Magpie Larks now with their second family.
First family of three successfully fledged and were fed around out house in late October (one early chick fell or was ejected from the nest which is high in a Eucalypt in the front of our house which upset our 18 year old terribly).
I realised they were sitting again on the same nest only a few weeks ago and now have two very healthy looking chicks looking close to fledging. A feature of the second breeding event is that they are and have been almost silent. I have not seen any begging behaviour that produced a noise and I have definitely not heard any. The whole breeding event has been low key compared to the first. I wondered if the reason was, that, in a nearby tree we had a very successful Currawong breeding event where three chicks fledged in early to mid November (I will note dates in future). They are still around our house and requiring huge attention from their parents. I saw at least one small bird in the beak of a parent on our grass at the rear a few weeks back. I guess the second brood of Magpie Lark chicks would have been more vulnerable to predation from the Currawongs during the furious feeding period of three large chicks than when the Magpie Lark had their first brood. Hence the instruction to juniors to keep the noise down.
Is two breeding events so close very common?
Stephen Brand
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