or adverse weather, potentially more susceptible to predation, but also chicks subject to high predation pressure less likely to be able to feed adequately. When we examined our data in more detail, we found that greater vegetation cover on fallow plots had a positive effect on chick survival in 2012-2013 and that greater invertebrate abundance on plots, sampled by pitfall traps, resulted in higher chick survival in 2014-2015, although both relationships explained less than 10% of the variation in chick survival. We are conducting further analyses to examine relationships between vegetation cover and food availability on chick diet, condition and survival. The solutions to increasing lapwing chick survival on fallow plots would seem to be to create some form of brood foraging cover adjacent to the plot and probably fence this larger area or fence the whole field containing a plot. Stepping up fox and corvid control in spring might be an alternative to electric fencing or a valuable complement to it. Both potential solutions would add considerably to the cost of the fallow plot option if rolled out as part of an agri-environment scheme and would require evaluation first. If found to deliver the required level of lapwing chick produc- tivity, then careful targeting within the landscape and more stringent conditions on option uptake would most likely be required to offset the higher option cost.


KEY FINDINGS


Fallow plots provide suitable habitat for lapwings during nesting, but in many cases are not aiding lapwing population recovery, owing to the poor survival of chicks. It is likely that food availabil- ity and predation interact to influence chick survival. Electric fences around plot edges, which excluded foxes and badgers, increased the survival of chicks that remained on plots, but many broods moved off plots and were then not protected. Possible solutions for increasing lapwing chick survival on fallow plots are the creation of brood foraging cover adjacent to plots, fencing the whole field containing a plot or stepping up fox and corvid control.


Andrew Hoodless Kaat Brulez Carlos Sánchez


Lapwing chick survival was estimated from samples of chicks fitted with 0.4-g radio-tags. © Andrew Hoodless/GWCT


www.gwct.org.uk GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016 | 27


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92