The Frisian tradition of spotting the first lapwing eggs of the breeding season resulted in a first find on February 28, breaking the previous record, the hunt organisers said.

The egg, a single one, was found in a corn field and will be acknowledged by the king’s commissioner to Friesland later on Thursday.

Since 2015 it has been illegal to remove the eggs from their nests because of fears about the size of the lapwing population.

The Council of State said that year the lapwing population had almost halved from its 1996 level.

Hundreds of volunteers are busy from the start of the breeding season to mid June alerting farmers to the locations of meadow bird nests, in an effort to protect them from being damaged by mowing and planting.