I have a what seems to be a juvenile Bush Stone-curlew in my garden. It's a big private garden and, whilst they often visit, this is the first one to stay, and I've been here for twenty years. I'm concerned as I have someone who mows the lawn and uses a ride-on. I can ask him to avoid the area where s/he tends to be. Will the mower scare her off anyway?
I adore these birds and want to encourage her to stay. She's only been here four days but doesn't seem to leave at all.
Any other advice gratefully accepted.
I know little about Bush Stone-curlews, Sakshi, but generally speaking disturbance, particularly from a noisy machine will keep wildlife away, at least until it can see that there's no threat. I recall a post on Birds in Backyards of this species in a car park so it seems to be a species that will adapt to noisy human activity.
Congratulations on having one of these in your gardem. Re their sensitivity to noise, I was gobsmacked to find a pair nesting on a traffic island in Gregory Terrace in inner Brisbane. While traffic island was quite large - I'm gessing something like 40m by 100m - it had very frequent traffic on either side perhaps only 15 -20 metres away. from the nest on the ground. The island had some trees but was primarily vegetated with very short grass so was presumably mowed regularly. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get back there for some time so don't know how successful the nest was. The presence of two watchful crows in a nearby tree did not bode well however.
Yes, it’s interesting that there are bird species which adapt quite well to horrendous human-created noises. Masked Plovers seem able to do this. I’ve observed a pair on the lawn outside Burnside Council building on Greenhill Road in Adelaide. They were a couple of meters from the edge of the frantic traffic stream & seemed unperturbed by all that was happening. The Magpie Lark is another species which I’ve seen wandering around a lawned medium strip while the full panalopy of the automobile industry charged past with scarcely time to look.
Fore a long time there were curlews in the patch of mally gum trees next to our house. They have now moved down to the creek, probably because it’s quite.
Wimmera mally region, Vic.
She looks like the female. We have a male and female mating pair on our front yard. We have a family that has been in our immediate neighborhood for 3 generations. From our observations that is a young female who is looking for a mate. There should be other curlews heatd at dusk within a 4 block radius of you.