The RSPB survey Welland House Farm, our land at Fosdyke, together with our neighbour's. The habitat there is reasonably diverse. It is just a few 100 metres from the River Welland and it has buildings, hedges, trees, some reasonably- sized waterways and is located some distance from a main road.
When they visited four years ago they found 52 different species.
Dad and I have been spending a bit of time down there recently walking daffodil fields and we have spotted some familiar species and a few new arrivals. We have a barn owl nesting again and there was a egret flying along one of the drains this weekend. Last week we saw a skylark fly up from one of the field margins; it is the first time that we have noticed one of these.
"Bugger me" said Dad "the ELS is working"
Then on Sunday we spotted a type of bird which neither of us recognised. It was on the ground and hopping across the flower rows next to a large rough-grass field margin and near to some water.
It appeared to be about the size of a blackbird. The plummage was mostly black but in the sunshine it shone almost like dark green. When it flew, we saw that it had a light grey belly. It had a short, slightly-curved bill which gave its head a hawk-like appearance. The tail was fanned rather than pointed.
We stopped to look at it closely and then realised that there were 15 other birds of exactly the same species behind it.
I've not been able to find anything that matches the description. The most likely species that I have found so far is the black-winged pratincole. These normally breed around they Black Sea, would they come this far North? It certainly looked much blacker than in this photo which I found on the net.
Other suggestions greatly appreciated.
A bloke I work with, who's a bird expert, reckons is was almost definitely a pratincole. He says you can see them in Lincs.
Sounds a bit like a Swan to me. What did it taste like?
Okaaaay.... Take or leave, but here you go...
I don't think they'll be black-winged pratincoles. I guess lapwing has to be a very likely option: black but with a green gloss to the feathers in sunshine. Slightly downcurved beak - yes. Fanned tail - yes. Blackbird size - not far off. In a flock -yes. But something you'll have seen before..?
The 'hopping' bit is a bit odd though because they walk and run rather than hop...
Fieldfare was the other thing I thought (blackbird size, hopping, in a flock, plus the fact they're often cause confusion, but nothing else really fits that to be honest and there are plenty of pro-lapwing features described, but again you'll have seen them before...)
If I had to hazard a guess, lapwing it would be, but happy to be told I'm wrong.... Honestly...