Causes of change

The drivers of the decline of this species are unclear; however it is unlikely to be caused by changes in the wintering area and hence probably relates to problems occurring during either the breeding season or on migration, or both.

Further information on causes of change

Poorer breeding success and reduced survival of first-year birds over the winter in West Africa were both suggested as possible reasons for the failure of the Peak District population to recover after a hard-weather event in 1989 (Holland & Yalden 2002). The reasons for poor recruitment to the breeding population are hard to assess in the absence of firm information on where British birds spend the winter (Dougall et al. 2010). However recent tracking of ten adult birds from Scotland identified coastal Guinea-Bissau as the most important wintering area and concluded that it was unlikely that habitat change in this area had been sufficient to cause the observed decline. The tracked birds did experience some unfavourable weather during northward migration but further work would be needed to confirm whether this could have affected population levels (Summers et al. 2019).

UK clutch sizes appear to have shown a slight decline from the 1960s to the 1990s, which has since been almost reversed, although this is based on a small sample.

Information about conservation actions

In one study in the Peak District, disturbance from anglers restricted the area available to sandpipers at the study site and hence reduced the breeding population (Yalden 1992). Whilst it remains unclear whether similar disturbance has been widespread enough to have contributed to the population declines, actions to prevent disturbance at key sites would be prudent.

In the absence of any evidence identifying other specific recommendations, actions to conserve existing habitats and water quality should also be considered.