Bird conservationists are highlighting the perilous position of Scotland’s wading birds and urging the public to help, as the first ever ‘Wader Week’ gets underway (6-12 May).

NatureScot has joined forces with Working for Waders – a partnership that aims to tackle the worrying decline of wading birds, such as curlew, lapwing and redshank – to raise awareness of the threats they face and show that declines can be reversed.

To improve understanding of the issues facing waders, people are being encouraged to help monitor the birds by completing the Working for Waders and British Trust for Ornithology’s Wader Calendar or by taking part in their Nest Camera project.

Waders are a group of birds typified by long legs and often a long bill. They come in a variety of sizes from the tiny ‘mouse-like’ sanderling, to the pretty hefty curlew. All the ‘Big Five’ farmland waders (curlew, lapwing, oystercatcher, redshank and golden plover) have been lost from historical parts of their breeding range in Scotland, with redshank, for example, retracting by a worrying 44% between surveys conducted in 1968-72 and 2008-12.