Checking up

The day started with a visit to a breeding lapwing site I first surveyed at the end of March.  Since then it appears as though the field has been 'worked', presumably destroying the three nests recorded.  Today two nests were present, with several other birds present in the neighbouring field.

Elsewhere in the county a colleague reported the first lapwing chicks of the year in South Staffordshire.  Look carefully in the photo below and you can see the reflection of a chick along the edge of the pool, just to the right of the adult bird.

This evening I did a bit more checking up, this time of the local heronry where I'd seen a few little egrets on previous visits.  No egrets this time but 14 grey heron nests were active, another increase from 11 nests last year and 9 the year before.  As the BTO regional representative for Staffordshire, I'm responsible for co-ordinating survey volunteers.  If you know of a heronry please let me know in case its not known about already.  Just email me scott.petrek@gmail.com  The BTO heronry census is the longest running single species breeding bird survey in the world, originally starting as a one-off in 1928.  You can find out more about the survey here: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/heronries