A privilege and a joy
An encounter with newly hatched little ringed plover chicks which ranks as one of the best wildlife experiences we have ever had.
We were walking back to the car. Our time watching the birds of the lagoon was up, and we had guests coming over so we had to get back and get ready.
It had been a day without any really notable sightings - though we had watched our ‘usual’ water rails for a long while as they foraged for food and that had been fun.
Then, close to the car we saw an adult little ringed plover fly up close to us. We have been looking out for the little ringed plover for several weeks - we occasionally glimpsed a pair in among the samphire and we hoped they might be nesting close by. Suddenly the adult was flying close and trying to get our attention. We had heard about plovers risking their own lives to distract possible threats to their young, and we had seen how feisty plovers can be in defence of their nests in Southern Africa. So… we sat down in the grasses’ edge and we waited.
Adult Little Ringed Plover flying close.
The adult bird was soon joined by their mate. They took turns to fly off a short distance while the other stayed nearby on the ground. We scanned the dry marshland, trying to spot any movement between the samphire sprigs.
A six legged little ringed plover
Our scanning of the marsh was rewarded when two chicks appeared running through the samphire. It is hard to describe how small they were, the size of a cotton wool ball but on the longest of legs. One chick had not fully opened their eyes, it seemed it was only moments since they had hatched.
Watching them hurtle around the marsh at an incredible rate, stopping and perhaps having their first ever meal, and then rushing back to their parent to hide under their feathers… it was a complete privilege, it was delightful and joyous, it was one of the most amazing wildlife experiences we had ever had. Cute - doesn’t even begin to describe how wonderful these chicks were.
The parent birds clearly decided we were no threat and sat quietly close to us, watching on in much the same way we were. At times the chicks would run up within the minimum focus range of my lens (2.4m since you ask). We watched them for ages. Finally the adult birds called time and took the chicks off into the longer marsh grasses. We glanced at our watches and realised our guests would be at our house before us - oops!