A friend just pointed out to me a family of 4 Masked Lapwing chicks – about 2 weeks old in a nearby set of units. To have 2-week old chicks already they must have laid the eggs in March! Isn’t this incredibly early? Most Lapwings around here start nesting in mid-late June.
Elizabeth Shaw Phillip Island Victoria ===============================
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I agree Elizabeth, that your nesting Masked Lapwings are early starters but they are not the only ones. At the Eastern Treatment Plant, near Carrum SE of Melbourne we had a pair on 4 eggs on 27 March and on our count on 24 April, that pair had two small, possibly a week or less old, chicks. Another winter breeder, Black Swan, is also nesting early. That day, Easter Sunday, there were already 10 broods of cygnets and another 10 pairs had nests. That was from a total of 329 adults. Mind you, the brood size tended to be small. Many wetland birds e.g. Chestnut Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead & Black-fronted Dotterel have been breeding continuously throughout spring and summer and haven’t stopped yet! Australasian Grebes have amassed in unprecedented numbers. Each successive month we break the record! On 24 April the total was 372! Mind you the area of water on the Plant is also a record. All the holding basins are almost full and even the surrounds below the banks are inundated. One Common Sandpiper likes it so much that it has delayed its northward migration. Danny Rogers tells me that it will go because this is the only northern hemisphere breeding shorebird for which there are no records of overwintering in Australia.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136