DESPITE a cold May the weeds on my allotment are growing well and I spent most of the half-term break dodging the rain to try and restore order. Work on our allotment is always accompanied by the constant background noise of hens, passing trains and the evocative calls of Curlews and Lapwing. These calls, as well as the flocks of lapwing seen from the Skipton train on my journey to work, are so familiar as to be taken for granted and only occasionally do I really stop to listen and appreciate my surroundings.

A recent chat with colleagues in the countryside team at Craven College highlighted the amazing variety of wildlife present within a stone's throw of the office window. As well as the expected Blue tits in the campus bird boxes; we have Curlew and Oystercatchers nesting in the fields and regularly see Buzzards, Kestrel and even Sparrowhawks. Even so, all of this often merges into the background and often goes unnoticed in the daily rush of admin, teaching and marking. This got me thinking that we should all to take a moment or two to celebrate, for in reality, what could be better than lecturing or studying conservation on a campus surrounded by wildlife.

Although locally common, breeding waders like Lapwing and Curlew are, at a national level, in sad decline. According to the RSPB Lapwing numbers have declined by 80 per cent since the 1960’s and breeding Curlews have declined by 45 per cent between 1995 and 2011 (UK Breeding Bird Survey). This is due to many factors including changes in farm practices with moves towards more intensive production particularly in the south west of England. Many waders breed in the rough unimproved pastures and moorland allotments (grassland not vegetables!) that were once commonplace in the fringes of the uplands and others feed and breed in the wet grassland that covered river flood plains. Here in Craven we are very fortunate that large amounts of this habitat still remain and breeding waders are a familiar sight, however, even here the numbers are far lower than they could be.

I became aware of the extent of this decline during a family half-term break to Teesdale last year. As keen amateur naturalists we decided to take a short break staying at Langdon Beck Youth Hostel in Upper Teesdale. During the trip we planned to study the rare Arctic-alpine flora and watch a Black Grouse Lek (the courtship display of male Black Grouse is known as lekking and the birds always gather at the same sites to perform). The display begins early in the morning and the Youth Hostel staff are used to guests creeping out at 4:30am to drive the short distance to the nearby Lek site which, obligingly, is positioned close enough to the road to watch from the comfort of your car (more importantly the car acts as a mobile bird hide avoiding disturbance to the birds). After watching approximately 20 male grouse strut, shake their white tails, jump and make their distinctive display call we returned to the hostel for breakfast. However, this fantastic display and the incredible swathes of Spring Gentians and Bird’s-eye Primroses seen the following day although memorable were not the highlight of the visit.

On returning to the Youth Hostel at 6am the calls of Curlews, Lapwing, Redshank and the constant drumming of Snipe was unbelievable even from within the car. If you have never heard a male Snipe “drumming” it is worth a quick internet search, the eerie throbbing sound is generated when the male birds dive at speeds of over 50km/hr causing the wind to vibrate through modified tail feathers producing the sound. The volume and sheer number of waders in the fields opposite the hostel is something I have never experienced before - Redshank were perched on every fencepost, Snipe, Curlew and Lapwing in the air and Golden Plovers on the ground. I have since discovered that this area has one of the highest densities of breeding waders in England with, according to Natural England, up to 90 breeding pairs recorded per km2. It is sobering to think that this number was once commonplace rather than a memorable exception.

Here in Yorkshire there are projects and plans to improve conditions for breeding waders and maybe one day the magnificent dawn wader chorus of Teesdale will once again become a familiar background to life in Craven. In the uplands Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is working with moorland owners to restore peatlands through the Yorkshire Peat Partnership and in the Ribble valley the Long Preston Floodplain Project established in 2004 is working with farmers to improve wetland habitats along the river. If you are familiar with the drive between Long Preston and Settle the changes to the landscape are plain to see and there are now over 60 species of birds found within the project area. In other areas academic research has shown that this vital wader habitat which is often viewed as poor quality unproductive grassland can also provide an increased income to farmers through innovative tourism and high value meat marketing initiatives.

To conclude, I hope that you will now take a minute to stop and appreciate your surroundings, we all know that we are lucky to live in such a beautiful area but how many of us truly notice it in the daily rush of life.