Sitting on the nest
Killdeer are normally very skittish birds and are very difficult to approach closely. On this day I had the good fortune to find this bird sitting on her nest. Once I approached too closely she began displaying a very aggressive attitude. In the past I have had them attempt to lead me away with the “broken wing” trick but this little girl stood her ground, flared her feathers and called incessantly.
Displaying her aggressive attitude
7 comments:
You are most fortunate to have got these photos of a Killdeer. As you said they are skittish and will employ lots of old tricks to lead you away. I like the birds because I have seen them doing these things ever since I can remember and they used to be a lot of them in this country because almost all roads that were not mud were graveled and the edges were the nest sites. Now, here, you have to go out in the country to see them and then they are almost rare.
Nice photos. Really.
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Nice photos. I really like the photo with the wings spread.
Great shots. I've seen people who got their feathers ruffled, but here's the real thing.
I like the eggs in the background. That poor girl, you were freakin her out!
I love that you were able to capture her eggs in the background. Great catch of the aggressive behavior.
great shots. I have never been able to get that close to one!
Several years ago, while still in college, I got the opportunity to work during the summer setting up the college's new observatory. Like a good observatory it was out in the country with a long gravel, crushed limestone, driveway. On evening, just before sunset I arrived to find someone had set several stick in the middle of the parking area. Cursing the backwoods local and the local teens whom I believed responsible I began to investigate only to find several speckled eggs in amongst the sticks and an injured bird off tothe side. I realized that I was seeing the killdeer's dance of protection (I call it). Since then these have been some of my favorite birds!
Ed U. Cayshun
http://educayshun.blogspot.com/
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