I often now see a lapwing on parade near the lowest swale. A bird that in flight switches black and white, closer to reveals plumage of blues, greens and purples. We suspect that a pair is nesting and may already have young; they get very agitated when approached, but the young are well-camouflaged and well-nigh impossible to see. We are lucky to have a nest, and to see more pairs in the field beyond, as numbers have dwindled drastically in the UK in past years. Lapwings have been given 'Red status' by the RSPB, which is the highest conservation priority given to species needing urgent action.
According to Rebecca Hosking, she of Farm for the Future and based in Modbury, says there is now only one pair nesting in Devon. Farming practices and the Victorians nearly wiped it out, but ironically it has benefits to farming, ridding pastures of pests. And it has seasonal significance, possibly being the origin of the Easter egg hunt and the Easter bunny: "Lapwings classically inhabit the same territories as hares and make a scrape of a nest on the ground; in fact, quite often a lapwing will hijack a hare's form and lay eggs in it. So you can forgive country folk of old for stumbling upon a lapwing nest with hare droppings in it or accidently flushing a hare and finding a lapwing nest and coming to the conclusion that hares laid eggs." And so Hosking tells us we should salute our nesting pair, so I duly got out my binos again and did just that.
And three Easter eggs to wish you a joyful Easter:
Between September 2010 and September 2011, I lived alongside an Anglican Benedictine community of monks and nuns. In November 2010, we moved from Broad Marston Manor near Evesham to Mucknell Abbey, a new eco-monastery near Worcester. This blog was about things that I observed and things that interested me. I have now stopped writing it. Thank you to all who were also interested.
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