Helping breeding waders around Lough Erne, Northern Ireland

The Lough Erne Wildfowlers’ Council (LEWC) was formed in 1990 in response to changes in the management of wildfowling on Lough Erne. Membership is comprised of approximately 300 active wildfowlers from 8 wildfowling clubs in County Fermanagh.

In 2014, members of the LEWC, working in partnership with local farmers, initiated a conservation project on Boa Island on the Lower Erne to help breeding waders, including lapwing, snipe, curlew, redshank and common sandpiper.

These birds and their well-known calls and displays were once commonplace in the Fermanagh countryside.

The LEWC administers wildfowling on Lough Erne on behalf of the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure, and some of the wildfowling permit revenue was invested by LEWC into conservation work on Boa Island.

Scientific advice was sought from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) prior to the commencement of the project, and this successful partnership continues to date.

Over 10 hectares of wet grassland (equivalent to 12-15 football pitches) has been restored for breeding waders via sward cutting and grazing regimes best suited to their needs.

At the outset of these conservation efforts, LEWC contracted an independent ecological consultancy to undertake breeding wader surveys.

Since surveys began breeding snipe and common sandpiper on Boa Island sites were up by 460%, with breeding lapwing and redshank returning to farmland they had long deserted. Breeding curlew have regularly fledged young on Boa Island in the past decade.

The habitat restoration has been conducted in tandem with best practice predator management (lethal and non-lethal) to reduce pressure from nest predators. Predator control measures include the use of mink rafts to detect and remove mink, Larsen traps and multi-catch crow traps for corvids and use of thermal imaging to aid with fox control.

Since 2014, the project has expanded from the Lower Lough Erne to the Upper Lough Erne with more foreshore, farmland and islands targeted for conservation work.

As the project has grown, external funding has been secured from the National Lottery Heritage Fund via the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

BASC’s Wildlife Fund awarded LEWC £5,000 per annum from 2020 until 2024 for the project.

GWCT advice on habitat management and the most effective predator control approaches, has been invaluable to the success of the project.

Public engagement is a key component of the project. The conservation effort is supported by the wider local community and has been featured in local newspapers and on BBC Radio Ulster on multiple occasions.

The project hosts an annual “Snipe walk” to allow members of the public to enjoy the sounds of drumming and chipping snipe at dusk. Each event over the last 3 years has sold out, with displaying snipe and roding woodcock from nearby woodland enjoyed by those attending.

In November 2023, to mark the 10^th anniversary of the project, an international breeding wader conference was organised in Co. Fermanagh bringing together more than 120 attendees from a wide range of organisations including BASC.

Speakers included Mary Colwell (Curlew Action), Dr Andrew Hoodless (GWCT), Dr David Scallan (European Federation for Hunting and Conservation), Patrick Laurie (journalist) and others from the RSPB, National Association of Regional Game Councils and the Curlew Partnership.

The project has also sponsored the provision of satellite tags for GWCT’s pioneering snipe tracking and 4 wintering snipe were tagged on project sites in 2025.