A regular visitor and I were just discussing collective nouns for birds. We knew of a murder of crows and a charm of goldfinches, but we wondered; do all bird species have a collective noun? It appears not but there are some good ones such as a flamboyance of flamingos, a parliament of owls and a bellowing of bullfinches to pick a few out of a fairly long list. I felt that a desert of lapwings fitted the title of this blog perfectly as over a thousand lapwings have been counted on the reserve today and they are incredibly beautiful birds, particularly in flight as their black and white wings almost shimmer as they fly together in the air. The collective name for lapwings seems to have come from the adult lapwing 'deserting' the nest when a predator is near, feigning lameness and drawing the predator away from its brood.
A desert of lapwing - Chris Gomersall
Some other good news this week - Mr and Mrs Smew have finally turned up at the reserve! Visitors have had some great views of them from one of our hides so hopefully they should stay around now for the rest of the winter. Usually expected in early December, the smew have turned up a lot later than usual, probably due to warmer temperatures in the north keeping them there for a little longer.
Male smew - Graham Parry
Other seasonal and/or unusual sightings on the reserve this week include white-fronted goose, pintail, goosander, goldeneye, red-crested pochard, long-eared owl, slavonian grebe and glaucous gull.
First-winter Glaucous gull in front of Firth hide - Graham Parry
The glaucous gull is a scarce winter visitor to our shores with approximately 170 birds wintering in the UK each year. They are larger and bulkier than herring gulls with a fiercer expression, larger beak and squarer head. The adults are pale coloured with white wing tips and the youngsters are biscuit coloured with a pink beak. They are an amber listed species in the UK.