Spent much of today in France and Belgium. The weather was terrible, with rain and a cold wind. The only bright note was the sight of a field almost covered in Lapwings. These birds have become uncommon in the UK so to see a flock of around 500 all feeding together was something to take especial note of. Seeing these birds took me back to my childhood days in Lancashire. I lived with the Pennines behind the house and the Lancashire/Cheshire plain in front. The local dairy farmer would reseed one of his field each year (a different field each time). Whilst the field was awaiting the new shoots of grass, the lapwings would nest. In a three acre field you could expect to find three or four nests. Discovering the nests was extremely difficult as, although they are merely a shallow scrape in the ground with just a minimal lining of dead grasses, the eggs are very well camouflaged. The other problem was that we would be bombarded by the adult birds who came very close to our heads in their attempts to drive us off the field.
I recently read a scientific paper which suggested that the ideal nesting site for lapwings was a field with a certain degree of slope; I can testify that each year the lapwings bred successfully on a completely flat field. Today in the UK, these birds are mainly considered to be wetland species, but in essence they used to thrive on farmland and it was in such an environment in mid-Wales that I first saw young birds fresh from the nest. These balls of fluff on long legs, are very difficult to spot, and it only becomes possible should they move. I hope to see the return of this species to its former haunts but suspect that there needs to be a significant change in farming practices for that to happen.