Wading Birds: Why should we care?

So why should we care about wading birds? What have they ever done for us?

They are amazing birds and give us some iconic spectacles. But it can be hard to quantify exactly what benefits wading birds bring to the average Wiltshire resident. But ecologically wading birds on farmland are a sign of a healthy landscape.

Farmland is not the natural habitat in Wiltshire, or indeed across the U.K. That place goes to woodland. However we lost the vast majority of our woodland several thousand years ago with the advent of modern agriculture. Aside from some re-wilding projects it looks like that is how it will stay. This means we have to look after what we have, i.e farmland.

Wading birds of an area of farmland shows that the habitat is working for wildlife. In order for the birds to be successful there has to be healthy soil, good numbers of their invertebrate food and areas of rough cover for the nests. This helps to support many other farmland wildlife from Yellowhammers to Brown Hares.

So, I guess wading birds can be used as a group of flagship species for farmland. By protecting them we are having to protect a whole plethora of other species.