ML618130407

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - 2

Behaviors

Foraging or eating

Tags

Habitat

Observation details

Yes, there were two! We arrived at the site quite late in the morning when it was boiling hot. We could see lots of birds in the wetland and several Red-wattled Lapwings at the start where the SWL was usually seen. But there was no SWL. Sriram and I walked on the banks to scan the full wetland while Gopal went to check some paddyfields where they see it. While mostly looking at Cormorants and Whistling-Ducks, I soon picked out 'the' SWL next to the far bank feeding alongside several other shorebirds. Sriram said that it is usually seen much closer. And then he suddenly pointed to an SWL that landed very close to us saying it had come close. But then I checked again to see how the bird at the far bank had suddenly flown here and saw that it was still there! The second bird flew to another corner out of sight. We called Gopal back and showed him this surprising development in the Lapwing story. Both birds stuck to different ends of the wetland for the next 45 mins. We stayed with the second bird. This SWL seemed to be after a RWL, rather than the other way around. It followed a couple of Red-wattled Lapwings and disappeared out of sight. After a while, it came back into the main wetland area and flew to the group that had the other SWL. But they were quite far apart. Both kept feeding and eventually converged to be in the same frame. I don't think the two birds really like each other.

Technical information

Dimensions

8982 pixels x 3970 pixels

Original file size

16.13 MB