During subsequent visits through the spring, they saw at least two pairs of Lapwing displaying over a sweetcorn field. After allowing time for the birds to nest and incubate any eggs, Gareth and Kevin returned in early June to see whether the birds had been successful. Armed with the thermal camera once more, they found that the Lapwings had indeed bred, with the heat signatures of five chicks found quite readily amongst the young sweetcorn plants.
The chicks were too young to ring, so Gareth and Kevin returned last weekend and found two amongst the sweetcorn - the others could have easily moved in the intervening time into the adjacent wheat fields, which are too dense for the camera to detect them.
As well as the standard metal rings, the birds were fitted with coded colour rings as part of a project across the West Midlands. The codes are white digits BR13 and BR14 on black rings, which makes them easier to identify in the future and help monitor their movements.
Please do let us know if you see either bird or message Kevin @Kevin_Clements or Gareth @BirderGaz directly on Twitter.
The thermal imaging camera makes finding these gorgeous chocks so much easier than in the past. As soon as the parent issues an alarm call the chicks crouch as low as possible and angle their heads back to cover the white collar at the back of the neck. The result is a soil coloured lump against soil coloured soil!! Before we had the camera we needed at leasy two observers with telescopes to get a fix on where the chick was last seen then guide the ringer in--regularly unsuccessful.
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