Masked Lapwings nesting in Adelaide CBD
This is one article I should have written ages ago. I’ve been busy.
Quite a few weeks ago now there was a special item on the television news here in South Australia showing a pair of Masked Lapwings nesting on the median strip of one of Adelaide’s busiest thoroughfares.
This pair had made their nest on a triangular piece of lawn at the intersection of North Terrace (6 lanes), West Terrace (8 lanes) and Port Road (6 lanes), arguably one of the busiest parts of the Adelaide CBD. This median strip would have to be no more than half a tennis court in size and would have tens of thousands of cars, trucks buses and bikes going past only a few metres away every day of the week.
Amazing.
It was in exactly the same spot about ten years ago that saw a pair of Lapwings escorting two little balls of fluff with legs. I hope they are able to run the gauntlet of all that traffic and survive. It can be relatively quiet around 3am I suppose – if you run during changes in the lights.
Masked Lapwing
Hi Trevor,
There was a pair regularly used to nest in the middle of a busy roundabout in Hobart!
It’s quite amazing where this species will nest. I once read about a pair that successfully raised their chicks in a nest between the rails of the main Sydney to Melbourne railway line. That’s living on the edge – or determination in the extreme.