Hi all
This morning on the way to work in Nightcliff (suburb of Darwin) I noticed a
couple of Bush Stone-curlews trying to cross the road. I stopped and helped
hold the traffic up a bit while they got across, and noticed they had a tiny
chick
with them. The adults went up onto the nature strip after they crossed the road
but the chick was too small to get up the kerb - the kerb is about 15cm high
and the chick was just over half that, so was pretty tiny. One of the adults
kept
hopping back down onto the roadside then hopping back up onto the nature
strip, presumably trying to show the chick how easy it was. Unfortunately the
poor little chick had no hope, though it was trying very hard. I watched for a
while wondering whether the adults would think of a way to give the chick a bit
of a lift but there was nothing doing, so I approached the chick to put it up
off
the road. The adults gave a pretty spectacular kind of spread wing display,
with lots of noise, and I wondered if I was going to be pecked. But they left
me
alone and I was able to put the chick up onto the nature strip. When I left
them
(late now for work) they were trying to work out how to get through the fence
into the school. Presumably they were all safe, since I didn't see them when I
went past later in the morning.
Quite an interesting start to my day.
Cheers
Niven
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Birds of Darwin, Kakadu & the Top End:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/birdsnt
P.O. Box 41382 Casuarina 0811
Northern Territory, Australia
Ph/Fax 61-8-89451130
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