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It’s Caturday.
Diary bird — Masked Lapwing — Vanellus miles
Masked Lapwings are large, ground-dwelling birds that are closely related to the waders. The Masked Lapwing is mainly white below, with brown wings and back and a black crown. Birds have large yellow wattles covering the face, and are equipped with a thorny spur that projects from the wrist on each wing. The spur is yellow with a black tip.
The Masked Lapwing inhabits marshes, mudflats, beaches and grasslands. It is often seen in urban areas. Where this bird is used to human presence, it may tolerate close proximity; otherwise it is very wary of people, and seldom allows close approach.
The Masked Lapwing is common throughout northern, central and eastern Australia. Masked Lapwings are also found in Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand. The New Zealand and New Caledonian populations have been formed from birds that have flown there from Australia. LINK
There are two Australian subspecies of the Masked Lapwing — northern and a southern. The northern bird is smaller and has a larger wattle which covers a lot of the face. The southern birds have black on the back of their necks and sides and smaller wattles, almost resembling collar. Males and females are similar in coloring, but the males tend to have a larger spur.
Two subspecies are usually recognised:
- V. m. miles (Boddaert, 1783) - Coastal New Guinea, Aru Islands, northern Australia
- V. m. novaehollandiae Stephens, 1819 - southern Australia, New Zealand. This taxon was formerly known as the spur-winged plover.
The Handbook of Birds of the World treats V. m. novaehollandiae as a separate species, the black-shouldered lapwing (Vanellus novaehollandiae), even though the two subspecies intergrade in northern Queensland and the Lake Eyre basin. LINK
Masked Lapwings may breed when conditions are suitable. Both sexes share the
building of the nest, which is a simple scrape in the ground away from ground cover. This nest is often placed in inappropriate locations, such as school playing fields or the roofs of buildings. Both sexes also incubate the eggs and care for the young birds. The young birds are born with a full covering of down and are able to leave the nest and feed themselves a few hours after hatching.
The Masked Lapwing is notorious for its defence of its nesting site. This is particularly the case after the chicks have hatched. Adults will dive on intruders, or act as though they have a broken wing in an attempt to lure the intruder away from the nest. LINK.
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Tomato Lemon Tart.
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All are welcome to join the fun, the silliness, the conversations. If you don’t know...just ask! Some things really do require a bit of explanation.
There will be a few surprises along the way, all good ones, we hope.
We are here to keep building the Daily Kos Community.
We post Mon-Sun at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
Pie fights will be met with outrageous ridicule and insults. Trolls will be incinerated and served at the next group BBQ. As briquettes.
Water
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Iceland.
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Takachiho Gorge, Miyazaki Japan
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Ruinaulta
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