Where have all the lapwings gone?

On the short drive down the AI from Morpeth to Newcastle you are blessed with some open spaces to the East and some Scott’s Pine woods to the West. After the rise up from crossing the River Blyth and past Northumberlandia, which used to be an opencast site, there are some fields that yield various crops. At this time of year, now they have been harvested and if you are lucky you might see a deer or a hare but what you won’t see are any Lapwings.

This wasn’t always the case. They used to be a regular sight in significant feeding flocks or flying across the road. What has happened to them?

I ask myself this every time I drive past the place but, until now, have never got around to investigating the cause, if indeed there is one. There is a busy junction shortly afterwards and I cannot afford to let my mind wander too much.

Once you start, you soon begin to realise what a fascinating story they have. The birds are very sociable and, according to the RSPB the ‘Birds breed in Kazakhstan and the central part of southern Russia and then follow one of at least two different routes to completely separate wintering areas across some of the most challenging locations, both geographically (traversing the Hindu Kush), and politically (travelling through and staging in conflict zones of the Middle East).’ 

It’s not only me that’s noticed their decline. The lapwing is a Critically Endangered species that has undergone a rapid decline of more than 90% since the 1930s (again from the RSPB). Yet nobody knows why. They’re migration patterns take them to some very challenging places and they are often hunted as they pass by. Research is underway to find out more but surprisingly, this has thrown up that they may not be as endangered as was thought.

I may have got all this wrong as the bird I am thinking of is the Northern Lapwing, otherwise known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tewit, green plover, or pyewipe or just lapwing. Still, I don’t see many of them around.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen many Fieldfares either.