Killdeer

We have been enjoying watching the nesting Killdeer (try and find it in the top picture!) in our lower parking lot. Killdeer (Charadrius alexandrinus) are technically Plover-like shorebirds but unlike other shorebirds, they often nest and live far from water. The Killdeer nest (which is on the ground and in some type of gravel) is called a scrape. To make the "nest" they take their bum, move back and forth on the gravel and voila, the indent that is left is a nest! Seems lazy but since there is really is no structure to it, it is barely distinguishable from the surrounding area, so between that and the specked eggs that look like stone, it blends quite well (see bottom picture) and you have to do some major searching to find it.

Killdeer parents both incubate the eggs and they are quite creatively protective. If something gets close to the nest, the parent that isn't incubating will try and lead you away with a "charade" of sorts (thus the Genus name of this species). As you near the nest, the Killdeer quickly develops a "broken wing". It will make all sorts of noise and put on a show, dragging its wing or wings down to its sides as if it can barely walk, let alone fly. The idea is, you will follow the "injured" bird if you are looking for easy prey, and when you have gone far enough from the nest chasing the weak bird, the actor will fly away and hopefully you will have forgotten about the nest of yummy eggs. Not sure this worked totally in our Killdeer's situation as they started out with 4 eggs and now have only 2....

Regardless, we are now waiting somewhat impatiently for the young to hatch. They incubate for about a month and then when they hatch the Killdeer young are fully precocial. Precocial (translates to"ripened beforehand.") birds are covered with fluffy feathers, can move about quite well (but not fly) and feed themselves. They are also very cute, so I will announce their Earth Entry and hopefully post some more pictures when/if that happens.