A PROJECT that has boosted the population of endangered birds in the Avon Valley has been extended for another year.

Since Waders for Real started, ecologists at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) in Fordingbridge have seen lapwing pairs increase from 62 in 2015 to 81 in 2016 and then 69 in 2017.

Work on the EU LIFE+ funded project started in 2014 in a river floodplain. And the extension of the project will allow work to be carried out at other key sites within the Avon Valley.

One of the main species of interest is the lapwing, a red-listed bird.

Helping with the work are two new field assistants - Ryan Burrell and Jodie Case.

Ryan, who has spent the past four years with the geographical information systems department at GWCT, will be monitoring lapwing movements between the damp grassland of the Avon Valley and arable fields adjoining the valley, as well as measuring habitat improvements.

And Jodie, a former volunteer at the trust, will be putting in place measures to reduce predation of wader nests and chicks on hotspot sites to see which are the most efficient.

The pair will be joining project officer Lizzie Grayshon, who has worked on the project since early 2015. She said: “Bird numbers do not respond instantly to management changes and the extra time will better enable us to fully evaluate the most effective strategies for these nationally-important species.

“If, as appears to be the case from our initial data, lapwings demonstrate flexibility in their choice of breeding site between years, we need to better understand which factors influence their decision to change site.”

Over the past 25 years, GWCT has documented a 70 per cent drop in the number of breeding lapwings and an 83 per cent fall in breeding redshank in the Avon Valley.