Water wildlife: ground nesting birds

While you’re no doubt wary of disturbing nesting swans while swimming outdoors, it’s always worth considering your impact on ground nesting birds too, says Susanne Masters. 

While most birds nest in trees and hedgerows, or on buildings, there are birds that nest on the ground and many of them live by watersides. River swimmers are familiar with easily-spotted swan nests at water level, and certainly swans will remind swimmers to move away. We know to keep swimming and not linger next to duck, coot or moorhen nests when we spot them. Other birds have nests that are not quite so easily seen from a distance.

Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) are a less obvious bird to consider. They rear their young where there is a patchwork of bare ground for their nest, grass to take chicks into and water margins or damp ground to find food. They often nest on grazed pasture, a common habitat alongside rivers. If you disturb nesting adults they will fly up and call, or even swoop at you to try and drive you away. While doing this their eggs and chicks can be vulnerable to other predators, as well as missing the warmth that they need from their parents. Similarly, seashore birds such as redshanks (Tringa totanus), which nest on the ground, will call and fly up and away from their nests if people come too close.

Keep to well-trod paths

Ground nesting birds won’t nest directly on paths that are frequently used. Keeping to well-trod paths on the way to and from swimming spots will avoid disturbing them. On open areas of common land keep in mind that birds flying up and calling your attention, or swooping at you, may be birds whose nesting sites you have disturbed.

Follow their cues and move away until they are quiet and feel able to settle back to their nest, and remember the area they feel sensitive about the next time you visit. Nesting season is time to keep dog companions on footpaths, either trained to heel or walking on a leash. Even a dog that won’t directly harm birds, chicks or eggs can cause distress to nesting adult birds and interrupt the care that eggs and chicks need from their parents.

We can certainly continue to enjoy swimming while remembering to give ground nesting birds the extra consideration they need from us at this time of year.

This article is from the April 2023 issue of Outdoor Swimmer. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.