M and I both love wildlife and there's plenty of it around. There is a pair of nesting plovers that raise their young periodically throughout the year on an old dock out in the water, then bring the babies across to the park mainland to grow.
It's always a bit of a fraught activity and on Sunday, M and I were out walking the fat dog and we saw an adult plover on the rocks below the walkway and just tucked underneath it was a plover chick. Clearly, they'd been trying to make their way across and the chick had failed to get all the way and had fallen (there's nothing connecting the dock to the mainland, so I think they must fly with the chicks on their backs??)
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| As nesting sites go, at least it's safe from cats? |
All we could think was the tide was going to come up and the chick would drown. Not acceptable, says M, my wildlife warrior!
So he jumped over the walkway railing, walked down an almost vertical slope to the rocks and grabbed the chick (mum and dad plover were seriously annoyed by this and started swooping and clucking) Then he walked back up, climbed back over the railing and then walked with the chick (and mum and dad flying beside) up to the park and released it next to a bush, where mum and dad swiftly landed and conducted a preliminary check to make sure the nasty tall man hadn't done anything untoward to their baby :)
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| Wildlife superhero and plover chick now safe! And our dog in the background not really sure what's happening. And a plover parent way up the path ready to kill us if we hurt their baby. |
And as we were watching, wouldn't you know it? A second little plover chick came toddling out of the bush where it had been safely tucked away by mum and dad before they went back to the dock for its sibling. So it's a big happy plover family now and we couldn't be more thrilled. xo
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