Masked Lapwings' 3 Chicks, Tuggeranong

[Matthew Willis <>]

Several years ago there was a pair who had a nest set up at the front of my daughter's school in Gungahlin. For whatever reason they had decided to set up right next to the drop off zone in the main carpark and had to spend each morning and afternoon freaking out at all the people coming and going. They never hurt anyone, and vice versa, but it must have been stressful for them.

I've long been fascinated by the protective strategy of Lapwings. The way one comes at you from the front along the ground, making a big fuss, while the other takes off to swoop you from behind is pretty much identical to the velociraptor behaviour described in Jurassic Park (without the flying, of course). A bit of inspiration for the script writer, perhaps.

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

What part of ACT Gov puts up the signs of "beware swooping bird"? I think
these were mainly for magpies but the same applies. As far as I know they
never make contact with people. So no real damage and I wouldn't worry about
them being disturbed, they are good at it.

Philip

-----Original Message-----
From: Tun Pin Ong [
Sent: Tuesday, 9 December 2014 12:18 AM
To:
Subject: Masked Lapwings' 3 Chicks, Tuggeranong


Hi,
It has been more than 2 weeks since I first noticed a pair of Masked
Lapwings sitting on a nest just next to the driveway into the security
Carpark of DHS building along Eileen Good Street. Last Tuesday I managed to
take a peek and counted 3 eggs when the parents 'changed guard'. Ever since
then the weather has been very wet and there was fear that the brood may not
be successful. Today (Monday) I have noticed that all three chicks have
hatched and the family had moved to forage at the nearby children
playground. In the evening, the family still moved back to the lawn just
next to the driveway into the office block. The parents are very aggressive
towards anyone getting too close to them. For the safety of the public as
well as the welfare of the chicks, I wonder if some notice should be put up
to prevent members of public from getting too close to the lapwing family.
Regards，
Tun Pin ONG


Sent from my iPhone
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