No, not that Partridge Family! On Thursday I was set up in my hide at one of my Little Owl sites (waiting for the shot that never happened - but that's another story!), when a noise from stage-left drew my attention to a Red-legged Partridge, who was shepherding her young family of six chicks. They were in the next paddock to me, but then they came into my paddock under the gate. When only about 10 metres away from me the adult bird started to roll in the dust and her youngsters started to follow suite.
After just a few seconds, the adult bird got a bit carried away with her dust bath, and dirt was flying everywhere. The youngsters rapidly retired to a safe distance.
By the time she'd finished, she'd got a good coating of soil, as you can see below.
She then gathered up her youngsters and disappeared off to my right. About half an hour later I heard a familiar sound behind me and suddenly a chick ran past my hide, closely followed by another chick and an adult. I suspect that this might have been another set of birds, as I only saw the two chicks.
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| Red-legged Partridge - near Twycross |
I wouldn't normally show an image of the back of a bird's head, but I thought that it nicely showed the birds ear tufts - something that I don't usually notice when looking at these birds. I see that the youngsters are already showing ear tufts too!
Lovely family shots Richard.
ReplyDeleteJohn.
Thank you John. Isn't it great when these unexpected events just unfold before your eyes!
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