Just two years after digging the scrapes on the Rewild project land at Elmore Court, we are excited to announce that lapwings have not only nested, but we have now seen two families of lapwing raising their chicks, meaning they have bred successfully!
Two years ago, Elmore Court opened six luxury treehouses, overlooking a meadow, part of the rewilding project on the Elmore Court Estate. In the meadows a series of shallow ponds called scrapes and ditches were dug, to create suitable habitat for wading wetland birds. This type of wetland habitat has reduced significantly over decades and caused a crisis for certain species such as the lapwing, who without the favoured habitat had reduced in great numbers in the UK, putting them on the 'red list'*, a species causing concern.
Lapwings are a handsome, regal-looking plover with glossy, iridescent dark green and purple plumage, white bellies, and a long, wispy crest atop their heads. Their flight is not discrete, but brash, tumbling, and ostentatious. Many people associate the sound of the lapwing in flight, with the beginning of spring. Throughout the UK the lapwing has many different nicknames, depending on local dialects, such as peewit, chewit, teeack, peasiewheep and pyewipe.