Today at almost sunset, my ears picked up the unmistakeable treat of the fizzy sound of lapwings. A flock of fifty-ish early twirly arrivers had descended on the reservoir and were creating an amazing murmuration. From a distance they appeared like an airborne shoal of fish, flip-flopping black and white as they weaved. Their incredible long crests were not visible without binoculars from my distance, nor the iridescent green and purple sheen that creates the black façade. Simultaneously a barn owl, oh so close and so light like a giant moth, silently coursed a giant circle around the banks of the reservoir. In the decades I’ve been walking and living here it is my first solid local sighting. 3.59 pm. Short eared owls have graced the walk several times today, I regularly see them. The barn owl is a new delight. Like lapwings, the barn owl is a bird of conservation concern and on the red list. The short ears are on the amber list.  One in four of our UK birds is a major cause for conservation concern.

As well as the name ‘peewit’, lapwings are also known as ‘green plover’. Its Latin name: ‘vanellus vanellus’ means ‘little fan’ which refers to the way it flap/ flop flies on rounded wings. Lapwing as a name possibly derives from an old English term meaning ‘leap with a flicker in it’, as a flying flock creates the appearance of a flicker between black and white. Swimming through the air.