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NEYEDC improve and inform environmental decision making, conservation, land management and sustainable development in North and East Yorkshire through the collation, management, analysis and dissemination of biodiversity information.

The Natural History of Yorkshire in 100 Species

Explore the rich and diverse natural history of our region through the stories of 100 species, told by the people who know them best.

#7 Golden Plover by Jeff Lunn

Meet Jeff Lunn, Chairman of the Garganey Trust!

Jeff Lunn is Chairman of the Garganey Trust, a nature conservation charity which manages several nature reserves including Broomhill Flash near Barnsley, and which also supports other organisations to deliver great conservation work, such as the Flamborough Bird Observatory. Now retired, Jeff has worked all over Great Britain for nature conservation organisations, notably the Nature Conservancy Council and its successors, and has a passionate interest in the wildlife of Yorkshire. He’s also Chairman of the Yorkshire and Humber Ecological Data Trust, the charitable Trust that governs NEYEDC, and was awarded the BEM in 2020 for services to nature conservation in Yorkshire. You can find him on Twitter @garganeytrust, contact him at jeff.lunn@hotmail.com, or find him on LinkedIn.

Jeff’s chosen species is the Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria. This is a medium sized wading bird with dazzling white, gold and black spangled plumage. They stand upright and like all plovers, run in short bursts to catch soil surface prey, particularly earthworms. In summer they can be found breeding in the uplands of Britain where they perform their beautiful aerial display flight accompanied by an evocative and haunting song. In winter, local populations are swelled by thousands of migrants from Iceland, arctic Scandinavia and Russia and they are widely distributed on farmland, grasslands and estuaries, often accompanied by Lapwings. A question about the flight speed of Golden Plover (now known to be up to 60mph) during a shooting party in Wexford, Ireland prompted Sir Hugh Beaver (then chairman of a brewery) to found the Guinness Book of Records in 1955!

Golden Plover on breeding grounds, Iceland, 2019 (c) Jeff Lunn.

Jeff notes that we are fortunate in Yorkshire to have this bird as part of our lives. A day out in Spring on the moor tops in any of the four major upland landscapes of the county (North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, South Pennines and the Peak District) might be rewarded by seeing and hearing these birds displaying over their cotton-grass or heather moorland breeding territories, sweeping over the hills with their slow wingbeats, or seeing their charming young running over the blanket bog with their parents standing guard on a prominent tussock. Yorkshire still has a substantial breeding population on the moorlands, with densities some of the highest in the country, rivalling those on the machair of Scotland. Equally, there can be no finer sight than watching huge flocks of thousands of Golden Plovers wheeling across the sky in the Winter sun over lowland farmland and wetlands, and especially the Humber Estuary, which is the premier wintering site in the UK with more than 31,000 birds.

“As a boy learning about nature in the Yorkshire Peak District around Barnsley and on occasional treats to the Humber and Spurn, the charismatic sounds and sights of Golden Plovers were an inspiring part of my fascination with the natural world.”
— Jeff

The breeding distribution of Golden Plovers follows the presence of moorland in the UK, so Yorkshire is at the southern end of their main distribution (very small breeding populations still occur in Wales and Devon – maybe up to 30 pairs). Like many other upland species, they are therefore vulnerable to the potential effects of climate change and to a gradual retreat of their breeding distribution northwards. Of course, the effects may be masked by land-use practices, particularly the management of the majority of our Yorkshire moorlands for grouse shooting where historical drainage of the wet bogs (and loss of the abundant cranefly Tipulidae larvae on which young waders feed) to promote more heather will not have helped populations, although this has largely ceased and is being partially reversed by peatland restoration projects. A low level of predator control has also been linked to having a beneficial effect on populations.

Flock of Golden Plovers in the winter sun, Old Moor, Yorkshire, 2006 (c) Jeff Lunn.

The UK’s wintering population of Golden Plovers uses farmland (often arable) and mudflats and feeding takes place mainly at night. Like many of our wintering wader populations, protecting their feeding and resting areas is vital for the Golden Plover, especially when they need to conserve energy in poor weather and limited light. Although the protection of such feeding and resting areas, like the Humber Estuary, through national and international designations such as SSSIs, SPAs and SACs ought to prevent most forms of habitat degradation and loss, disturbance, especially the flushing of large flocks by dogs and people, is an increasing threat to many wading birds like the Golden Plover.

Monitoring

Overall, the UK’s breeding Golden Plover population is thought to have remained stable from about 1995 following earlier declines. Likewise, the UK’s internationally important wintering population is thought to be stable. Both populations are monitored by the national surveys carried out by volunteers and co-ordinated by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) - for breeding birds this is the Breeding Bird Survey, and for wintering waterfowl the WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey).

Acknowledgements and further information

NEYEDC would like to thank Jeff for his time and expertise in helping to create this blog. If you’d be interested in contributing a piece for the series, contact Lucy at lucy.baldwin@neyedc.co.uk. To find out more about biological recording, see the Naturalists page on our website.

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