• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Company - "Granparents"

Phil

Phil

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Some company


Sitting in my study this morning doing some catch-up homework, I had some company.

The Crowned Lapwing/Plover was sitting on the other side of the sliding door watching me.
About 3ft away.

After an hour it decided to move off. (I must have been very boring, and there was no food being offered)

Cheers
Phil



DSC_0334.jpg




DSC_0339.jpg
 
Those lay their eggs directly on the ground, don't they? I stumbled onto a plovers nest in Zambia once....just a pair of eggs on the hard soil.
 
Correct. They look for a small indentation in the grass. They prefer short grass, open areas.
Some golf courses place a wire frame around the nest.

When we go walking in the estate and it's breeding season, they will actually dive bomb you if you get too close to the nest.
 
I've also seen that pretend-injury display they do to draw a potential predator away from the nest. The bird flaps around making a noise, dragging a wing out to the side as though it's broken. Flies off just as the fox/ whatever is about to nab it.
 
The U.K. Lapwing or Peewit behave and nest in a similar way.
Sadly their numbers are diminishing.
In the old days, their eggs were considered good eating.

Rod
 
Mike G":1b5pxp9u said:
I've also seen that pretend-injury display they do to draw a potential predator away from the nest. The bird flaps around making a noise, dragging a wing out to the side as though it's broken. Flies off just as the fox/ whatever is about to nab it.
Click to expand...

There were 2 yesterday afternoon outside the workshop window doing the wing thing.

Either ther were flirting (not quite the breeding season!) or sizing each other up for a fight maybe.

Cheers
Phil
 
The pair have been very active outside the study sliding door. Wife puts out some crumbs now and again.

Recently they were doing their canoodling thing and on Monday she settled down in the sand and laid 3 eggs.

The site of the nest is not the greatest as it’s on a small island next to the road that the construction people use and residents walk past.

They take turns at sitting on the nest and coming to eat.
Will watch them when at home over weekends.

Nesting_2.jpg


Cheers
Phil
 
Couldn't you put some sort of barrier around the area to keep people off it? It sounds like they'll struggle to keep eggs/ chicks safe where they are.
 
Mike, if I put anything around it, it will be swiped by 4 o'clock when the builders leave!

Today must have been close to 30c so they will more than likely have very hard cooked eggs!
 
Well at approximately 07:50 this morning we became "granparents"!

Two of the eggs have hatched, and the chicks are wobbling around. Will see if I can get a pic later on.
 
Superb! That sounds like it was against the odds, being in such a vulnerable position.
 
Excellent news, Phil. Good job that you don't have any 'Spawn of Satan' aka cats around the place.
 
Good news Phil. I hope the chicks learn quickly how to survive in what appears to be a relative hostile environment.

For weeks we watched a pair of woodpeckers feed a fledging chick in a tree in front of our kitchen last year only for the stupid chick to fly into the kitchen window and break it's neck!
 
Mike G":pebwuw8u said:
Superb! That sounds like it was against the odds, being in such a vulnerable position.
Click to expand...


They just stuck to their nest regardless of the trucks, bakkies, people and dogs going past. they did defend the nest attacking the other birds especially the crow and also people getting too close.
 
RogerS":2yw1azn7 said:
Excellent news, Phil. Good job that you don't have any 'Spawn of Satan' aka cats around the place.
Click to expand...


Roger unfortunately there some cats around. I always chase them away if they come close to our house.
The estate rules say 'no cats', but the rules get bent to accommodate ceretain people.
 
Andyp":7ehu3fn7 said:
Good news Phil. I hope the chicks learn quickly how to survive in what appears to be a relative hostile environment.

For weeks we watched a pair of woodpeckers feed a fledging chick in a tree in front of our kitchen last year only for the stupid chick to fly into the kitchen window and break it's neck!
Click to expand...


Andy we hope they will learn quickly. The parents can be very aggresive when protecting the chicks.
We hope they will come past the house again.
 
Here’s the first born. It was ushered away from the nest, wobbled across the road to the grass by our study.

FirstBorn.jpg


Two hours later the chicks were being watched by one of the parents who was also keeping a beady eye on the people looking at the chicks.
The other parent was still sitting on the last egg.

2_Hours.jpg


This is very close to the study door, you can clearly see the crown.

Crown.jpg


They took turns at looking after the chicks keeping them close together.

KeepingFamilyTogether.jpg


Here they are being sheltered from the sun and heat.
It must have been close to 30c.

Shelter.jpg


We arrived back from lunch about 3pm, the last egg was abandoned and the family had moved off down the side of the house away from the street and people. When I went to water the garden at 6pm they had moved off to – we are not quite sure, but we will keep an eye open.

Cheers
Phil
 
Any areas nearby where there's longer vegetation to give them more cover?
The chicks can run pretty fast but still very vulnerable.

Rod
 
RogerS":naw4xm6o said:
Fabulous photos, Phil. I'm a bit envious.
Click to expand...

Roger, we are very chuffed to have the experience.




Rod":naw4xm6o said:
Any areas nearby where there's longer vegetation to give them more cover?
The chicks can run pretty fast but still very vulnerable.

Rod
Click to expand...

Rod, they prefer very flat areas and short grass. You will find them on the golf course fairway with the nest.
I read that some golf courses have a metal frame which they place around the nest to keep the mowers away and the golfers.

The wife said she saw them late yesterday afternoon further up in the estate, and the chicks are growing.

Cheers
Phil
 
I was thinking of their relatives, Lapwings who were present on a farm I used to help out on. They "nested" in fields regularly grazed by cows but it also contained clumps of Bull Rushes which gave them a bit of cover.

Rod
 
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