Lapwing were once a common farmland bird breeding in open pasture, arable fields and wetlands. However in recent decades these habitats types have been disappearing from the Welsh landscape, resulting in a drastic decline of Lapwing in Wales.

Over the past two years, staff and volunteers have been working hard to increase and improve habitats for Lapwing. The next stage of our project is to create an artificial floating island on the Northern Wetlands lake at Parc Slip Nature Reserve in Bridgend, South Wales. This will provide a safe, isolated area for Lapwing nests. They would be out of reach of land-based predators and the Lapwing could defend off aerial predators. The rafts would be made from floating materials and small ledges on the sides would prevent Canada Geese from accessing the raft and occupying the nesting space. 

The cost to create and install a Lapwing Raft is £2,000 and we are hoping to build the raft in February 2017, just before the Lapwing arrive back at the reserve :)