Hull urban birds. 31. Lapwing

An elegant wader, the underside is white and the back and chest black. The back has iridescent green and purple metallic sheen back and chest. The head is adorned with long plumes, longer in males, and bars. The wings are very distinctive, long wide and with a round tip. The bill is short and black. It feeds on insects and other soil invertebrates. It breeds on farmland and in areas of short grass or bare ground by wetlands. Male display flights in spring are spectacular, with individuals tumbling down and rising while calling. Lapwings winter in estuaries and arable farmland.

Status and distribution in Hull 

Formerly an abundant and widespread breeder and wintering wader around Hull. Broughton states that "By the 1960s Lapwings were breeding not uncommonly in the pasture fields surrounding Hull, right up to the suburbs." Urbanisation as Hull suburbs expanded, and agricultural intensification, as pasture changed to arable and autumn sown crops became widespread drastically reduced the breeding population of Lapwings. Currently a handful of breeding pairs, is restricted to the remaining fields in the north-eastern corner of Hull, and possibly by Kingswood and Willerby Farm/Priory Fields area.

A territorial Lapwing on field near Noddle Hill. 30 March 2021.

The wintering Lapwing population in the Hull area has further declined in the last two decades, since Richard Broughton stated (2002) "Flocks can pass over almost anywhere and virtually any farmland or patch of damp ground may attract many hundreds, if not thousands, of birds." Nowadays a wintering flock in the NE of Hull and in the fields off Willerby Carr just off Hull are the remaining wintering flocks. The eastern docks frontage to the Humber estuary also hold wintering flocks, and the Humber is of national significance for wintering Lapwing, with an average maximum annual of over 16,000 individuals.

Lapwing and Teal at Willerby Carr, 25 January 2022.

A large flock over fields north of Noddle Hill.

Conservation and management

Red Listed in the UK since 2009, due to severe breeding and non-breeding population declines in the last 25 years.

More information

Broughton, R.K. 2002. Birds of the Hull area. Kingston Press. Hull, UK.

Stanbury, A., Eaton, M., Aebischer, N., Balmer, D. & Win, I. (2021) The status of our bird populations: the fifth Birds of Conservation Concern in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and second IUCN Red List assessment of extinction risk for Great Britain. British Birds 114, 723–747.

A walk to East Park at the end of March

A cool day with brief sunny spells, I walk to East Park via the Duesbery street cycle path. Signs of breeding all around. By Wilmington bridge, Carrion Crows already incubating. Coots and Mallard on nests too, Greenfinches lining their nests, Blackbirds nest lining and feeding chicks. A pair of Canada Geese by their nest with two eggs.

A pair of Crows were collecting lining material, this one, presumably the female, concentrated and accumulated the material, its mate collected some, dropped it and repeated the operation.

Coot on nest.

Aerial view of mallard on nest.

Mute Swans appeared to be establishing their territory, with no nesting seen.

Canada Geese nest and eggs. 

The surprise was to find three Rook nests well advanced. There had been previous nesting of Rooks in East Park, but a rookery has failed to establish. Lets hope this one stays. The feeling was quite rural with the soundtrack of Jackdaws calling (at least two pairs nesting on tree holes).

Rookery.

Blackbird with nest material.

Just four Black-headed Gulls left at the park, only one of them had a dark hood.

Despite the not so auspicious conditions, I am very pleased to see active frogs in the shrubbery pond. Seven visible, all males with calling and squabbling.

I retrace my steps and go to the boardwalk, which seems like a good location for amphibians. Toads and a frog are calling. The toads mating with at leat 17, and lots of toad spawn. 

Common Toads. Note the strings of toad spawn.

Frog in the wrong party, hugging a toad.

Toad.

On the walk back, I spot three terrapins together on a log. One of them has a red belly, a Cooter (top shot).

Cooter and Woodpigeon.

I also have some mining bees. A nesting aggregation of Andrena haemorhoa, looking similar to an A. fulva aggregation on a grassy slope.

Possible Andrena clarkella.

The walk there and back very pleasant, with plenty of song on the green corridor of the cycle/pedestrian path.

A large flock of gulls lift on the thermals.

Pied Wagtail at Stoneferry Rd.

Blackcap by the Beverley and Barmston drain.

 

One of 5 Bullfinches feeding on cherry buds by the Beverley and Barmston drain.

A total of 44 species today.

Stone Creek with Hull Nats

A sunny, mild day with barely a breeze, I join the Hull Natural History Society's monthly trip. Today is Stone Creek (a.k.a Stoney Creek). This is a small, sheltered creek off the Humber, where several main drains enter the estuary: Keyingham, Ottringham and Sunk Island drains are the main ones. We get there with the tide still quite low. Boats are moored on the mud. Redshank, Curlew and a few Black-headed Gulls are on the creek. The Humber mudflats dotted with waders and Shelduck, stretch far in the distance.

We decide to walk West to have the sun on our backs. I find a tiny ladybird on the grass by the footpath.

24 spot ladybird

The grass is pushed in spot along the path and we wonder who could have made this.

On the footpath we see evidence of Mole, Rabbit and one of the party spots a Field Vole. A Roe Deer runs across the fields. Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers.

Roe Deer.

Shelduck.

Linnet

We finally get to a kink in the floodbank that marks the start of Cherry Cobb sands. Here the saltmarsh is even wider, stretching to the horizon. We make a stop for lunch overlooking a pool. Large container ships move along the Humber. A group of Roe Deer grazes on the marsh. A Little Egret flies over, calling its piratical sounding 'arrgh!'. A Yellowhammer sings behind us, shining from atop the hawthorn hedge.

Oncoming Little Egret

We return via the road, getting to it by a path flanked by a hedgerow and a line of Alders. The Alders look almost like bonsais, gnarled and compact, they are very exposed and probably take a good share of hard weather.

The path of the Alders.

We get back to the creek. There is a group of Teal on the mud. Two Grey Herons appear to be flushed by a large truck and they land by Keyingham Drain.

Grey Herons

A strange sight is a Red-legged Partridge atop a hedge.

Keyingham Drain.

Teal

One of the members guides us to a wall where they saw lizards last year. Just before I climb the stile I scan the marsh, a Short-eared Owl! We watch it flying over the marsh, the Grimsby Tower in the horizon. Then someone spots Common Seals while watching the owl. It is a fitting end to the day to end up watching the seals, perched on the edge of the creek, with the Short-eared Owl flying above them.

Short-eared Owl

Common Seals