Distraction, Displacement and Alarm

a terrier came along. Through my binoculars, I saw the lapwing becoming increasingly anxious and, when the intruders were about 200 metres away, the bird ran off to trail a wing in front of them. The restrained dog clearly wanted to chase the injury-feigning bird and, had it been allowed to do so, would have been led well away from the nest. The lapwing's distraction would almost certainly have been protective for the clutch; following the incident, incubation was placidly resumed. A grazing sheep then ambled towards the nest. This time the lapwing did not move off the eggs until the sheep was at a distance of two metres, when the broken wing trick was repeated. Not surprisingly, the sheep made no attempt to follow but, instead, walked closer to