Thursday, 16 September 2021, was apparently #PloverAppreciationDay. And never have I appreciated a day or an animal more. Screenshot from @wireswildliferescue's Instagram. Plovers are lovely, long-legged Australian birds which can fly, but which choose to nest on the ground. During August and September, a certain plover family have been a regular backdrop in our daily lives, and I may have become midly obsessed with them. Here's how (and why). In mid-August, while taking my LittleOne and Indi-girl for our usual evening walk, we walked past the nearby primary school grounds, which includes a lovely green oval. Some people use the oval to play cricket or football with their kids, or go jogging, or walk their dogs - the usual sorts of things people use big green spaces for. As we walked past the oval, I realised there were two plover on the oval cackling their warning cries. We weren't close to them and in fact, Indi was far away enough to have not even registered...