Our walk in the paddock

Yesterday arvo (that means afternoon in Aussie), Edith and I went for a nice little walk in the back paddock to do a bit of bird watching and to try out my new 1.75x telephoto lens for my camera. As we walked along, the Masked Lapwings were going crazy which was a sure indication that there were Lapwing chicks about. Sure enough, Edith's sharp eyes picked up a little movement which couldn't be anything else. As we slowly made our way towards this little bird, the cries of the adults became much more strident and the baby responded to the alarm by sinking down to the ground. I continued onwards but I must have blinked because suddenly I had no idea where the little bird was. I tried to walk away again and wait behind a natural blind thinking the bird would eventually rise but it ended up being much more patient than I. So I tried to find it again and after some time of walking up and down to cover a grid I suddenly saw it!


This little chick was perfectly still and nearly invisible until you were right up on it. In fact, if I had not been scrutinising the ground in an attempt to find it, I never would have seen it and could very well have stepped on it. Terrapine walked right by about 2 metres away and never had a clue it was there. That's effecient camouflage.

I took a few pictures, admired the marvels of nature and then left the poor trembling chick alone.