Nesting Killdeer for Ric

LCD

Here are some shots of a nest. And the "distraction" dance.

This nest was within a couple feet of a parking bumper.

These shots were taken last year with a 75-300 EFS.

The blur in the bottom right is the parking bumper


Interesting eggs. They really blend in with gravely ground.


Wish I'd used a greater dof on this one. But I wanted to catch the wonderful colors of the feathers


One last shot to show the precarious location of the nest


wish they were better quality, but I hope they help answer some questions. My little documentary :rolleyes

gluwater

Good little documentary. I like series that tell a story. Thanks for posting these.

Stan

Wow and they say 'stay clear of nesting birds', maybe someone should tell the bird. great set and beautiful camoflage of the eggs and the bird in the cigarette butts


Stan

LCD

gluwater wrote:

Good little documentary. I like series that tell a story. Thanks for posting these.

Thanks Nick.

I just checked out your macro gallery - nice shots!

LCD

Stan wrote:

Wow and they say 'stay clear of nesting birds', maybe someone should tell the bird. great set and beautiful camoflage of the eggs and the bird in the cigarette butts


Stan

Yea, I thought all the cigarette butts were a commentary in themselves. I just don't understand why some people don't think they are litter

thanks for taking the time to comment.

jwear

very good shots --the broken wing thing is why I never shot the nest again that i found --good job butt the trash is :cry

LCD

jwear wrote:

very good shots --the broken wing thing is why I never shot the nest again that i found --good job butt the trash is :cry

Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm not sure which was the male or female, but one stayed on the nest, and the other danced. Would have like to catch the babies, but they were up and gone before I had a chance.

got some babies this year, but they run so fast... no good shots

Thanks for commenting. :

Ric Grupe

Very cool!

I noticed that the sparrows around here like to use cigarette butts for nesting materials too. Or, maybe those are left over from the after mating ritual!

Thanks.....next spring I'll be looking.:D

Maestro

We have many killdeer where we live.
They are actually quite photogenic as you can tell. That was very good series. You did a good job capturing the "wounded bird dance" that killdeers perform to distract would be predators from their eggs. I haven't captured that one yet without motion blur.

Harryb

Excellent series documenting bird and human behavior. I hate to say it but the birds come out ahead of the humans.

raptorcaptor

Nice Kildeer shots!
A kildeer actually laid some eggs in the parking lot at the San Joaquin wildlife sanctuary. They were nice enough to rope the area off.

Ric Grupe

Ric Grupe wrote:

Very cool!

I noticed that the sparrows around here like to use cigarette butts for nesting materials too. Or, maybe those are left over from the after mating ritual!

Thanks.....next spring I'll be looking.:D

Forgot to say I really like your shots!

Dick on Aruba

Nice series, well done.

Thanks for sharing.

Dick.