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Breaking

Fine for angler who gave false name to NRW enforcement officer

Blaenau Gwent man prosecuted for encouraging dog to enter a live badger sett

Carlisle man bludgeoned badger with shovel then tossed it to dogs

Warwickshire Hunt hit with notice from police amid concerns about 'dangers' on roads

Gloucestershire man fined after messages showed him bragging and admitting to the illegal hunting of foxes

Two Gwent fishermen caught and in court for illegal netting

Bird of prey poisoned, Horncastle, Lincolnshire

Dorset hunt master found guilty and fined £6,800

Fines for two men caught digging at active badger sett on Wrexham farm

Norfolk Gamekeeper admits killing birds of prey

Cwmbran man fined for fishing without a rod licence or permission to fish

Essex angler fined £240 after illegally fishing on the River Stour.

North Wales man posed with ‘severely injured’ dogs after using them for badger baiting

Illegal Tree Felling Prosecution in Northern Ireland

Sperm whale teeth seized and Oxford man arrested

Northampton medicine practitioner pleads guilty to illegal trade of endangered species

Housebuilding director fined for Aberdeen badger sett damage

2022-2025 NPCC Wildlife & Rural Crime Strategy launched

Welsh developers fined £7400 for Bat Offences

Two Chester men given five-year criminal behaviour orders for Hare poaching in West Lancashire


Home / Animal of the Month / Lapwing

Lapwing


At a quick glance, a lapwing would seem to be a black and white bird. Far from it: this once-common farmland and moorland edge bird is a fantastic mix of black, white, dark green, purple and orange.  To set it apart from most other birds, it has a long upsweeping crest. What is most memorable about this beautiful bird is its call in the breeding season, impossible to give justice in words, but something like peeeeeee-weep, weep weep, peeeeeee-weep. While giving this call the bird is usually involved in an aerobatic courtship display, tumbling through the air, with its rounded wings making a whirring sound to complement its voice.lapwing1b

 
Lapwings – or peewits or green plovers to give them their other names – were once very common on farmland, laying their eggs on recently cultivated land or on permanent pasture. They make a nest in a hollow in the ground, lining it with some dry grass or short straw. The pointed eggs are mottled green, brown and black and invariably four are laid. The eggs are large in comparison to the bird’s body size and so that it can cover them adequately during brooding it turns them until all four are pointing into the centre of the nest.

 
Lapwing chicks, like chicks of many other ground-nesting birds, are fully equipped to run about shortly after hatching. They follow the parents around, lie flat and motionless on the ground when danger threatens, and are fed on invertebrates. Practices of spraying insecticides on many farms has now led to a lack of invertebrates, sowing cereals in autumn denies nesting birds the use of these fields as the crops are too tall, and rolling grass in May for a hay crop may result in chicks being flattened. For all of these reasons the lapwing numbers have plummeted on farmland and the bird is now red-listed.

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  • Wildlife Crime Press Coverage

    • Fine for angler who gave false name to NRW enforcement...
      January 19, 2023
    • Blaenau Gwent man prosecuted for encouraging dog to enter...
      December 20, 2022
    • Carlisle man bludgeoned badger with shovel then tossed...
      December 20, 2022
    • Warwickshire Hunt hit with notice from police amid...
      December 18, 2022
    • Gloucestershire man fined after messages showed him bragging...
      December 15, 2022


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