One of the great beat up media stories in America, now regarded with some affection in certain quarters , especially by bemused Aussie journalists working in that country, is the one which warned that giant killer bees from across the Mexican border were spreading north. Taken up by other members of the mad media, it caused near hysteria in the US; humble honey bees going about their vital work of pollination were regarded almost as terrorists.
Now , a website which goes under the name of Alan in Darwin , has informed the world that “a swarm” of plovers attacked MLA Rob Knight near the old Supreme Court site near parliament house. This was a reference to an NT News story about plovers dive bombing the minister like Japanese Zero fighters.
Unfortunately, unworldly American readers of Alan , who often gives details of his shopping trips in the CBD , will think a swarm of plovers is a horde of mutated bees , a kind of Aussie vampire bat , its loathsome fangs filled with venom.
Expect a rush of cancelled holiday trips to Darwin by Americans scared stiff by the thought of being attacked by plovers. In fact, plovers are cuddly critters. The reason why they zeroed in on the benighted Knight is that they obviously had eggs or chicks in the area. Despite their screeching , their attack spur and dive bombing , they are wonderful to watch. There is usually one little randy male trying to muscle in on the party.
They hardly, if ever , gather in what was incorrectly described as a swarm . Sadly, they have a tragic habit of nesting next to roads and thundering motorways. As a consequence , their chicks, looking like tiny balls of fluff, are regularly decimated.
In a garden and lawn plot at the intersection of Port Road and North Terrace , in the Adelaide CBD , plovers repeatedly nested in these dangerous surroundings.
On Magnetic Island some residents became stressed trying to save baby plovers which followed their parents back and forth across a road used by a bus which took tourists to see the birdlife, mainly the much larger curlews , the pheasant -like fluttering coucals , sunbirds, kookaburras and currawongs , the last two being murderous blighters in Nature’s pecking order. Each time the tiny plovers had difficulty trying to hop up out of the gutter onto the grass verge. No sooner had they made the giant leap forward for plover kind , than their parents decided to run back across the road. Watching them caused grey hair, apprehension and much gritting of teeth.
The good people of Magnetic Island recently rushed down to Nelly Bay when word came through that turtles, numbering 45 , were surfacing from a nest and made sure all survived the often dangerous journey to the sea , forming a protective guard on both sides at the start of Chas. Darwin’s mystical evolutionary voyage where very often it does not see survival of the tastiest.
Now , a website which goes under the name of Alan in Darwin , has informed the world that “a swarm” of plovers attacked MLA Rob Knight near the old Supreme Court site near parliament house. This was a reference to an NT News story about plovers dive bombing the minister like Japanese Zero fighters.
Unfortunately, unworldly American readers of Alan , who often gives details of his shopping trips in the CBD , will think a swarm of plovers is a horde of mutated bees , a kind of Aussie vampire bat , its loathsome fangs filled with venom.
Expect a rush of cancelled holiday trips to Darwin by Americans scared stiff by the thought of being attacked by plovers. In fact, plovers are cuddly critters. The reason why they zeroed in on the benighted Knight is that they obviously had eggs or chicks in the area. Despite their screeching , their attack spur and dive bombing , they are wonderful to watch. There is usually one little randy male trying to muscle in on the party.
They hardly, if ever , gather in what was incorrectly described as a swarm . Sadly, they have a tragic habit of nesting next to roads and thundering motorways. As a consequence , their chicks, looking like tiny balls of fluff, are regularly decimated.
In a garden and lawn plot at the intersection of Port Road and North Terrace , in the Adelaide CBD , plovers repeatedly nested in these dangerous surroundings.
On Magnetic Island some residents became stressed trying to save baby plovers which followed their parents back and forth across a road used by a bus which took tourists to see the birdlife, mainly the much larger curlews , the pheasant -like fluttering coucals , sunbirds, kookaburras and currawongs , the last two being murderous blighters in Nature’s pecking order. Each time the tiny plovers had difficulty trying to hop up out of the gutter onto the grass verge. No sooner had they made the giant leap forward for plover kind , than their parents decided to run back across the road. Watching them caused grey hair, apprehension and much gritting of teeth.
The good people of Magnetic Island recently rushed down to Nelly Bay when word came through that turtles, numbering 45 , were surfacing from a nest and made sure all survived the often dangerous journey to the sea , forming a protective guard on both sides at the start of Chas. Darwin’s mystical evolutionary voyage where very often it does not see survival of the tastiest.
