The Lapwing Under Threat

Northern Lapwing

This week's exciting 'wildlife spot' for me was a couple of Northern Lapwings (also known as Peewit or Green Plover). The Lapwing was placed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 'red list' in 2009. Since 1960 there has been an 80% decline in Lapwing numbers.

This decline is attributable to poor breeding success rather than adult survival.. The birds' preferred nesting sites are in shallow scrapes among spring sown cereals, root crops and in fallow fields. This ground nesting renders the birds vulnerable to trampling by livestock, flooding and predation (by foxes, crows, ravens and domestic dogs).

I'm pleased to write that help for the lapwing is at hand. The South West Farmland Bird Initiative is working with farmers to provide some fallow areas for nesting, suitable food and some shallow scrapes for foraging.

The Lapwing is one of Wiltshire's iconic birds (its head is the emblem of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust) we used to see vast flocks of them rather than the odd one or two. If they were to disappear altogether I, for one, would miss their tumbling flight patterns and distinctive 'peewit' call. Crows will be crows and foxes will be foxes, but I think dog walkers could pause for thought.