Hope for the Lappinch

As if to emphasise the point from our previous post, the above photo shows quite how much the wigeon have enjoyed grazing our winter wheat!  

Wigeon were certainly not something we had expected to see on the farm being a duck we had always (rightly or wrongly) associated with wild open spaces and the coast.  We have seen them if not daily, then certainly weekly over the winter months where they have frequented a shallow-sided pond on the edge of our large arable field that provides easy access to the autumn sown wheat that has helped sustain them.   Interestingly, as well as a ready food source, this pond has wide-ranging views across our largest field allowing the wigeon (and occasional teal) to see approaching predators from afar – we expect they feel safe there. 

As it happens, it is this same large field that we have earmarked for a future lapwing nesting plot for exactly the same reason – at its centre it is distant from the hedgerows and trees that could give cover and a look out to waiting predators (terrestrial and avian) – something ground nesting / roosting birds need to be all too mindful of.