Lapwing

 A few shots taken on Sunday of a very obliging Lapwing...

Rooftop Lapwings

A strange trait and I guess you could call it a phenomena is the curious tale of the rooftop Lapwing...

This behavior is almost exclusive to Lapwings of North West England and Greater Manchester in particular.
Large flocks of Northern Lapwings gather (sometimes many hundreds) from the summer months till the following March for daytime roosts on industrial buildings in the urban suburbs of Manchester.
They seem to favour big factory roofs and in particular those made of corrugated asbestos, but also have a liking for large supermarkets.


A study about the Northern Rooftop Lapwing by Greater Manchester Bird Recorder, Judith Smith was published in British Birds in January 2000 and highlighted some likely reasons to why these birds act in this manner.
Some of the key points of these findings...

• The roofs offer greater protection from ground predators such as foxes which are a constant threat at their traditional roosts on farmland and fields.


• The roofs provide warmth due to rising heat.


• There are greater ambient temperatures in urban environments.


• There is good shelter on the sills and ventilation outlets.


• Loss of fields and open ground due to urban developments are a possible factor.


• Large roofs with good all round vision are usually chosen.


• Asbestos corrugated roofing is commonly used, likely because it offers greater insulation and the gritty nature of this material offers greater grip for the birds than corrugated metal.


• The need to conserve energy in a safe environment especially in the winter months could also be an important factor.

This rooftop roosting behavior isn't exclusive to the Lapwings of Greater Manchester...Their close relations the Golden Plover have also taken to this practice in recent years!

Lapwings roosting on a factory roof in Audenshaw, Manchester in July 2008...

Lapwings

After Saturday nights Golden Plover, Sunday brought another encounter with a member of the Plover family...The Lapwing.

Pennington Flash was the venue for Sunday mornings birding and the Flash is always a good place to spot these wonderful birds.
I've told you in the past about the sad decline of UK Lapwings especially in their once familiar farmland habitat, but that was only half the story...
Lapwings are equally at home in farmers fields, high moorland, coastal estuary's and large inland bodies of water.
Pennington Flash is the latter and offers a rich variety of habitat which is perfectly suited to these birds.

It's always a lovely sight to see Lapwings gathering over the Flash, more often than not mobbing other birds or bullying them away from prime feeding spots.
The Lapwing is also know as the Peewit in reference to it's distinct call and feeds mainly on worms and insects.
The soft vegetation around the edges of the Flash are perfect hunting grounds for these fine looking birds.

There are good numbers of juvenile Lapwing scattered around Penny at the moment which is very promising.
The young are fairly easy to identify due to their paler colour and much less pronounced crest...

Lapwings are also one of the easiest birds to distinguish in flight, due to their rounded wing pattern which has a very distinctive black and white colouration...

One of the things that makes the Lapwing a firm favourite of mine is quite simply...They are just such beautifully photogenic birds!

Local Heroes

I've spent the last couple of evenings exploring farmland close to my home and despite the insect bites, I've had a very enjoyable time in the sunshine...

The Lapwing is a bird that is sadly in decline in the UK, largely due to loss of natural habitat.
It's always very pleasing to see these beautiful birds in their traditional countryside surroundings and my local farms have a steady population.

In fact the local population has taken somewhat of a boost with some new arrivals...

Another dwindling British species is the Starling and I'm pleased to report that there are very good numbers of youngsters at my local patch this year...

This particular location also has a very healthy population of the very charismatic Pied Wagtail and this little beauty was posing very nicely...

Flying Visits

A prior family commitment made short my time for birding today, but I still managed a couple of flying visits to sites close to my home, late this afternoon.

Not the most pleasant of days weather wise with dark grey skys and the ever present threat of rain, but I really wanted to check out a sighting I had made Wednesday evening...

The sighting in question was of a rare visitor to these parts the Barnacle Goose.

This lone bird flew into Etherow Park about a week or so back and he seems to have made himself at home.

How long the new arrival will stick around for is anybodies guess, but Etherow has a habit of attracting unusual species of wildfowl and many of them decide to stay for good.

My other stop today was at a location even closer to my home which is home to a pair of Little Owls.

This pair show very well some days and not at all others...Today unfortunately was the latter!

These little Owls are to be the first species of a little project I've set myself for the year...In fact I've set myself two bird related challenges this year and I shall post the details of both at a later date!

Although disappointed at not seeing the Owls today, the walk back across the fields did provide pretty decent views of a group of 3 Lapwing who were digging around in the mud for morsels.

Always nice to see Lapwing in their traditional farmland habitat...