Nature Features

Cudmore Grove Country Park at East Mersea is a hidden gem to a lot of people who enjoy birdwatching, believes ranger Dougal Urqhart.

The site has enjoyed a good spring on the grazing fields.  Water levels are now slowly contracting, which the lapwings are taking advantage of.

The lapwing also known as a peewit, because of the noise it makes, is a wading bird that you'll often see in the fields not just on the mud flats around the coastline.  From a distance it looks like a large black and white wading bird.

Lapwings added to the endangered list

Another name is the green plover because they have an iridescent greeny/black plumage.  When you look at them close-up through binoculars or in certain light they have a wonderful, reflective dark green sheen on the feathers.

"I've been really pleased that three broods of lapwings have already produced 11 chicks," says Dougal.

The lapwing has been added to the list of the UK's most threatened species.  Birds on the red list have seen their numbers decline dramatically in the last 25 years.  Other birds include the cuckoo, yellow wagtail and herring gull.

"Numbers have declined across the country due to changes in farming practices and destruction of habitat," explains Dougal.

What they are trying to do at Cudmore Grove is provide the habitat for the lapwings, as well as other species like red shank, oyster catchers and black headed gulls.

Lapwings can be seen on fields inland

"One of the main reasons why these lapwings have probably done so well is that there is a group of them," says Dougal. 

"Whenever a crow or a big gull flies over all the lapwings gang up.  There's always at least one spare adult who can go and chase it away."

If you would like to hear more, click the link below to hear how BBC Essex's Renee Hockley-Byam got on when she visited Cudmore Grove Country Park, East Mersea and met Ranger Dougal Urqhart...