Mudlark

A less common visitor to Gosforth Park Nature Reserve than the snipe I posted a couple of days ago, this is a juvenile lapwing.  It was fascinating to watch it on the mud.  It would walk two or three steps forwards and then vibrate one leg as it stood still on the other.  After a few seconds it snapped up a morsel, presumably disturbed by the vibration, and then moved on and repeated the exercise many times.  I then wondered if lapwings might be right-legged or left-legged but this one was using either leg with no preference.

A mudlark was someone who scavenged in the mud to look for items of value, especially along the River Thames in 18th and 19th century London.