Picture By Colin Bates
Snipe have probably now disappeared as a breeding species in the Itchen Valley.
During 2002 a survey of Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows was undertaken in the Itchen Valley, a small part of a nationwide survey organized by the British Trust for Ornithology.
The survey aimed to identify changes in population levels since a similar survey in 1982, its target species for the Itchen being
Snipe
Redshank
Lapwing
The survey was undertaken in areas listed below where at least one of the target species had been known to breed in previous surveys
Alresford Cress Beds
Cheriton Stream
Tichborne Springs
Itchen Stoke
Winnall
Winchester
Otterbourne
Bishopstoke
The results were alarming illustrating a dramatic decline in wader numbers in a relatively short period of just twenty years. In fact not a single breeding pair of the target species was found.
The reasons for the dramatic loss of the entire breeding wader population of the Itchen Valley is probably a due to a combination of factors the most significant being the drying out of the meadows through agricultural improvement and water abstraction. Human disturbance and subtle environmental changes may also be significant.
Farming practices since the Second World War caused the gradual abandonment of water meadows, between 1970 and 1996 the condition of over a third of Hampshire’s water meadows deteriorated. Although there are some current attempts at meadow restoration on the Itchen the quality and success of these schemes are yet to be proven.
For a British Trust for Ornithology nationwide report on the Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows in England and Wales 2002 use the link below |
