Nature clicks #238 - Killdeer (on the nest)

 

This isn’t my first image of a Killdeer sitting on eggs but it is definitely the one I always wanted to make. Will talk about this later.

This is in a corner of a big parking lot in the Green Island Wetlands but these birds love to lay their eggs there since I started watching them several years ago. It makes me always very nervous watching this, even if the parking lot is not busy this time of the year. It is mainly used for the trucks and boat trailers during the duck hunting season in the fall. However, beside me other people come out there to watch birds or to fish and it is easy to destroy the eggs without even knowing it.

Quiet often one of the adult birds tries to lure you away by running in a different direction or by sitting in an empty spot and pretending to be on the real nest. This one wasn’t moving and when I approached the bird carefully it lifted its body up and I was able to snap a picture and saw at least two eggs underneath the Killdeer.

The key for the photo was to put the belly down on the gravel and support the lens with a foam roll (“boat noodle”) that I use usually as my support on the car window. I remembered that the background was always the biggest problem with my older pictures and I crawled around the bird until I found the position where I acquired a liking for background and direction of light.

Visit in the wetlands

 

It has been three weeks since I had my last visit in the Green Island Wetlands. The water level in the Mississippi River is still very high and this effects the wetlands as well. It was relatively quiet yesterday afternoon. I have not seen a single duck, not very many Canada Geese, and the strangest thing was that I didn’t see any goslings. I really wonder if the flood has destroyed some of the nests. This all doesn’t mean there was nothing going on. Some Great Egrets stood either in groups or alone in the water and hunted for fish and frogs. I saw a Yellow Warbler, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, an Eastern Kingbird, and even had my first sighting of a Yellow-throated Vireo.

This muskrat looks like it is dozing but it was actually feeding and chewing on plants in the water under a carpet of duckweed.

Probably thousands of Red-Winged Blackbirds have finished their nests and the females sit on the eggs right now. This female here was irritated by my approach because I drove by very slowly with my “mobile blind”. She left the nest but returned within a minute. The first photo was made as she entered the nest again and pretty soon the breeding business continued. The males sit on higher perches, like trees or the remains of last year’s reeds, and watch out for predators. I have seen them in the past defending their territory very aggressively against crows or even eagles.

Nature clicks #94 - Killdeer sitting on three eggs

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Two weeks ago I finished my post "Nature clicks #88" with the words, "I know I still have some work to do with the wonderful Killdeer…". This was due to the fact that I still didn't have the photo of a Killdeer that was more than a simple documentary shot. Last Sunday I made many pictures of a couple Killdeer sitting in a particular spot in the parking lot of the Green Island Wetlands. I thought they were just pretending to sit on a nest site in order to lure me away from the real nest. I was totally wrong. Today one of the Killdeer was still sitting in the same spot. They actually don't built really a nest, they just use a depression in the ground to lay their eggs.

You may ask, how did you find out that it was their real nest site? The Killdeer walked briefly away and I had a glimpse into the little hollow. Wow, I saw three Killdeer eggs! I snapped quickly a few shots and left it alone. The last thing I wanted to do is to disturb the birds while they are breeding. The nest is in the parking lot and I'm now afraid someone may just drive over it without even knowing…