Masked lapwings nesting in absurd locations

I have been watching a pair of Masked lapwings nest on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie for a number of years now.  It's not all that surprising, as it's a seemingly ideal environment, except for a couple of things.

The Masked lapwing family. 

Firstly there is a very busy cycleway within 5 or 6 metres of where they nest every year.  I took the photo above standing right on the edge of the shared cycleway.  Several hundred people would walk, jog, cycle and exercise their dogs right past their nest on a week day.  On a weekend, several thousand people would pass within metres of them.

Of course, the local council mow the grass here regularly.  To their credit, the nesting Masked lapwings are so well-known here that the Council work crews give them a wide berth during the nesting season.  The local residents have even been known to write to the local newspaper congratulating Council for this approach.

Adult Masked lapwing attempting to distract me from it's almost-fledged young by pretending to incubate eggs. 

I think that for a bird whose chief defences against predators is swooping, feigning a broken wing and a strategy of complete immobility by the young when threatened, it is nothing short of miraculous that a dog doesn't race in and grab a chick before it's owner realises the Masked lapwings were breeding.  Another consideration is the fact that there is bushland within 500 metres of this location.  It surprises many city dwellers to discover just how prolific foxes are in this part of the world.  Most people would never see a fox here, but I assure you they are extremely common, and have a supreme sense of smell.  And in the small hours of the morning when all of the residents are in bed, Br'er Fox likes to come calling.  Of course there are also feral cats as well as ever-present "domestic" cats allowed to roam at night to consider as well.

Adult Masked lapwings standing at the nest site, wedged between a VERY busy cycleway and a busier road. 

But it seems that these factors have almost no impact on their breeding success.  The biggest killer seems to be the road.  Traffic surveys have revealed that over 15,000 vehicles pass this spot on a weekday.  It's MUCH busier on a weekend.  The Masked lapwings choose to nest almost on the verge.  About three weeks ago there were four tiny golf-balls of down and fluff skittering about within a metre of the adults at all times.  Sadly, that number has shrunk to two, but the good news is they are _almost_ fully fledged as of this morning.  They will be surely independent of the site by the end of the week.  

Cute little ball of fluff _A L M O S T_ fully-fledged 2nd October 2014.

Good luck little Masked lapwings babies.  May you return to breed here for many decades to come.  And be careful on the roads . . .        

Species list - Casa da Ayre - October 2014

27 Species recorded at Casa da Ayre 26th June 2013 to 1st October 2014 

We moved into our new home, Casa da Ayre in Belmont North on Wednesday 26th June 2013.  This is simply a list of species we have observed in our yard since that day.  

  

Birds

Rainbow lorikeets 

Eastern rosellas

Scaley-breasted lorikeets 

King parrots

Crested pigeons (Nesting)

Noisy miners

Welcome swallows (Nesting) 

Spotted turtle doves (Nesting, introduced)

Masked lapwings

Black-backed magpies

Laughing kookaburras
Magpie-larks

Pied currawongs

Grey butcherbirds

Pied butcherbirds

Galahs

Little corellas

Dollarbirds

Silver gulls

Blue-faced honey eaters

Australasian Figbird

Eastern koel

Channel-billed cuckoo (seen flying overhead summer/autumn 2013/14, heard Spring 2014)

Amphibians

Striped marsh frogs

Reptiles

Grass skink (Lampropholis delicata)

Mammals

Rattus rattus  (aka Yuckus yuckus!)
Neighbourhood cat (aka feral cat) 

So there you are - that's our list to date; 27 species.  It's sure to grow as time and seasons pass.  

Taking the road less travelled, 3rd December 2014 - 13 x Freckled ducks

Freckled Ducks (foreground), Louth Park December 2013

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.

I have always enjoyed taking the road less travelled by.  And on this particular day it certainly made all the difference.

