The Killdeer's Father's Day

Three of the four killdeer chicks hatched right in time for the Killdeer Dad to enjoy his Father's day. I posted a couple of shots of of one of these killdeer parents already in the bird portrait thread, but decided to post the first images of these chicks in their own topic. The mom laid the eggs right in the middle of the parking lot at our local BMX track. I put caution tape around the nest to keep the eggs from getting run over and I must say I am most happy that three, and most likely four, of the chicks have survived and have a chance to grow up and raise their own chicks some day.

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Beautiful series, and thanks for protecting the nest - I'd love to get this close to a killdeer!

This is great! The nest I found two weeks ago now has four eggs instead of the original two I saw, and the bird is sitting quite comfortably. I was able to report the find to the folks in charge of the area and they marked the nest with a cone.
Do you have any idea how long it takes for the eggs to hatch? I don't want to bother the hen with daily trips, but would love to have a chance to see the babies.

I don't know much about killdeer. Of course I read up on them and the articles I read stated the incubation period was from 24-28 days. Another source stated 22-28 days. One article stated that the birds will not start sitting on the nest until all the eggs are laid and all the eggs basically incubate at the same rate once the parents start sitting on the nest. The first laid eggs take longer to hatch, but the rate they hatch following the parents sitting on the eggs is the same as the eggs laid later. Just note, I did not thoroughly research this. I found that interesting but I don't know how accurate the source is.

I don't know when all four eggs were laid in this nest but I did see the killdeer act like they were mating on Sunday, May 28th. I remember that it was on Sunday because that day it was raining so hard when I went to Church I did not take a camera with me because it would have been hard to get it in the car during the middle of a hard thunderstorm. Later that day, when I saw the pair mating, it seemed ironic that the only day I had no camera other than a cellphone was when something like that would happen. I didn't have a chance to catch that shot, but it did give me a day to start counting the incubation period.

If the last egg was laid on the day we saw the pair mating, the eggs would have hatched on the 21 day. Of course, I guess it is possible the father of the brood was just attempting to breed again and the hen was already finished laying all her eggs.

Best of luck to your pair. The middle of a parking lot is bad enough, I can't imagine having a nest in the middle of a road.

Oh wow, lovely shots!! I hope they all survive.

About 4 yrs ago a Kildeer had a nest in a grassy area near the farm field adjacent to my yard. 2 days later I discovered something (I'm thinking a stray cat) had grabbed mom and killed her. Haven't seen another around since then.

thanks for the info - my gal is still setting on her four eggs. She's lucky because we have marked the area and this particular lane is only traversed by employees of the farm, all of whom have been notified of it's existence. Of course, there are foxes and raccoons to contend with, but Nature does as She pleases. I will keep an eye out for them in so far as I am able.