Masked Lapwings nesting in Adelaide CBD
2 Comments »25th October, 2008; Category: Baby birds, Bird Behaviour, Birds in the News, Birds on Television, Lapwings, Nests
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
Crested Pigeon nesting
Crested Pigeon
About three weeks ago I was walking the estate. (We live on a five acre block on the edge of town.)
As I passed a row of Hakea francisiana bushes I checked thoroughly for any bird nests. These bushes, which are about four metres high, often host pigeon or honeyeater families.
Sure enough, a Crested Pigeon was sitting on a nest. I quietly crept away, knowing how easily pigeons can be disturbed from their nests. Sadly, when I checked back last week, the nest was abandoned. Even sadder was the half grown chick hanging from a fork in a branch. It was dead.
Hakea francisiana
Something must have disturbed this young chick which then tried to escape, only to hang itself. The culprit could have been an Australian Magpie (they are feeding young at present), a Grey Currawong ( who will take young from a nest to feed its own), a Brown Falcon (which has been harassing the local birds recently) or even a Little Raven.
On another sad note, today when working in the scrub I found the wing of an adult Crested Pigeon. There was no evidence of who had taken this poor creature.
Nature in the raw can seem so cruel. But then – I could name a few humans who are not exactly innocent of cruelty.
The Story of Quack
I really appreciate all the great comments that my readers have been leaving lately. It is wonderful how so many people are enjoying the bird life that comes across their paths in their daily lives.
Every now and then a reader leaves more than just a comment or two or a question. When they tell a great story about their encounter with birds I think it is only fair that everyone gets to read the story. Otherwise some great stories just get drowned in the flood of comments.
Sometimes readers also send me great stories via email through my contact form. These do not even appear in the comments section. Here is one such recent story.
I just came across your website and thought I would add our story. My 12 year old daughter just loves wildlife of any kind. she has a connection with animals of any sort but because we have several chickens and a pair of Appleyard Ducks she has a very strong bond with these.
Last year our pair of ducks had a clutch and one morning she found a duckling on the ground hardly moving. She brought it inside, kept it warm and hand-raised it herself and now it is a very handsome male.
A couple of months ago on our school oval a student found a duckling wandering by itself. It must have been about 1 – 2 days old. After a long search the parents were nowhere to be found. As they knew we had ducks we were asked if we would like to hand-raise it.
Knowing the best place would be with its mother we again searched the oval and nearby properties for Mum and the other ducklings but she couldn’t be found so we took “Quack” home.
He proved to be quite different in personality to raising our Appleyard ducks, probably because it was a wild duck. He was constantly chirping and jumping in his box. My daughter would sit and cuddle him in front of the heater, talk to him and be very attentive to all his needs, collecting slaters, worms and crickets to feed him as well as giving him his normal crumbles. She couldn’t even walk out of the room and Quack would be calling for her and looking to see where she had gone.
Over the weeks he grew quite large and it was time for him to stay outside. He would sit at the back door and call for my daughter and would follow her wherever she went. He would roam around our backyard during the day and we would put him in a cage at night.
As his wings were developing he would stand on the grass and flap them, surprising himself when he lifted a few centimetres off the ground.
Well yesterday (29th September) she took him out of his cage as usual, he had a quick bath and then walked on to the lawn, looked skyward and flew off! My daughter was devastated that she didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye, especially seeing we were soon to release him ourselves.
We were concerned that he flew into a neighbouring backyard which had a dog, so we went door knocking to see if we could find him – no luck. About a half hour later my husband heard the neighbour on the other side say there was a duck in her pool, so on investigation, yes it was Quack having a wonderful time in the pool.
Apparently he had been at their back door quacking to get someone’s attention. Well my daughter was reunited with him, with a big cuddle and we are now preparing him (and my daughter) to be released.
He is a male Pacific Black Duck.
My thanks to Sandy Davis for permission to quote this story in full.
Baby Starlings by the dozens
3 Comments »7th October, 2008; Category: Baby birds
Common Starling
Over recent weeks we have had about ten pairs of Common Starlings nesting in various hollows around the garden and the nearby mallee scrub. Over the last week or so the parents have been kept busy feeding them, flying to and fro with food in a frantic attempt to quell the begging chicks.
Now the babies are out of the nest and populating various bushes and trees around our house. They are making a terrible racket with their persistent calling.
I’ll be pleased when they form loose flocks with the young from neighbouring scrub areas and head off elsewhere. Every year in October hundreds of Common Starlings form flocks of hundreds – even thousands of individuals. I’m not sure where they end up, but during November through to about February there are very few, if any, left around here. My guess is that they head either up into the fruit growing areas in the Adelaide Hills or up stream to the Riverland districts, also extensive fruit growing areas. Some may even head off to the Barossa and Clare Valley grape vines or even to the wine districts of south east South Australia.
Being purely selfish in these matters, I’m pleased that they do not hang around in our own orchard. They must sense that we are very poor orchardists and that we usually have very little fruit on our little collection of trees.
Baby Magpie learns to fly – sort of
33 Comments »3rd October, 2008; Category: Baby birds, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Magpies and Currawongs
Australian Magpie (juvenile)
Our resident family of Australian Magpies has been busy feeding two babies in the nest over recent weeks. The mother bird has been bringing tasty meals to the young ones who put up a great begging performance if she is too slow about it.
Meanwhile the male patrols the territory, seeing off any intruders – like the Brown Falcon who came visiting recently. (Details of that incident will follow tomorrow.)
Australian Magpie (juvenile)
Last week one of the babies decided to test out his wings. He left the nest – not at all gracefully and very hesitatingly. It was all downhill and into the wind until he came to the pear tree in the orchard, where he decided to cling to a branch for all he was worth.
I was watching this all happen from the verandah where we were having a well earned cuppa. I raced inside for the camera. Over the next five minutes I was able to carefully creep right up to about three metres away without disturbing the little fellow – still clinging desperately to the branch where he landed.
Australian Magpie
I quickly retreated, but not before mother bird came investigating to see if I was behaving myself. Soon she was happy to resume looking for the next tasty morsel to feed junior.
Later I was watching from the house. The baby had moved to another tree. He decided the fly down to where the mother bird was searching for food. The flight was okay – it was the landing that undid him. He landed on his face. Some techniques obviously need a little practice.
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Australian Magpie