Causes of Decline of Lapwing Numbers

It is easy to blame modern farming with less spring arable crops, and less rough ground as the cause, but Lapwings also nest in the higher mountainous regions and their decline is the same there.

The Lapwing or Peewit is a ground nesting bird, obviously very tasty as everything likes eating them. Their biggest threat is the fox, which will also take the mother bird off the nest, let alone stoats, polecats and even otters. Foxes have increased due to the emigration from the land of agricultural workers, smallholders – who did not tolerate foxes killing their free-range chickens, large forestry blocks which provide a haven for them, and the demise of the rabbit catchers with their gin-traps. In Cross Inn village which is nearby, even forty years ago foxes were so rare that the school teacher walked the children a mile to show them a fox which had been caught in fencing and killed by the road men.