Golden plovers (Pluvialis apricaria) are handsome waders with a beautiful plaintive call. Adult males have distinctive black bellies with contrasting gold-speckled upper parts. Their nest is a sparsely lined scrape on a bog hummock or grassland tussock on moorland. In spring and early summer they are solitary birds but by autumn they gather together to form large flocks, joined by birds from Iceland and Scandinavia. They grub for insects and worms. In Carmarthenshire golden plovers are rare breeders in upland areas, but good numbers pass through the county on passage with large numbers also winter around Carmarthen Bay. Carmarthen Bay coastal sites are noted for their high wintering numbers.

Overwintering numbers as high as c.l4 000 have been recorded in a mass in one field at Ginst Point. Other coastal sites where the golden plovers have been recorded are Kidwelly and near Pembrey airfield. Upland sites where they may be seen during the breeding season include Garreg Lywd on the Black Mountain. Mynydd Llanfihangel rhos-y-corn, Mynydd Llanllwni and Mynydd Llanybydder are all sites where birds have been recorded gathered in the autumn.

Warmer weather affects plovers

The RSPB, Aberystwyth University, Newcastle University and the University of Manchester have undertaken research that has revealed that warm summers are dramatically reducing populations of cranefly (daddy long legs), which is in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food. This key finding spells out for the first time how climate change may affect upland species like golden plover – perhaps pushing it towards local extinction by the end of the century.

Previous research has shown how changes in the timing of golden plover breeding as a result of increasing spring temperatures might affect their ability to match the spring emergence of their cranefly prey. The new research shows that much more severe are the effects of increasing late summer temperatures which kill the cranefly larvae in peatland soils as the surface dries out, resulting in a drop of up to 95% in numbers of adult craneflies emerging the following spring.  With these craneflies providing a crucial food source for a wide range of upland birds like golden plover, this means starvation and death for many chicks.

If these trends continue, as predicted by current climate models, we would expect many plover populations, particularly in the south of their range where temperatures will be highest, to be increasingly likely to decline, or even face extinction.

However, now that these processes are understood, we now have the chance to respond.  If good quality habitats for craneflies can be conserved then we can help the birds too.