In March I’m looking for Wildlife in the Garden
(This month I want to see photos and stories about wildlife in the ‘garden’ – insects, spider, birds, rabbits, hedgehog, fox, snake (!) whatever you can find in your garden, public gardens, lakes, parks. But please not the family dog!)
A masked lapwing or plover posing to perfection at at Church Point alongside Pittwater, a semi–mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about 40 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district.
The plover is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia, particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent, New Zealand and New Guinea. Masked lapwings are shy and harmless in summer and autumn but are best known for their bold nesting habits, being quite prepared to make a nest on almost any stretch of open ground, including suburban parks and gardens, school ovals, and even supermarket carparks and flat rooftops. Nesting takes place usually after the winter solstice (June 21) and the nesting pair defends their territory against all intruders by calling loudly, spreading their wings, and then swooping fast and low, and where necessary striking at interlopers with their feet and attacking animals on the ground with a conspicuous yellow spur on the carpal joint of the wing. Wikipedia
If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules 🙂
- Create your own post and title it March: Wildlife in the Garden
- Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
- Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
- Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in April.
- Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.
Earth laughs in flowers 
A great shot of a nemesis bird second only to the magpie for its swooping attacks. I often see a family of fluffy little ones at the Point and wonder how they manage to survive cars, cats, dogs, snakes and eagles. Parents surely aren’t THAT effective! I can still feel in my (flabby) leg muscles the drawing back from a nest on the ground, three quite large greenish eggs, when a friend yelled a warning.
I remember the one at the Eurobodalla Gardens!
A gorgeous image Jude. I have been seeing a lot of Sylvia’s backyard wildlife for your challenge. The 6foot iguana really put me over the top. I suggested she keep the door closed tight for that visitor. 🙂
Sylvia’s wild life in the garden is astonishing. I have never seen such huge lizards! And her birds are gorgeous.
Great shot, Jude. The yellow mask is very striking. 🙂
A bandit! I like those 🙂 Happy Sunday, Jude! More jobs ticked off, feet up?
Ha, Jo. Feet very tired. I seem to have been on them for days now without a break, but I think almost everything is in a box now! Do I need all these things?
Some of those Italian masks could actually be inspired by this guy!
Yes, the facial markings are quite lovely.
https://attaleuntold.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/wildlife-in-the-garden-life-goes-on/
Lovely photograph. I can never do justice to bird photography as I do not have a telephoto, so I am restricted to what I can sneak up on! And most of the time the birds are wise to me, that’s for sure.
I didn’t need a telephoto lens for this one as it was very close, but I know what you mean. Ducks are usually quite amenable 🙂
Plovers are not my favourite birds. They are mean and nasty during nesting time and they have the most vicious sounding call. My parents had a pair nest on the traffic island in the middle of their cul-de-sac, which meant every time they went out the front to get their mail the birds went crazy. Three chicks hatched but they disappeared one at a time, probably taken by crows or currawongs. The next year my father discouraged them from nesting there again by chasing them away. They found a place further down the street.
Apparently they act like that when they don’t even have a nest during that period. Meg and I ran the gauntlet of one in the Eurobodalla Gardens!
We had a pair nesting on our school oval once and we had to rearrange the children’s play areas because it was too unsafe to go near them. They even used to attack people walking down the stairs of the nearby classrooms. Crazy birds.
They do sound rather vicious!
What a poser! I always associate plovers with my time in Primary 3, when I was about 7. They were mentioned in one of the stories in our ‘comprehension’ book and I think I must have liked the name or something, because as soon as I hear it, I am transported back to school.
Now that IS impressive!
Morning, sweetheart! Here’s the legit version 🙂 🙂
http://restlessjo.me/2016/03/21/jos-monday-walk-wildfowl-waddle-and-glide/
Be over soon Jo. Just finished a mammoth packing session, emptying every cupboard in the house! Why do I have so much? I think once I get to the other end even more things will be discarded! (And I even found some cooking chocolate dated 2003! Heavens knows how many times THAT has moved!)
Cooking chocolate? I never possessed any of that in my lifetime 🙂 🙂
Well apparently I never needed to use it!
Jack has memories of being swooped by a lapwing I just roared with laughter to see him running down a hill with the bird in hot pursuit. Meanwhile I am reblogging a post about the other ferocious swooping bird, the magpie, but we had much happier (and sad!) memories of this family. https://memoriesaremadeofthisblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/our-magpie-family/
Hope your packing/moving is progressing well. We are now happily ensconced upstairs. Now planning to redecorate the downstairs granny flat…
Packing almost finished, cleaning done although there will obviously be many dust bunnies when the furniture gets moved, but hopefully a quick dust and vacuum will suffice!
When do you move over Jude? Are you getting excited???
Past excited PP. Just want to get it done!
Not long now then…