I was at a community picnic at our marina when this Killdeer started screaming at me. I knew there must be a nest nearby, but it took me a momment to notice the eggs right under her. I grabbed my camera from the car and took a few pictures before putting construction cones around her nest (lots of traffic that day.) Nikon N50, Sigma 70-210 zoom lens, E200 film, handheld. (I took a vertical I like a little better, but it is out on submission so I cropped this horizontal to post.) Donna

-- Donna P. Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), June 08, 1999

Answers

I wonder what happened to the fourth egg? If I am not mistaken killdeer, (all plovers for that matter) always lay four. Nice behavioral shot, but the light is a little flat. I wonder if you could reshoot it earlier or later in the day without upsetting the bird too much.

-- Billy Gorum (Herphoto@aol.com), June 09, 1999.

Nice shot but a depth of field extending to the eggs would have been an improvement.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), June 09, 1999.

Lovely detail in the bird, including those great, extended tail feathers.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), June 09, 1999.

Thanks for the comments. Billy, on my monitor at work the colors look very flat, almost as if the picture is under exposed. At home, where I did the scan, they don't look too bad. But, this image was shot mid- morning in a bright sun, not an ideal time of day to take great pictures. I wasn't sure I would have the opportunity to visit the nest again (once the eggs hatch the mother takes the baby into the brush for safety) so I took a few shots to record the behavior. I must have not bothered her too much because she didn't do the broken wing act. I did return two days later in the morning, but she, and hopefully her successfully hatched chicks, were gone. There are quite a few killdeer and quail near my home so I plan to get some more pictures next spring. Oh! And I don't know what happened to the fourth egg, infact did not even know that tidbit of info., maybe a snake or raccoon got it. Thanks again, Donna

-- Donna P. Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), June 10, 1999.

If you look carefully at the left side eggs, it looks like there are 2 there, 4 total. Just hard to see with it out of focus.

Killdeer have a habit of nesting right in the middle of human activity, I'm sure that Donna didn't disturb her any more than what was going on, and in fact probably saved the eggs from getting trampled by putting the cones around for protection.

-- Rose-Marie Burke (rmbehr@istar.ca), June 13, 1999.