Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes October 15

Gulls are still 'farmed' on some Scottish nature reserve to supply the tables of the discerning egg eaters. Plovers' eggs are most definitely not any more, except illegally.

Where has the 'farmers' friend' gone these days? Peewits used to nest on all the cereal fields and meadows over the downs. But the green plover, to give it its other name, has vanished from many breeding sites where once it was common a century ago.

But then, stone curlews, which are also called Norfolk plovers, have gone as well from our downs, and so have common curlews.

The peewit had another name among Sussex herdsmen and shepherds on the downs, and that was bullock-a-week, which describes its sweet courtship song as it dives in aerial display to its mate. That is a sound I miss very much in March and April.

The name puit also describes the brief social call of this fine bird. Now that autumn is here with its rain we might well see a 'wing' of green plovers landing on the flooded meadows of Amberley Wildbrooks.

When these birds settle on the ground, the correct group phraseology will turn them into a 'deceit' of lapwings. This odd term is the description pertaining to plovers in general when rearing young.

To distract an enemy the mother will pretend to have a broken wing and hobble away in a most piteous way, keeping just ahead of the predator. When she has completely fooled the enemy, she will fly slowly on and finally return to her young when the coast is clear.

Today, about 10,000 lapwings are counted in winter in Sussex. About 100 pairs are known to breed: there may be more. One of the best places for them is the Arun brooks where about 40 pairs breed, the other sites being Pevensey, Rye, Thorney and at the inland reservoirs.

I also look for them in winter on the foreshores, especially Fishbourne channel, where they roost at low tide among the seaweed-covered stones when they become almost invisible.