UK breeding numbers of Purple Sandpiper decline to a single pair, but is there a glimmer of hope?

                                           

Purple Sandpiper - just one British breeding pair according to most recent data

JUDGING by the most recent data, the Purple Sandpiper may now be on the way out as a breeding species in Britain.

Although small numbers of this inquisitive species are regularly seen in winter on our coasts - particularly on rocky shores or where there are breakwater groynes - it  has probably never been plentiful as a UK breeder.

No official breeding information is available yet for either  this year or last year, so the most recent update is that provided in the 2023 Rare Breeding Birds Panel report which was published last month in the journal, British Birds.

It states: "The one confirmed breeding pair was at a traditional site in north Scotland where the  birds incubated  a clutch of four eggs."

Strange to say, the  outcome of this breeding attempt was not recorded.

The report goes on: "Since the first confirmed breeding record in 1978, Purple Sandpipers have been reported in all but four of the 46 years (and one of these absences was in 2020 when Covid-19 restrictions prevented most ornithological fieldwork in the high montane areas they favour). 

"Multiple pairs were reported in most years through the 1980s and 1990s, and records were received from a number of sites (though a precise figure cannot be provided as, in some cases, site information was not shared with the Rare Breeding Birds Panel). 

"More recently, numbers have fallen, and since 2015 there have only been records of a single pair at the same single  site in Scotland  though it is possible that additional pairs have gone unrecorded. 

"The Scottish breeding grounds, at a latitude of 57°N, lie at the very southern edge of an international breeding distribution which stretches up to Franz Josef Land at 82°N." 

The report estimates that the 25-year breeding pairs trend is one of "strong decrease" - down by 62 per cent. 

It continues: "How long this species, which seems to have such a precarious grip on its status as a UK breeder, can persevere in the face of climate change is unclear.

"But perhaps the increase in other rare northern waders, such as Temminck’s Stint, Red-necked Phalarope and Wood Sandpiper, gives some glimmer of hope?"