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Living on an estuary, we were delightfully surprised by the avian visitors we had during the recent bitterly cold weather.

One day we looked out and in the field next door, there was a very handsome bird we had not seen for a very long time – a Lapwing. Its Latin name is Vanellus vanellus but it is also called the Peewit because of its distinctive call. We were surprised by the Peewit’s appearance because according to all the information we found about its range, it isn’t supposed to be in Wales during the winter.

These birds are about 30 cm (1 foot) long. They eat worms
and insects and have the most intriguing way of stamping the ground to call forth their prey. Their wings are bottle green and the chest is white; they have reddish-orange feathers underneath which shows prominently when they bend over to pull worms from the ground. What makes them particularly distinctive is the crest of long thin black feathers on their heads.

They are usually found on farmland and during the winter they preferploughed fields and pastures although they can also be found in wetland areas.

According to the RSPB, this beautiful bird is threatened globally, with itspopulation and breeding range having declined severely over the last 25 years.As a result the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has put thelapwing on its highest conservation priority (red), which, means that particularspecies needs urgent conservation action.You can use the following link to click on an audio of the lapwing’s calls: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/l/lapwing/index.aspx

During the same two weeks that the lapwing entertained us with their presence, we also saw curlews and snipes. They are both from the sandpiper (Scolopacidae) family.

The curlew, with its distinctive downward-curved bill, is Europe’s largest wading bird. They can be found all around the coast of Britain although for them there has also been a significant loss of habitat because of the intensification of farming.

They have a wonderful, almost haunting call and you can take this opportunity to listen to their calls by clicking on the following link http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/curlew/index.aspx.

Curlews tend to spend much of their time on salt and mud flats, although during very high tides, they can often be found grazing farmland, sometimes quite a distance from the shoreline. They usually feed on worms and insects but also enjoy shore crabs and other small crustaceans.

Alongside the curlew, snipes were also grazing the fields around us. One day our cat was walking in the field and was startled by a snipe suddenly flying out from among some the brown weeds, neither she nor we had seen the bird until he moved because of his excellent camouflage.

The snipe is also a wader but is considerably smaller than its cousin, the curlew. It has short legs, is mottled brown on top with pale yellow-brown stripes running down its back and has a long straight beak. Their range is similar to the curlews, summers are spent in eastern Scotland and winters in the milder southwest of England, although they can also be found other places throughout Britain. Northern European snipes join their British cousins overwintering in the milder climate of the British marshes and mudflats. Snipes feed on worms and insect larvae as well as small invertebrates.

According to the books, this bird has two very distinct calls, one a vocal song and the other a “mechanical” song. Duringthe spring, the snipe’s rhythmic notes, rising and falling in intensity, can be heard from his perch or while he is on the ground, particularly after dark.

The mechanical song however can only be made during flight and occurs when the
bird, with its body level, suddenly descends at a steep angle for 2-3 seconds, then just as suddenly regains its height. The trembling sound comes from the outer tail feathers buzzing in the turbulent air. The sound resembles the bleating of a goat and has given the bird it’s nickname of “capella – the little goat”.

The next visitor to our garden and the fields around us was the mistle thrush. This is my kind of bird – he eats slugs as well as worms, insects and berries. His cousin, the song thrush, has upperparts that are a warm brown with two buff wingbars, underparts are pale overall but with dark spots and the throat and flanks have an orange flush. The mistle thrush has very similar colouring but a much plumper body. The colouring on their chests is more yellow than buff which also makes their spots show up better.

Thrushes are in the family Turdidae which includes thrushes and chats. They are found almost everywhere in Britain except the very northern and western isles of Scotland and their habitat includes gardens, parkland and woodland.

The mistle thrush is a fairly large garden bird and can beseen as being rather aggressive. They stand bolt upright attimes and can be seen hopping boldly across an open field,
looking for insects or worms.

The song of the mistle thrush is similar to its cousin thesong thrush and you can hear both by clicking on the following link:http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/mistlethrush/index.aspx

The snow is gone and the temperature has risen above zero again, and these birds have found other fields, mud or salts flats to graze. But while they chose to occupy the fields around us, watching their antics and hearing their songs gave us so much pleasure.