A visitor from across the pond is creating a stir among bird enthusiasts, who have flocked to a Bulloch County farm this week hoping to catch a glimpse of the rare traveler.
    Armed with telephoto lenses and scopes, birdwatchers from around the country have gathered roadside at Alma Lane, near Tillman Pond Road, to peer into an open field, searching for the Northern Lapwing.
    The sighting of the Lapwing, a bird common in Europe and Asia, but spotted very rarely stateside, has become the first ever officially recorded in Georgia.
    “Overall, there have been about 20 sightings of (Lapwings) in the United States in total. This is the first time it has ever been sighted in Georgia. So it is very rare,” said Georgia Southern University graduate student Lauren Deaner — who was first to discover the bird the morning of Feb. 6. “People have posed that Superstorm Sandy flew several of the birds off-course” resulting in multiple sightings in New England, and now Georgia, so far this year.
    Deaner, a graduate assistant in the Biology Department at Georgia Southern, said she noticed the Lapwing during a routine trip with an ornithology class she leads.
    “It was part of our regular field trip route. We stopped at the site, and I pointed out a couple of songbirds to students, before taking my scope and scanning the pond. That is when I found it,” she said. “It was bad light, and I could not really see the head, so there was about a minute where I was confused as to what it was. I only knew that it wasn’t something that I would normally see.”
    Already familiar with the species through work on her master’s thesis, it did not take long for Deaner to confirm her suspicion.
    “When (the bird) turned its head, I immediately recognized it.”
    The Lapwing, also known as the Peewit or Green Plover, is a predominantly black- and white-colored bird, recognizable by a crest on both the males’ and females’ heads. 
    Lapwings are “wader” birds that prefer short-vegetation habitats, forming flocks on open land, particularly farm land and mud flats.
    It’s no surprise then, that Bulloch County’s new guest chose a soggy field on a farm just outside of Statesboro.
    “He is out in a large field, sitting by a big, wet hole,” said John Brannen, who owns the property.
    According to Brannen, who has openly welcomed birdwatchers to his home in recent days, things around the farm have become a little busy.
    “(The bird) has generated a lot of interest over the last week and a half. I have had a lot of visitors,” he said. “We have had well over 100 cars, often two or more people to a car. We are pushing that 200 mark for sure.”
    Brannen said guests, mostly state or national birdwatchers looking to check the bird off of lists chronicling animals they’ve seen, have come from as far away as Texas and Maryland to sneak a peak at the rare Lapwing. Even a visitor from Alaska has been reported.
    “We have had some people from Jacksonville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Texas and more. It has been kind of crazy,” he said. “They haven’t been a problem at all. I’ve enjoyed meeting the folks.”
    The hospitality hasn’t gone unappreciated, said John Parrish, a retired biologist, and ornithology professor at Georgia Southern — and local “birder.”
    “Mr. Brannen has been incredibly delightful about having these hundreds of people coming down and trespassing on his property,” Parrish said. “He has been wonderful.”
    Sightings of the bird are being tacked on bird-watching websites — where Deaner first provided news of her find.
    Since Feb. 6, birders have tracked the Lapwing from the field near Kennedy Pond to a new location, slightly farther down Alma Lane — a possible roosting site.
    Birdwatchers have spent time at the location nearly every day since the bird was first seen, Brannen said.
    “People who have never seen this bird before all want to see it. No one had ever seen it in Georgia before,” Deaner said. “Some folks, who keep lists, want to mark it off, and a lot of people just want to come out and appreciate how rare and how pretty the bird is.”
   
    Jeff Harrison may be reached at (912) 489-9454.