Saturday, August 13, 2016

Crowned Lapwing bombing the dogs

I'm horning in before Ambrose' post to show how the Crowned Lapwing were protecting a nest or young while the dogs and I visited the golf course today.

I sincerely apologize for the shaky and waving scenes on the video. It was terribly windy; I also struggled to see the birds (and later their victims, the dogs) on the camera screen, 


It's a known fact that the Lapwing will attack anyone encroaching on their space (especially if they have a nest nearby) by swooping down on their victims.  You will see this in the video and also how unperturbed the dogs actually were! The lapwing's nest is a shallow scrape in the ground and lined with grass. 
Crowned Lapwing
There were six lapwing in this little flock. I managed to photograph these four but the other two had strutted off to the left 
I imagine these two are the parent birds
They took to the air with their strident kreeip kreeip kreeip call in unison to scare off  the dogs

Isn't it a pretty bird? 
I'm not good at capturing birds in flight and used my camera's sports function with numerous bursts. And managed one or two photos

I hope you get the gist of the attack on the dogs in the video below.

HAPPY SATURDAY EVERYBODY









4 comments:

  1. Our Northern Lapwings behave in the very same way when they are breeding.

    Bad news about the pesticide use in SA Jo. We are better in recent years but far from perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello, oh my that sound is a little weird. I guess they would be protective of their nest and young. They are pretty birds, great photos and video. Have a happy new week!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes they are very protective parents and rightly so. The dogs were too near their nests or young.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved the video and the dogs are ignoring them like they're not even there. Just keep on running. These are very pretty birds. At our bird preserve here they have passed that we have to walk on because they are afraid we will step on the nest of the birds that Nest like these do

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo