Hope for the Lappinch

A miserable Sunday afternoon in February with rain pouring down – what better time to investigate if our plans for a wader splash in one of our wetter fields might actually work? Out with the spade to dig a small test pit – approx. 6 spade widths wide, two across and 1 down.  Early signs are encouraging with 6 inches of soggy top soil over a solid layer of Cheshire clay.   Now to wait and see what happens next…  

In the meantime, as if to encourage us, a flock of 200+ lapwing swirled overhead before settling on the wonderful rough open grassland on our neighbour’s field just over our boundary!! They are here as we always knew they would be – in winter.  Now the difficult part of persuading a few of them to stay and nest (successfully) in the spring.  Suspect that is going to be altogether more challenging!