5 January 2010

A flock of about two dozen Lapwings headed West along the edge Dartmoor on 4 January 2010. They were seen and photographed by Steve Hopper

Steve sent in the photo below and made the following comment "Thought you may be interested to see what the cold weather is bringing in, a flock of about two dozen Lapwings headed West along the edge of Dartmoor. I took the picture on 4 January in the early afternoon on Brent Hill while flying my hawks. I managed to get most of the flock in the frame.

Steve added: "I saw a single bird fly across my field a few days before Christmas and that was the first lapwing I had seen down here for some time."

County Recorder, Mike Langman comments: "This is typical of cold weather movement, Lapwing are one of the most obvious species because they move during the day often in large flocks and are large and striking in appearance. Skylarks, Pipits, Thrushes and Golden Plover will all have to move away from frozen fields that they normally feed on further north. We could be about to see some large movements that have not been witnessed in several decades in the Devon and the SW.

Please make a note of any counts of birds on the move to submit to the County Recorder at Devon Birds.