Mike Simpson wrote:
>
> Hi Karen,
> There are a pair of Masked Lapwings in our local park with a single
chick. They have managed to rear at least one chick each year for the
past 4 years, and one year reared 2.
>
> Each year they are very aggressive towards dogs and joggers while the
> chick is helpless, with both birds making diving raid, however people
> walking past are just 'shouted' at. Now that the chick can run at a
> reasonable pace, the level of aggression has dropped, and only one bird is
> involved in attacks.
>
> Regards, Mike Simpson, Penrith, NSW, Australia
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~agene
>
Mike's message on Masked Lapwing aggression reminds me of the time when
we were still calling them Spurwing Plovers. We heard a woman in a
country town scolding her boys for being late home from school in
spring.
"Why couldn't you take the short-cut across the golfcourse?"
"We couldn't Mum, we got ploved!"
So they went the long way round.
To return to the original topic, I have heard that crackling
beak-snapping from Noisy Miners. I turned round and said "Shooo!" a
couple of times, and they left off - i suppose I was by then out of
their sensitive zone.
I have been threatened with very close dives and beak-snapping by a
Red Wattlebird. I was collecting washing from the line and it was
stealing fluff from the towels, so I presume it was building a nest.
They attack Blackbirds and other birds with great ferocity.
Anthea Fleming
in Ivanhoe, Vic.
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