Lapwings and links to Easter Which starts with the historical tradition for Plover Egg hunts. Plover’s eggs were an expensive delicacy in Victorian Europe, Queen Victoria favoured her plover eggs cooked in aspic and Mrs Beaton supplied several recipes. They may in fact be the original Easter Eggs, Egg pickers, desimated the populations of Lapwings and in 20 years they had stripped the whole of southern England as far up as Lincolnshire. In the later 1880’s plover eggs had to be gathered from the Scottish highlands and Holland. In 1926 the Lapwing Act (Wild Bird Protection Bill) officially stopped the practice and prohibited anyone to take, use, have possession of or consume the eggs or birds and also protected their nests. Historians believe the origins of Easter eggs are derived from custom of the egg hunt. As Lapwing eggs hidden in the long grasses the would be fairly difficult to find it was possible that the garden and chocolate Egg became a good substitute. Also there is a link to the easter Hare (previous post) Hares, (unlike rabbits who have burrows) hide from predators by making a shallow indentation in the soil known as a form. Lapwings often inhabit the same territories as hares and make a scrape of a nest on the ground. Lapwings were known to use a hare’s form as a nest and so eggs where often found in a form and therefore assumed to have been laid by the Hare. If you would like to read my whole Lapwing bird of the month you can find a link in my profile... is all free 😊

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