I was driving home from work on 3rd December 2013, and took the least travelled way I could find - as is my want.  I happened to glance at the waterfowl on a small dam next to the road in Louth Park, and noticed something different about them.  Naturally I headed back to have a closer look, and found to my delight, 13 Freckled ducks foraging on the margin.  They were extremely flighty, and I was quite lucky to grab a couple of quick "voucher" shots before they all took off.  I recorded the sighting with the Atlas of Living Australia.        

Welcome swallow breeding record - Belmont North, NSW

This is just a brief note to mention we have a pair of Welcome swallows nesting in our carport at Casa da Ayre, Belmont North, NSW.  We observed them actually commence nest building on Saturday 14th September 2014, but they had been zooming around the general area of our house for about a week prior.

They took about a week to build their nest, and they roosted beside it every night whilst it was being built.  I don't know if this had any bearing on where they decided to build, but there is a paperwasp nest approximately 1.5 metres away from their nest.

To be honest, I was a bit surprised where they chose to build, because it is under the roof of our carport, directly over where my wife parks every night, and the external exhaust fixture of our air conditioner.  Hardly low traffic, and hardly quiet.

We have deliberately minimised our activities around the area they have built their nest to minimise the chance that they will abandon the site.  So far so good, because they appear to be incubating eggs at the moment.  Sooner or later we will get around to photographing them, but it is just a very pleasing thing to observe.  Welcome swallows are hardly rare or threatened.  But they are native, incredibly beautiful and a wonderful part of Casa da Ayre.        

European Blackbirds in the Hunter Valley

Female European blackbird, Maitland 17th Sept 2014

Until fairly recently I had no idea that European blackbirds occurred in the Hunter Valley.  They seem to be painfully common in Melbourne, but that was the only place I had seen them routinely.  I met a keen birdo while I was working for the Vertebrate Pest Research Unit of the Department of Primary Industries back in 2009.  Peter assured me they were recorded as "common" throughout the Hunter, but truthfully I did not believe him.  When I asked him exactly where they were in Newcastle, he couldn't tell me because he had never been to Newcastle!  Ha !  I was a keen birdo when I was growing up, and if they were "common", I would definitely have seen them.

Male European blackbird, Maitland 17th Sept 2014. 

I returned to Lake Macquarie in 2012 after working in the Central West, Jervis Bay and even briefly Adelaide.  I joined a local bird observer's club, and somehow the topic of European blackbirds came up.  Turns out they should be described as "locally common" as they are typically encountered around Maitland.  There are not many other places where they are found in the Hunter.

I am very fortunate to work for a small New South Wales Government Department that is based in Maitland.  I had just arrived at work on Wednesday 17th September 2014, when I encountered a pair of European blackbirds foraging on the lawn in the staff car park.  I happened to have my camera with me and grabbed a couple of "proof-shots" to confirm my observation.  Unfortunately they were very nervous, so I was only able to grab a couple of very quick shots.  But they are readily identifiable.  I lodged the record with the Atlas of Living Australia.  
 

Same pair of European blackbirds foraging together in Maitland, 17th Sept 2014.  

First Channel-billed Cuckoo for Spring 2014

Species Occurrence Record - Casa da Ayre - Belmont North  

On Sunday 28th September at 8:45pm, my wife Amanda and I heard the distinctive call of a single Channel-billed cuckoo at our home in Belmont North.  It was still Eastern Standard Time (Daylight Savings Time commences next weekend), and so quite dark outside.

The reason I record this call is because Channel-billed cuckoos are a migratory species, and this is my first observation of the species for Spring 2014.  I immediately unloaded the observation to the Atlas of Living Australia.  If you are not aware of this site, it is a treasure of records.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good to indicate the likelihood of a species occurring in a particular area, and the time of year the species is likely to be active.

Blog Pivot !

I established this blog back in in 2012 to record my observations of wildlife in the Hunter Valley on a daily basis.

I soon discovered that it's a great idea, but I soon lacked the motivation to record every single sighting. After a couple of weeks my motivation waned and sadly I neglected the site.

So I have decided to simply record notable observations rather than daily records.