Protection of Meadow Birds in Coastal areas of Western Pomerania (Germany)
The EU LIFE project Limicodra focuses on the protection of waders breeding on coastal meadows in Western Pomerania (North Eastern Germany). It specifically aims on the improvement of breeding success in salt marshes along the lagoon system (so called Bodden- and Haffküste).
The Acronym Limicodra derives from Limicoles or waders – an order of small to medium-large wader birds – and Odra, the name of the estuary of the river Oder (its western part) into the Baltic Sea – our project area.
The 5 project sites are situated at the southern shore of the Bay of Greifswald, the Peene Stream and the western part of Oder Lagoon. They lie almost entirely within the confines of areas of national or international protection status, within the Nature Parcs Usedom Island and Stettiner Haff and SPAs (Special Protected Areas for the protection of birds).
The project has a lifetime of 8 years and will last until september 2025. Its long lifetime allows optimizing the breeding habitats in several steps, which we consider necessary to allow recolonisation of habitats and an enlargement of populations. Our experience gained by this project will be used to elaborate a strategy of how to continue our efforts after the project. It can be used for other coastal areas with comparable problems.
News
The first lapwings have hatched
The first lapwings hatched last week in our project area Freesendorfer Wiesen. The meadows are part of the ‘Peenemünder Haken, Struck und Ruden’ nature reserve. Unfortunately, we have not been able to record any major breeding successes in recent years. The population size has remained more or less at the same level for years. However, the benefits of our work are gradually becoming apparent. Thanks to the incredibly great cooperation with one of the local farmers, large areas of the meadows have been in optimal condition since 2023. The breeding birds are more widely distributed as a result. But then the problem was that they no longer bred within the clutch protection fence and were more or less defenceless against the predators, and most of the breeding was aborted. The lapwings in particular moved to other areas. As a result, we have intensified predator management considerably since last year and have been surprised at how many predators are actually on the move in this area. So the breeding season should actually go well this year. We are still cautiously optimistic, because somehow you never know what won't fit next....crows, peregrine falcons,....
New solar pumps for areas in the polder Rosenhagen and Mönkebude
We have purchased two new solar pumps. We want to use these to create feeding habitats for meadow birds. Two solar pumps have already been in use in our project areas since 2020. The resulting 1-2 hectares of surface waterlogged areas are regularly visited by the limicoles. Our new pumps are lighter and more mobile. A slightly more powerful model will provide larger feeding areas in the polder Rosenhagen. A slightly smaller pump will be used to fill existing small and flat ditches with water. We hope that the ditches will create a more extensive feeding area. As soon as the areas become too dry, the solar pumps will be used.
Read more … New solar pumps for areas in the polder Rosenhagen and Mönkebude
The breeding habitat in the Bugewitz polder is unfortunately in poor condition
The agricultural conditions in Western Pomerania were not exactly ideal in 2023. Heavy rainfall events and AUKM programmes that are disadvantageous for the protection of meadow breeding birds brought this result. Initially, we were still hopeful that one or two lapwings would nevertheless settle down for a trial and we erected a clutch protection fence. However, we took this down again after two weeks. None breeding pairs of lapwings settled down and, quite understandably, the redshanks also stayed away. We need to come up with something good so that this area shows potential again next year, because at least the hydrological conditions are already right here.
Read more … The breeding habitat in the Bugewitz polder is unfortunately in poor condition
EU LIFE+
LIFE ist the financial instrument of the European Union for funding actions of environmental protection. Abbreviation LIFE comes from french translation L`Instrument Financier pour l`Environment. Since 1992 over 4500 LIFE projects were co-financed by this programme.
Nature and biodiversity is the financing programme for projects in nature conservation. Funding innovative pilot projects in Natura 2000 areas supports the network of these international nature conservation sites.