As a next chapter to the amazing Lapwing story this winter following Superstorm Sandy, two Lapwings were reported in Little Compton, RI in early February. Unfortunately they were reported by a worker at a farm within a very large complex of fields on private land with next to no access. Birders were limited to viewing only a portion of these fields from the shoulder of SR-77. Apparently the birds were principally being seen about a quarter mile from SR-77, in a portion of the fields which cannot be seen from the road. So the lucky birders that saw these birds were those that happened to be along the public road during the rare times when the birds ventured into fields close to the road. A couple days after they were first seen, my good birding buddy, Denny Abbott, and I decided to head down to Little Compton in hopes of being two of those lucky birders. And just in case our luck wasn’t too good, we were prepared to spend the whole day there.
We arrived at 9:30 with no Lapwings in site. Worse than that, we were disappointed when we realized what little acreage was actually visible from the road. Undaunted, we donned all our layers of winter clothes and were ready to wait them out. At one point we had a flyby of 3 Killdeer - we got all excited because there had been a report that the Lapwings were with Killdeer. But still no Lapwings. A number of birders came and went during the day, including a couple that had seen 1 or 2 quite close to the road in previous days. They were luckier than us. But a couple others mentioned that the birds were not seen the previous day at all. Ugh. We finally called it quits at 4 PM and retreated to the car to warm up and head home. That meant 2 consecutive days with no sightings – had they moved on?
The next day there was a report of a sighting from late in the day, so they were still around afterall. So Denny and I decided to give it another try the following day, but only if there was a positive report. And sure enough, around noon the next day, a report was posted of one Lapwing near the road. So Denny and I instantly hit the road and were back at the spot by about 3 PM – but no Lapwings. While we were there we talked to some local birders that came by and pieced together a timeline that showed that there were no sightings since at least 12:30. Another disappointment. Undeterred we continued our vigil. We were about to leave at 4:20 when amazingly we were able to get one sighting of a Lapwing quite far from the road. Perseverance, and a lot of luck, really paid off.
That was my third New England state for Lapwing, and the second one (after MA) this winter.
And now for a little speculation on the Lapwings this winter. Many feel that these birds were blown off-course from their normal Europe-to-Africa migration by the huge wind field of Superstorm Sandy. Since Sandy’s passage, Lapwings have been reported in the US in ME, MA (initially 5 and still 2 remain on Nantucket), RI (2), NY (2), NJ (3), MD, VA, and GA, and in Canada in NS and NL. Plus who knows how many more are around that haven’t been spotted yet by birders. It seems a bit odd that these RI birds would have first showed up in the area in February. With the hundreds and hundreds of acres of pasture in Little Compton alone, they could have easily been somewhere in the town since last Fall but not reported till now. And the next question is whether Lapwings might actually end up breeding somewhere in the US or Canada this year. I found the following information on the timing of their breeding season from http://www.arkive.org/lapwing/vanellus-vanellus - During February, males begin to perform display flights over breeding territories in which they climb steeply upwards before tumbling down close to the ground. Between March and early July, three or four well-camouflaged eggs are laid in a scrape on the ground. Maybe we should start watching for them to start their display flights soon. Time will tell.
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