{"id":114802,"date":"2025-09-03T04:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114802\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T04:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:21:05","slug":"nsw-councils-mission-to-remove-aggressive-birds-nest-from-a-football-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114802\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW council’s mission to remove aggressive bird’s nest from a football field"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sporting field near Canberra has been closed for up to a month after a native bird decided to lay an egg on the halfway line.<\/p>\n

The egg appeared in the middle of a field at \ufeffJerrabomberra Regional Sports Complex over the weekend.<\/p>\n

It was laid by a plover, a protected native bird known for their aggressive temperament, especially when it comes to their young.<\/p>\n

\"AA plover laid an egg on the centre line of a soccer field near Canberra. (Facebook\/Tim the Yowie Man)<\/p>\n

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) initially advised that the egg should not be moved, forcing the field to be shut down.<\/p>\n

Games that were supposed to be played there over the weekend had to be moved to alternative fields.<\/p>\n

Now players will be unable to use the field until the egg hatches \u2013 or until council is able to carefully move it, with NPWS approval.<\/p>\n

“NPWS have granted us a licence to move the nest in incremental small distances,” a Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council spokesperson told 9news.com.au.<\/p>\n

The process could take days or even weeks, depending on one important factor: the plovers responsible for the egg.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“The advice and process we are following aims to ensure the parents remain with the nest,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“We are monitoring the nest each day, and if it looks like the parents are not moving with the nest, it will be returned to the previous location.”<\/p>\n

The task of moving the nest got a little trickier when, shortly after the first egg appeared, the plover lay two more.\ufeff<\/p>\n

But the spokesperson seemed confident, confirming to 9news that games scheduled to be played on the affected field this coming weekend have not been moved.<\/p>\n

“Finals are not expected to be affected,” \ufeffthey added.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo more eggs appeared soon after the first. (Facebook\/Tim the Yowie Man)<\/p>\n

Plovers can be found across Australia and typically flock to large grassy areas, especially those near lakes or other bodies of water.<\/p>\n

Adult birds like to nest in open areas like fields or even on top of flat roofs so they can watch for predators.<\/p>\n

They’re protective of their eggs and young and will swoop at people or animals who get too close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sporting field near Canberra has been closed for up to a month after a native bird decided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-114802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}