Broads farmer helps boost lapwing population

A Suffolk farmer and the Rural Development Service (RDS) are successfully working together to help conserve a traditional farmland bird - the lapwing or peewit.

This summer, more than ten pairs of lapwing nested on White House Farm in Barnby - more than doubling the number that nested here last year.

Arable farmer Robert Wright is managing the land, between Lowestoft and Beccles, under a Defra Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) agreement which is administered by the RDS. One of the management options selected aims to create an ideal nesting habitat for lapwing.

Mr Wright said: "By leaving stubble over the winter, then lightly cultivating it and leaving it fallow through the summer, we have created an ideal habitat for lapwings. This is the second year we have managed the land like this, and we are really pleased that we have seen numbers increase significantly."

Lapwings prefer to nest in very low-growing crops or on bare ground. They like to nest in groups and help each other by being ever-watchful for potential threats. When trouble approaches, the lapwings make a real commotion with some fancy flying - dive bombing, swooping and lots of noisy calls. This distracts predators who hopefully miss the well camouflaged eggs or young.

A good nest site, as provided at White House Farm is vital but the right conditions are also needed if the newly hatched chicks are to thrive. Young lapwing eat lots of insects and grubs found near marshes or wet grassland. Ideally this habitat will be in close proximity to the nest site. Due to the lack of good nesting sites, young chicks sometimes have to undertake a risky walk to find good feeding areas, chicks have been recorded walking a staggering 2km and swimming ditches.

Chris Hainsworth, an adviser with the RDS in the East of England

said:

"White House Farm manages the land to provide both good nest sites and good conditions for chicks to flourish side by side. This farm is really helping to boost lapwing numbers by altering its farming methods and using modern conservation techniques to reverse declines of this threatened farmland species. This is no easy task and requires commitment and skill to get the land into the ideal condition year on year.

Lapwings are one of the priority species targeted in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan which aims to reverse their long-term decline by 2020. White House Farm is helping to meet this national target."