Rooftop Lapwings

The practise of Lapwings roosting on rooftops is something that has been going on in Greater Manchester for more than twenty five years.The borough’s of Leigh, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Ashton and Middleton all have regular sites used by Lapwings and sometimes these are joined by Golden Plover. The reasons for the move from roosting in pastures to rooftops is not clear. Safety away from the ever increasing Fox population could be one reason with another being the benefits of underground heating that an industrial unit provides. A local industrial unit has had as many as one hundred and eighty Lapwings roosting this Winter and I have obtained flight shots as they have been coming and going. Click here.

At dawn on the 4th February we had a record of thirty four Goldfinches in the garden. Unfortunately they were on the telephone wires of the front garden and not on the food put out in the back garden! In Hopwood on the 5th I had a welcome sighting of a Woodcock which is the first I have seen for some weeks.