Killdeer to Photographer: Eat ME! Not them!
I learned a new word today - "precocial". It means "relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching". I learned it looking up killdeer. Because today there were chicks in the field with the adults - little miniatures of their parents (not like the geese), running around and eating bugs. Almost the same markings (no chest stripe, and no white eyebrow), a little fuzzy, but otherwise they look so much alike, though they can't fly yet.
Dad (I assume) spotted me taking pictures and ran up ahead of me and started flailing around. When I didn't move, he got up and moved closer and then really put on a display of "come eat ME I'm all hurt". I took some shots for about a minute and then moved on and he jumped up and ran back to his family.
Here a few shots of the parents and chicks, and then several from Dad's act.
2 Comments:
-
At 11:58 PM, April 24, 2008
Anonymous had this to say...
-
-
At 8:42 PM, April 29, 2008
Jennifer had this to say...
-
-
<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->A number of years ago there was a killdeer nest near the drainage pond in our neighborhood. Doug and I got to see the injured-mom dance firsthand when we visited the nest.
A killdeer pair nested in my driveway a few years ago. The adults got very upset whenever I worked in my garden (about 10 feet from the nest). They did the "follow me, I'm hurt" dance almost every day! I was lucky enough to be out near the nest when the chicks hatched--they almost immediately started running around the yard. It was really amazing the see. They're really interesting birds!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]