Lapwings nesting amongst horses is not unusual. If the horses approach the nest angry Lapwings can be quite fearsome. When Lapwings used to breed near my home I did a bit of nest recording and one kamikaze male was quite terrifying - he would fly straight towards my head, screaming like mad, and only peel off at the last split second. You could actually feel the turbulence from his wings ruffle your hair!
Keep watching this patch, Adam, it sounds pretty good - and enter your records on the BTO Atlas website.
This field (adjacent to the council gipsy site) has a long history of being used by Lapwings. I covered it for about 15 years on a Waterways Bird Survey and it always had a few, as the density of horses wasn't too great. Oystercatchers wouldn't surprise me these days there. Redshank and Snipe have also bred in the past. That area by the prison is really good - the GG Shrike was found there about 4 years ago and it regularly has Stonechats in winter.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
3 Lapwings have currently taken residence in a farmers field over the hills near Hindley Prison close to where me and Ryan Speakman live. We went earlier on this evening and were surprized to see them presumably nesting along side horses. I am unsure if this is normal behaviour for Lapwings as i am a new birder but we shall both keep a vidual on them and note how they are getting on. Other birds present were swallows, swifts, starlings, kestrel etc.
