Chick's landings need work

While, technically, the chick has fledged it is going to need our support and the protection fence for a bit longer. It hasn't quite the finesse of the parents in terms of landing style.

The chick is only given the opportunity to practice flying skills once a day. For the crossing from the mangroves they are still swimming the chick and then flying it back after the high tide roost.

Guessing this is due to the amount of time they want to spend on the beach, water levels and hazards. There are far more landing hazards on the way across the lagoon from the mangroves because they travel so close to high tide. One is the water level which has the tidal flat under water, two is the fence should chicks lack of control see it land in it, three is the grasses that cover the sand that have looping roots that even I trip over.

Today, the parents took the chick back to the mangroves at the same time as yesterday, meaning the water level was going to be higher. The chick overshot the water, which should have been shallow enough to land in, ending up in the marshy area, tripping itself up.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day for practice. The tide levels are now dropping so this should make it easier for the chick and good for us volunteers on the weekend as we should only need to deal with people walking through and the nipper pumpers and shouldn't have to worry about the kayaks (though they may still try to drag through).