Two members of a family of Spotted Dikkops living in my garden.
The parents moved into our garden several weeks ago. Since she laid her eggs we have been very careful not to disturb them more than necessary. Hence this part of the garden has been neglected for the last couple of weeks.
The baby is a week old in this photo and already fairly independent. He seems destined to be the only baby this year as a couple of days after he hatched, his parents abandoned the other egg.
You can see a (poor quality) video of his antics here.
[Dec. 30th, 2009 04:53:49 AM]
I'm totally devastated. The baby is dead. When I've looked out of the window this morning I've seen the mother go up to look at him a couple of times and then she stares at me as if she is asking for help.
I keep going back to the window to look in the hope that he is just sleeping and that he'll still move, but he's been lying there for a long time now and I know that it's not going to happen.
I wish I knew what went wrong because the parents were so protective.
In reponse to Melethia's comment, I'm almost sure the baby was killed by an Indian Myna bird. I was warned of the possibility of that long before the egg ever hatched.
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How sad. Who knows what happened. Maybe the mother brought back something that was slightly toxic - that happens all too often anymore. Poor little family.
Wonderful capture and composition, really too bad about the harsh contrast. Would a little Shadow/Highlight adjustment cut down on those blown highlights, and lighten up some of the dark areas.
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