The cute, we brings it!
October 4th, 2009
...and lord, this place needs it.
Killdeer
October 4th, 2009
...and lord, this place needs it.
Killdeer
- Bring in the cute. They are adorable birds with a habit of showing up in
the ugliest of surroundings!
- Are named for their song, which sounds like "kill-dee-ah."
- Frequent Andrew Haydon Park in fall migration, provided the river is low
enough. (That's where I photographed the above pair.) Killdeer are a type of
shorebird, and like most shorebirds, they love mud.
- Have precocious downy chicks who can walk and feed themselves soon after
hatching, and who really, really bring
in the cute.
- Are highly adaptable and comfortable in human-altered habitats. Where I
come from in the southern states, it's not at all uncommon in summer to find
killdeer and their downy young scurrying along the edges of parking lots and
on commercial lawns. Here in Ottawa they are a little more finicky, sticking
mostly to farmland in the breeding season and mud flats in the fall.
- Are sneaky:
"You sometimes see an adult killdeer in gravel, such as along a rocky railroad easement, or on a dirt road. As you approach, the killdeer may suddenly develop a broken wing. It struggles in front of you, as if it can barely walk, let alone fly. One or both wings drag pitifully on the ground.
If your instinct to rescue the killdeer overcomes you, and you try to catch the bird, it almost lets you reach out and pick it up. But somehow, while struggling to keep its balance, the killdeer manages to stay one step ahead of you. As you pursue it, the killdeer leads you farther and farther away from its four downy killdeer babies crouching on the ground or half hidden under a tiny bush.
When the killdeer feels that the young are safe from you, its broken wing heals suddenly, and the bird flies away, calling a loud "KILL-DEE" that sounds like a jeer."
- http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/killdeer.html - Are some of my favorite birds.
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