Over the spring and summer months, Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC) and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust are rolling out a landscape-scale project to locate, monitor and conserve the remaining breeding lapwing across Wiltshire chalk landscapes.

Project Peewit (taken from a local name for lapwing) will survey across the North Wessex Downs, Salisbury Plain and Cranborne Chase to find the remaining breeding lapwing and begin to work with landowners and farmers to improve the landscape for them.

Across the UK, six out of every ten lapwing have vanished since 1967. As a breeding species, lapwing have declined dramatically across Wiltshire. This iconic species is at serious risk of disappearing from across large swathes of our county. Research suggests that although adult lapwing are able to survive and return to breed, they are struggling to successfully raise chicks. This could be for a number of reasons; part of this vital work will be to help identify the issues affecting chick survival and look for solutions to mitigate them.

Project Peewit is the first step in changing the fortunes of Wiltshire’s breeding lapwing. The work this year will help locate key sites where lapwing remain and identify potential threats and problems they may face there. This information can then be used to form a long-term plan to conserve this wonderful bird species across Wiltshire landscapes.

This project has been made possible through partnerships with the North Wessex Downs and Cranborne Chase National Landscapes and is funded through the government’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.

Can you help? Anyone can get involved with this project; please submit your sightings of lapwing from anywhere in Wiltshire here.