Recent Sightings Friday 17 March 'The stage is set for breeding lapwings'
Thanks to volunteer Phil for his article and photos.
In autumn and winter Pulborough Brooks plays host to thousands of lapwings from the near continent seeking milder weather and good feeding conditions. During the course of the last week the last of these birds seem to have departed.
The last month has seen a period of what I think of as ‘overlap’ when the winter flocks co-exist with birds returning to breed. The latter have been around for a few weeks and have been visible having a rather separate existence from the large flocks as single birds or maybe pairs. Even as far back as late January I spotted a bird that was ringed as a chick at Pulborough Brooks in 2018, denoted by a black flag and colour rings on its legs. The same bird was visible at West Mead again on Friday.
So the big flocks have departed for the near continent leaving the stage set for the breeding lapwings which, despite relatively low numbers, are now putting on quite a show. West Mead hide can be an excellent place to see this as it is right next to the best breeding habitat for lapwings on the reserve.
Lapwings nest on open ground with short sward and clear sightlines relying on their feisty nature to see off any threats from ground or avian predators. It is also important to have wet areas of mud or water margins nearby where the chicks can easily find invertebrate food such as earthworms, so the pool is very handy for this. In past years it has sometimes dried out too quickly after a dry winter, so our wardens have been working hard to make sure there is as much water as possible at the start of the season to give the best chance of keeping the ground wet until the breeding season is over, usually around the end of June.
The most obvious signs of breeding behaviour are the display flights where the males fly around showing off astonishing aerial skills twisting and turning at speed and often doing something that could be describes as looping the loop. Very often you will see them fly up and then in the blink of an eye they will be tumbling back down again. The next 2 photos were taken just about 1 second apart. The first shows a lapwing at height above West Mead pool flying away from the camera. The next shows it has changed direction completely and is now starting to dive back down towards the pool. Note that the beak is open which suggests it is giving out the characteristic “peewit” call which gives rise to one of several old names for lapwings.
Of course the bird will always smoothly pull out of the dive usually just above the water or ground and either glide gracefully into land, or twist away into another loop as is about to happen in the next photo.
Notice that the lapwing appears to be banking to its right but it is actually looking left.
Another form of flight display sometimes happens when pairs have become established and they seem to reinforce bonds by flying together and this can seem rather like an aerial ballet as in this series of photos.
It seems that orange is a colour that is attractive to the lapwing ladies. Lapwings have an orange patch under their tails around their “vent”. Sometimes you can see the male taking an exaggerated bow known as “venting” away from the female and this appears designed to show off the orange patch as in this photo.
Taking this a stage further you might see a male lapwing “scraping”. This a rather similar pose to venting except that it’s close to the ground and the male is creating a depression in the ground with his breast which could be used for a nest. This photo shows a male scraping on one of the West Mead islands.
I am never sure whether these depressions are always used for nests or whether the male is simply showing off his scraping skills to woo his intended mate. I will need to keep a close eye on this island as time goes on in the hope of answering the question.
It shouldn’t be too long now before we can see sitting lapwings incubating clutches of 4 eggs either on one of the islands or in the area behind the bund at the back of the pool as in this photo from a few years ago.
Finally our wardens have been also working to create wetter areas in the “Big Triangle” field in front of Winpenny Hide with a view to attracting more breeding lapwings there as the short sward is good. There were at least 2 lapwings there on Friday. Let’s hope there may be more soon.