The majority of the lapwing nests on the moor have now hatched. We never manage to track down every single one of the nests, but we find a high percentage and what happens to them gives us a good picture of the hatching success of these threatened birds. It’s always exciting finding the nests, but even more exciting seeing the actual chicks. The loud, distinctive alarm calling of the adults gives you an early warning as you get near to where the chicks are so you avoid treading on them!
With lapwings having suffered a 50% decrease in population size over the last 30 years we want as many chicks as possible to survive. In order to achieve a stable population each pair of lapwing need to raise just over 0.6 chicks every year. Ensuring the eggs hatch successfully and the chicks make it to adulthood is hard work for the parents, as lapwing eggs and chicks seem to be a tasty treat that lots of animals like having a nibble on. We’ll have to wait until a little bit later in the summer to see how many of the Otmoor chicks make it through to fledging.
We found four nests on our Malt Pit field this year, two should be hatching soon whilst the other two have already hatched out...
Photo 1.) Egg hatching
Photo 2.) Four lapwing chicks on our Malt Pit field
Photo 3-5.) Lapwing chicks doing their best to avoid being eaten!
Photo 6.) Lapwing chick on the muddy edge of one of the foot drains on Malt Pit. Foot drains are long shallow water features which provide really good feeding areas for the young chicks. We use a tractor mounted rotavator to create the bare muddy areas, making sure we leave some areas of longer vegetation to provide cover for the chicks.
A lovely sequence of pictures Joe. Thanks for sharing them!