ON THE WING
Angry plovers have been getting a “buzz” out of disrupting the lives of visitors to the Waterworks Reserve in recent weeks.
It’s a familiar story across the parks and paddocks of Tasmania at this time of the year. Walk across open space and, sure enough, the plovers will squawk noisily and then take to the wing to feign attack.
I say feign attack because the plovers (pictured) never inflict damage or injury. The aerial bombardment is merely meant to drive away anyone approaching too closely to their eggs or young hidden in long grass.
Attack time usually comes at the end of winter or the first weeks of spring. This is the time when the plovers – or masked lapwings, to use the scientific name for them instead of the Tasmanian vernacular – are in the midst of the breeding cycle.
A bout of flu curtailed my daily visits to the reserve, at a time when bird activity is in a frenzy with migrants arriving and courtship rituals of residents and travellers are in full flight. I thought I had missed seeing the lapwing chicks, bundles of pied feathers on long, spindly legs.
A raucous cry, and then a swooping lapwing, let me know this was not the case one afternoon when I had stopped on a reservoir embankment to view hoaryheaded grebes in their spring mating plumage of white-streaked dark-grey heads, replacing their drab brown of winter.
Although I knew from experience the lapwings meant no real harm, I have to confess it was an unnerving experience to have them thrashing about above my head.
The name “spur-winged plover” indicates they have spurs on joints of their wings but suggestions these might be poisonous, like those of the platypus, are unfounded. The spurs are more likely used in combat and defence in territorial battles.
I might make light of lapwing attack but the other bird notorious for brazen and bold behaviour – the magpie – must be treated with caution. That dagger bill can cause damage so any alarm cry from a magpie should be heeded.
Like the lapwing, the magpie is merely trying to protect its young – usually in a nest a little way off the ground – and is warning people to stay away.
It is best to avoid known territories but, if this is not possible, carry a stick to wave, or wear a wide-brimmed hat to shield the eyes.
I’ve known people who have worn a helmet and once read of a man in Queensland painting a face with an angry expression on his headgear.
This appeared to work a treat and the pair of belligerent magpies that were terrorising a suburban street in Townsville gave this particular resident a wide berth.