We have Chicks!

...the curlews cry,Under the conceiving moon, on the high chalk hill,...Dylan Thomas

Curlews would have to be one of my most favourite birds. For one thing they don't mind hanging round human habitation because humans tend to have open spaces like lawns & only lightly wooded areas, which they prefer.  For another they are too big for the cats ~ though not dogs; we have cats.  Not that we feed them because the usual offerings of mince & bacon rind aren't good for them.  They can rot out a beak designed for crunchy insects.

They do, however, mate for life & they are careful & solicitous parents. Ours always raise their chicks each season ~ unlike the plovers who breed about the same time yet have  a careless knack of loosing clutch after clutch all season to snakes or hawks or Butcher Birds & nothing to show for all their trying at season's end.  For the life of me I can't figure out how their numbers increase as they seem to be the most inept of birds.

My bird books insist that male & female curlews share brooding duties but here the female seems to be always on the nest.  I know both birds look similar but the male is definitely far more aggressive. The female will hiss half heartedly if I get too close but the male will get his wings up, his neck down & out & start fussing. While she sits patiently enduring the mid~day sun or torrential downpours without complaint he is dozing in the shade.

All year our pair hang out together, moving from yard to yard & paddock to paddock, hissing gently to let us know they are under the tree by the clothesline if we don't see them, keeping their young close for quite a long time, but never venturing beyond some unseen boundary that marks the next pair's territory so we know their movements & habits reasonably well.

Last year I was particularly vigilant as they had nested on the block next to us & it was about to be built on.  To everyone's relief the chick was well hatched in plenty of time but sadly that was also the year they had a dud egg.  The only really good part was I got to see the egg up close & personal after it was abandoned.

So when I spotted a lone bird squatting like a stone stature in the middle of the paddock I knew it was that time of year again & though I won't constantly harass them I do like to get a quick look to see how many mum's got tucked under her wing & if they are all healthy.  Beside, they are such pretty chicks.

This year all is good.  Two pretty, healthy chicks. Seeing them gives me such pleasure.  They are endangered down south.