I've been watching a pair of Bush Thick-knees nesting in an inner
Brisbane park for several weeks. Day after day one of the parents
would be sitting in the same spot, and mostly facing the same way.
Occasionally the brooding bird would be sitting at an angle - perhaps
it was the relief parent.
Today I noticed that the watching parent had shifted location and that
the brooding bird had left the nest scrape. "Aha, they've hatched", I
thought. I was looking forward to seeing some cute chicks.
Before searching for the parent with the chicks, I decided to have a
look at the abandoned nest - to see if I could find some egg shells.
When I approached the nest, I found a well-camouflaged egg about the
size of a small chicken egg. I presume the parents abandoned it when
it failed to hatch. I understand that thick-knees normally lay two
eggs, so perhaps the parents decided to move on when one hatched and
the other didn't.
I found the other parent sitting about 15-20 metres from the nest site
- presumably concealing the chick that hatched. As I was carrying my
mobile phone, I took a few fuzzy pictures of the egg. I have placed a
couple of pictures on Tom Tarrant's website (ABID) - http://www.aviceda.org/abid/birdimages.php?action=birdimage&bid=483&fid=38&p=24&pagesize=1
and http://www.aviceda.org/abid/birdimages.php?action=birdimage&bid=483&fid=38&p=26&pagesize=1
Hopefully it was a case of a bad egg rather than the parents being
forced off the nest.
Regards, Laurie.
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