We were at Bunnings at Victoria Point, Qld, a coupe of weeks ago and there was a Bush Stoned Curlew nesting in the car park close to the main Bunnings store entrance. The male was in the nearby vicinity and was aggressive to anyone coming nearby and spread its wings and made aggressive noises to protect his wife and young chick that was nesting in the sand a short distance away.
We found it puzzling that a wild bird woud nest right next to the main door of a busy shop with cars and people passing by for 12 hours every day. The shopping centre management had the area taped off and also covered with a tarp to keep people from walking on the nesting female and 1 chick, but I would imagine that the chick would have very little chance of surviving in such a busy car park.
I am always interested in birds and have only seen one other bush stone curlew and that was on Moreton Island and also right in the centre of the camping area, they must like company and perhaps they feel safer from the wild predators because of all the traffic and pedestrians.
Brian DJ.
Masked Lapwings are of a similar ilk. It seems both species tolerate a relatively high degree of human activity.
your latter spelling is correct as the bird has not been smoking or pelted with rocks
Peter
At first I thought the original post was a satire describing some colourful human characters that you often find hanging around in public carparks.
LM
Hi Brian,
Further to your comment about them nesting in very heavily trafficked places, there used to be (and maybe still is) a pair of them that nest under the back of The Gabba at East Brisbane State School.
I used to go to choir practice there on a Sunday evening and you would hear their rather eerie call echoing around the place.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane