Killdeer nest in my yard

[Jim_T]

I live in the country and have a gravel driveway.. A couple of days ago I noticed a Killdeer pair paying close attention to some of the stones at a corner of the driveway.. They were taking turns rubbing their tummies on the ground... I took a rough shot out the window of them doing their thing.

Today I went out and see there is an egg. Darn.. Now I have to be careful not to run over it with my lawn tractor. Not only that, but every time I walk out the door, the birds start squawking loudly and flopping around doing the 'injured' act on my driveway to distract me from the nest.

It's not much of a nest.. Kildeers just lay their eggs on the ground......

[Jim_T]

Here is the egg up close:

[Stephen Stephen]

Nice Jim. It sounds like you'll get to photograph the broken wing behaviour and possible the chick too.

Two years ago Dan Cadieux and I came across a kildeer nest amongst the ruins of a burnt down farm house. The next time that we went back however the eggs were gone.

[Jim_T]

Originally Posted by Stephen Stephen

Nice Jim. It sounds like you'll get to photograph the broken wing behaviour and possible the chick too.
.

Thanks.. Yes, I see the broken wing behavior every time I walk out the door.. I feel guilty making the bird do all that work

There are two eggs in the nest now.

Here's a shot of the 'wounded act' and the second egg... Hopefully I'll have chick photos to follow. I looked up the Killdeer gestation period and according to most wildlife sites, the eggs should hatch in ~28 days which will be mid to late June.

[canonloader]

Great shots Jim. I have still to find a nest, but there does seem to be more Killdeer around than since I was a kid. It's good to see.

[RW123]

Excellent shots Jim--those eggs blend in nicely with the rocks--isn't nature wonderful. Looking forward to the chick-ling shots.

[Diamond Lil]

I hope you will share more photos as the process continues. It will be a wonderful documentary!

[Joe Ravenstein]

Great shots of the bird and eggs. I have them in my area and one pair made their nest almost on the gravel road in front of my home, I put large objects down to keep drivers from running over the nest like the mail delivery and my lawn mowing guy. They worked and once the eggs hatched they moved to safer places to rear the chicks.

[Desertdarlene]

Hi! I just joined this forum and this is my first post. I stumbled upon this site from your post because I love killdeer and am hoping to get a good photo of them, soon, with a new lens. Great shots! I am hoping to see photos of the chicks. So far, I've had a little disappointment with killdeer nests this year and have not seen any chicks. Please keep us posted.

I'm surprised that there's only one egg, though. Most of the time they lay three or four.