Two plovers stood looking forlorn on a patch of grass off Davey Street. Just a day previously I had seen the plover pair with two chicks and now the young were nowhere to be seen. I feared the worst.
It’s not unusual to see masked lapwings – to give them their common name outside of Tasmania – raising young in the most unlikely of places. We all have plover stories at this time of year. They nest on grass verges, the fringes of football fields and even on the open, grassy ground at the centre of busy round-abouts on city streets.
Such nesting attempts usually end in tragedy, with eggs crushed or chicks trampled underfoot by walkers or young killed by dogs.
All the same, the nesting plovers I observed in the small park outside Anglesea Barracks on the corner of Molle and Davey Sts thought they had found a safe spot to raise a family in an area bordered by flower beds and hedges.
Their two tiny chicks were about three days old when I first spotted them, standing a mere eight centimetres tall on spindly legs. They looked comical in black and cream fluffy plumage, but alert to their parents’ alarm calls.
In mid-spring I would not normally have been paying attention to plovers, instead looking for swift parrots which over the years have always been spotted in the magnificent blue gums in the extensive barracks’ grounds.
However, the barracks and surrounding areas have become less of a swift parrot mecca in recent years following the felling of the biggest gum. This eucalypt once stood in the small park now home to the plovers, and the ageing tree – at least 150 years old – had to be cut down for safety reasons.
Although 15 ancient trees remain at the site – with another planted to replace the felled one – birders note that fewer swift parrots are coming to the blue gums each year.
The “swifties”, as they are known, once descended on Hobart parks and gardens in their thousands when they first arrived from wintering grounds in Victoria and New South Wales. But in recent years they have been largely absent, reflecting a decline in the population ascribed to the logging of old-growth trees in both Tasmania and the mainland and predation here by introduced sugar gliders.
After searching for them this year in places once guaranteed to provide a sighting I have so far failed to see a single bird, although I’m informed they can be found in good numbers on Bruny Island.
No swift parrots and no lapwing chicks as I crossed the Davey St park. A little despondent, I continued on my way but all was not lost.
Under a hedge I spotted the fledglings. On the first hot day of summer, the parents had ushered them to the cool shadows provided by a hedge.