When I moved to Purton in the late 1990’s and started birding in north Wiltshire my first local site was the Ravensroost Wood and Meadows complex. Back in those days there were a few pairs of Lapwing that could be found in both Ravensroost and Distillery Meadows. There were never many pairs but they tried to breed every year. At that time I was not a bird ringer, nor a member of the BTO’s nest recording scheme, so I never attempted to discover their nests, nor monitor whether they were successful in their breeding attempts. I just enjoyed watching them. However, the last time I saw Lapwing on the site was at least two years before I monitored the area for the BTO Bird Atlas 2007-11. Since then there has been no sign.
Looking at the records for Lapwing processed in Wiltshire by our group, since January 2013, the only Lapwing processed have been young birds found near the Salisbury Plain Training Area between Warminster and Everleigh. There have been 10 ringed by group members since the 2014 breeding season.
This year, the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre and the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust have launched Project Peewit: the primary aim is to monitor and report on the status and distribution of Lapwing across the North Wessex Downs, Salisbury Plain & Cranbourne Chase. In addition the project is monitoring other sites in Wiltshire where Lapwing are known to be present. Heading up this effort, alongside his work running the Curlew Call project, monitoring and trying to help boost numbers of this bird in the Braydon Forest area, is Jonny Cooper.
In my recent blog piece about last Thursday’s checking of Barn Owl boxes in the Braydon Forest, I paid a compliment to David Fitzherbert, gentleman farmer who is heavily committed to conservation. Today, Jonny paid a visit to his farm to check on a field that he leaves as a wildflower rich hay meadow. Lapwing have been sighted on the farm in the last few years, mainly as a result of Jonny’s efforts in Curlew Call. Today he was on site checking for both species when he came across this:
Lapwing chick, Vanellus vanellus
The monitoring, handling and ringing were all done under official and special licences from the BTO and Natural England. This is the first Lapwing chick that has been ringed by our group in the north of the county: let’s hope it is the first of many!
More about Project Peewit can be found here:
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 