Birds Are Climate Confused

[Baddad (Marty)]

Masked Lapwing, Plovers already have chicks.
Across the road 3 chicks have hatched and one egg remains.
This means that the parents mated 5-6 weeks ago. well before the Winter Solstice.
This I find unusual. Plovers I thought started breeding shortly after the ratio of daylight / night was increasing. 6 weeks ago it was the opposite.

I had some fun as I invaded the Plovers' territory. The birds went ballistic.
Displaying the spiked wings and screeching at me. They can be very intimidating to a real predator.

I was quick and took a couple of fast photos. To keep the disturbance to a minimum.

Look how well the chicks can hide in short grass. The neighbour is careful not to mow over the nest.

I find on the ride-on mower the birds allow me to come within 3 M but on foot 20M (when not near a nest)

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Great photos Marty.
Those babes are invisible.
Some critters are out of synch atm. There was a python crossing the road just the other day. Had to shoo him back the other way before he got himself in trouble in someones back yard.

[Baddad (Marty)]

Thanks Nettie,

Taken with my iphone 5Mpixel.

While keeping one hand outstretched above my head.

Birds don't like to swoop at sticks or hands.

Cheers

[ving (David)]

pythons out already? gee. everything is out of sync.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

There was a python crossing the road just the other day. Had to shoo him back the other way............

Now a photo of that would have been interesting!

Great camouflage for those chicks.

I made a mistake once with plovers - wasn't paying attention and got too close to nest just onshore. Took a while for an inexperienced person like me to turn a kayak around and get the hell out of there with parent birds shrieking and swooping!

[Baddad (Marty)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Some critters are out of synch atm. There was a python crossing the road just the other day. Had to shoo him back the other way before he got himself in trouble in someones back yard.

That is unusual. I read about your python experience at an earlier date.

I could assume that it may have been disturbed. However they don't travel far in winter. When disturbed they just want to slither to a quiet warm spot and continue sleeping. Their metabolism is very slow and moving is difficult.

Cheers