24 January 2009

The parking lot kids - update

The parking lot kids ar just three days short of six weeks old and doing well.
Over this period, this is the first time I have managed to photograph the two chicks together - and they parted company very quickly. It must be something about the survival instinct that makes them separate from each other. On a few occassion this week I could not find them, but their colouring is so amazing that they just disapear in the grass.


It wont be long before they lose all the baby feathers and start looking more like the adults. Tgis one is already taking on that sleak appearance.


The shot below was taken on 15 December 2008, the day the eggs hatched. I thought I would put it in just to show the progress.

If you want to see the progress just click on "crowned lapwing" under labels

14 comments:

Katney said...

So fun and exciting to be able to wathc hte kids grow up.

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

Amazing how fast they grow. A wonderful series Max.

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

You must be one proud godfather.

Eleanor said...

I am pleased that they have survived and are doing well. Oh, and thank you for the nice little list of proudly SA sites, including mine! I am going to visit all of them.

photowannabe said...

Cute little ball of fluff with such long legs. Mom is pretty sleek. Great pictures.

Ordinarylife said...

Gorgeous!!!

Jeanne said...

Awww, they do grow up so fast. I love those downy chick feathers...

Rose said...

They are growing up so quick! I need to remember to do some research...they so remind me of killdeer. The markings is different but their build and so much about them remind me of killdeer.

myonlyphoto said...

Max-e I agree with Rose, they do remind me killdeer, I bird that I discovered in our area last year. The chick are so cute. Very nice photos. Thanks for sharing and hope all is well. Anna :)

Max-e said...

Rose and Anna I have done a quick research and wont go into the latin names, but the are different species.
The killdeer belongs to the plover family whereas the other one is a lapwing. We do have one plove though that looks very muck like your killdeer.
The lapwing is also larger than the plovers.

Merisi said...

Oh, Kiebitz!
I grew up in the countryside, where lapwings resided in the fields. They are beautiful birds!

There are nice colonies of lapwings in the Burgenland region, about 40km south of Vienna, around Lake Neusiedl, where large areas are protected bird sanctuaries, thanks to them being declared a National Park.

Kerri Farley said...

Oh i just LOVE seeing these little guys! They do grow up fast!!

myonlyphoto said...

Thanks Max-e for the finds. Still learning about the birds, lol. BTW I sometimes laugh at the killdeer name, lol, what did he do to get a name like that - kill a deer! Thanks again, Anna :)

abc said...

Wonderful pictures. They do appear to grow very quickly. I love the bottom photo.