Lapwing, Sheep & Snow Cover

Its been really cold locally this past week, as seen in other blog posts. Lapwing are a species which suffers relatively quickly during cold, snowy conditions. They feed on surface dwelling invertebrates, as well as invertebrates just beneath the surface (<3cm). Not surprisingly snow and ice cover quickly prevents access to this foodsource and Lapwings must quickly move or starve. Sadly large numbers are displaced with many dying during long excessive cold snaps.

The Carrs local to where I live has both breeding and wintering populations of Lapwing, as well as passage birds. Recently 1,000s of birds have passed north over the area fleeing continental Europe, and moving down from higher ground, seeking areas with less snow cover. Numbers are currently low in this area at the moment but I thought I would just share an observation.

Approximately 40 birds have remained on site, occasionally being joined by Golden Plover and are heavily associating with a sheep field. Lapwing are frequently associated with livestock due to the short turf, soil poaching and insects which associate with the livestock and dung. In this case importantly the sheep are opening up the snow and providing access to the soil and grass beneath where the Lapwings can feed and therefore persist, whilst other populations have moved on. The only fields to contain Lapwing locally also contain sheep, with othet areas abandoned due to inaccessibility of food. 

This is an interesting little example of how a localised land use has influenced and certainly benefitted these birds in the short term this winter. Larger more robust birds like geese which compete with sheep for grazing, shunned this area in favour of removing snow themselves to access ungrazed grasses beneath, on adjacent land. 

Sheep grazed field with lots of openings within the snow cover, caused by sheep grazing/trampling and providing access/ feeding opportunities for Lapwings.

Field directly next to the sheep field with no grazing, and subsequently no access for Lapwing to feed on surface dwelling invertebrates. Unsurprisingly no Lapwing were recorded from this area, with all of them favouring the sheep field next door.