PLOVER STORY: Spur-winged Plovers Nesting

The Spur-winged Plovers (vanellus spinosus) further upstream from us started nesting in October 2007...this is their story...

Click on any thumbnail image below to open the full gallery of photos behind each one...

  • Day Minus Two: Spur-winged Plover Two-Egg Nest (29 October 2007) (7)

    The speckled beige and black-ink-smudged eggs are laid on the ground, in a nest fashioned from twigs and small stones – which the Plover parent continues to re-arrange while sitting on the nest and protecting the eggs from the boiling sun. It’s amazing how camouflaged the nest is, even with the adult bird sitting on it. Because of the work going on all around, and the possibility of the tractor crushing the nest, my father had to put a stake in the ground right next to the nest, to ensure he doesn’t drive over it by mistake, but if it were not for that, you would have a hard time spotting where the nest is. Read More...
     

  • Day Minus One: The eggs are still in the nest & the heat is rising (30 Oct 2007) (7)

    The two eggs are still in the nest, the temperature is rising, and the diligent parent Plovers are not going to be dissuaded from their task of protecting their brood-to-be from the heat by day and the cold by night, and predators 24/7...exchanging sitting duties at regular intervals, but never leaving their charges unattended for long. Read the full story...
     

  • Day One: Out of the Egg and out of the Nest! (31 Oct 07) (89)

    When I arrived late morning, one chick had already hatched, and the other followed less than 12 hours later, by which time the first chick, less than a day old, was already leaving the nest, feeding itself and on its way in life...but that's just the beginning of this tale. I think you really have to read the Full Story first, to really appreciate these photos, and the behaviour demonstrated thereby...so please flick over to my journal entry for this day before returning here to see it all happen...
     

  • Day Two: Chicks on the move... (01 Nov 07) (3)

    I went back just to make sure the second chick had left the nest (the nest was empty when I arrived) and to see how the little mites had fared through their first night...fortunately, they managed just fine, and I saw them both with their parents on the edge of the river...More news from this day...
     

  • Day Five: Still going strong... (03 Nov 07) (2)

    I saw the chicks in the distance, a little downstream from their now-empty nest, foraging for insects in a green, swampy spot, well-chosen by the parent birds as an easy place for young Plovers to learn how to feed. (Plover chicks have to feed themselves from Day One - the parents only show them where and how.) More news from this day...
     

  • Day Seven: Displaying good use of survival tactics... (05 Nov 07) (4)

    The little chicks were still doing well when we saw them today, partly no doubt due to their innate survival tactics of huddling down and sitting absolutely still whenever they sense any danger, or whenever any other animal passes by. How perfectly camouflaged they were, hidden in the grass! More news from 5th November 2007...
     

  • Day Eighteen: Long-legged and confident... (16 Nov 07) (7)

    It was amazing to see how confident the chicks have become - and how long-legged! Both chicks were foraging (at great speed) far from the parent bird, coming and going at will. The parent seemed remarkably unperturbed by this, as if it knew this was a necessary part of the chicks learning to fend for themselves. By looking at each chick, hatched less than a day apart, you can tell how quickly they develop, day by day: the plumage of the older chick has developed noticeably in comparison to the second chick - and yet it is less than 24 hours older...How quickly these changes must occur. Catch up on all the news from 16th November 2007...
     

  • What would have been Day Twenty... (18 Nov 07) (4)

    Once upon a time, there was a Plover nest here. Once upon a time, two little chicks were growing up fast and learning how to survive against so many odds...so brave and confident and yet so vulnerable, snatched cruelly in the dark by the raging waters of the rising river. It seemed unbelievable to me that just two days ago I had been reveling in their success, marveling at how fast they were growing up, how steady they were on their newly long legs, how sure of themselves. And now they are gone. There was not even any sign of the parents - were they washed away too? Other news from 18th November 2007...