Killdeer

 The killdeer is a common plover found throughout North America, Central America and Northern South America. They typically nest in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Birds that nest in Canada and the northern US typically migrate as far south as Peru. Birds that nest in the southern and central US often are year round residents. Killdeer are ground nesters. The nest is a shallow depression in dry ground with little vegetation around. The bird above is on the nest and actually has chicks below her as well as the one visible out front.

Killdeer will sometimes nest in wetlands finding a slightly elevated dry spot for the nest. They have also been observed nesting on the gravel roofs of buildings, which can be disastrous.The typical clutch size for killdeer is four to six eggs. The eggs are incubated for three to four weeks. The eggs are buff colored with many speckles which makes them look like stones. When the chicks hatch they already have a covering of down feathers and are able to leave the nest and begin foraging right away.  Even though this chick was way to young to fly it still could run quite quickly and was an expert at hiding in the lily pads.

Although they are a shore bird killdeer are often found away from water in parks, farm fields, golf courses and along gravel roads. When a predator shows up near the nest or young the adult bird will often fake a wing injuring to try to lure the predator away. When the predator is far enough away from the nest or young or if it gets to close the adult will give up the rouse and fly away. This does not stop animals like cows that are not interested in eating the adult. In these cases the bird will puff itself up as large as possible and charge the larger animal, hoping to get it to change its path. The bird in the photo above is faking a broken wing.

Killdeer

The killdeer is a common plover that breeds through out much of North America. Killdeer that breed in the northern portion of their range, Canada and the northern US, migrate south for the winter. Some killdeer migrate into the southern United States and Mexico and some continue south down into Central America and northern portions of South America. The killdeer is named because of its shrill call which sounds like they are saying kill-deer.

Although they are a plover they are often found far away from water. They are found in a variety of habitat and have adapted very well to humans. The bird in the first picture made its nest in the side of a gravel road. Fortunately it was in a wildlife refuge so the area was roped off to avoid an accident with a car. Other common places that you can see killdeer include parks, ball fields, low farm fields, yards and golf courses. Killdeer are known for faking a wing injury to lure predators away from their nest or young. Since they consider us predators I have seen this behavior on a few occasions, but since I do not intend to eat the bird it does not quite work correctly. Instead I look for the chick because they are quite photogenic. 

Killdeer on Nest

Killdeer

Its spring time, soon we will have baby birds all over the place. Already many of the early nesters have already hatched their broods while other species, like warblers, have just made it back to the area. I have been asked to help out this year on the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas. I have not volunteered in the past because of time constraints but I decided to help out this year when I found out that they were not getting much data back from the area that I live in.

The killdeer, like the one in the photos above, probably have not yet laid their eggs. These pictures were taken at the Sherburne NWR in July. This bird nested in the loose sand and gravel on the side of the wildlife drive. Not a very safe place to nest. Staff at the refuge did flag off that part of the road to make life a bit easier for mom. In the top photo you can see the empty egg sitting in front of the killdeer. In the second photo I managed to get a chick.

Killdeer Nest

Killdeer

Killdeer Chick

Killdeer Chick

Usually when birders think of shorebird habitat they think of open mudflats with very little vegetation. One of the big exceptions to this rule are killdeer. These plovers are often found in yards, parks, golf courses and dirt roads. That was why I was surprised to find some killdeer breeding at the Maplewood Nature Center.

Warm and dry weather had turned the typically shallow lake into a series of mud flats and shallow pools. I spotted three young ones but it was hard to tell for sure if that was all of them because they spent most of their time hiding in the vegetation. At first I was not sure which type of plover that they were, since the young only have a single strip just like other plovers like the semipalmated or Wilson's plover, then I heard the "killdeer" call of the adult and I knew exactly which plover that I was photographing.

Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge

Each summer I try and make at least one trip over to the Sherburne NWR which is located north west of the Twin Cities. Established in 1965 Sherburne has over 30,000 acres of habitat in the transition zone between the tallgrass prairie and deciduous forests.

I spent most of my time at Sherburne traveling the wildlife drive. Although the drive transitions through several different habits, including wetlands and forest, much of the land surrounding the road is open prairie. In the summer these fields provide a tapestry for nature to paint a masterpiece of color.

The bright colors of the wild flowers are a signal to butterflies, bees and other insects that the blossoms are ripe with nectar. The visiting insects pick up pollen as they feast. This pollen will fall from the insect while it is feeding at a flower in the future and it will pollinates the plant. In this way the flowers and insects depend on each other and work together in harmony.
Dragonflies are not so harmonious. As a predator, taking their prey is totally one sided. Do not judge them harshly though, for many things that they prey on, flies and mosquitoes for example, are considered pests.

Part of the original mission of the refuge was to protect and restore the habitats of the St Francis River Valley for the benefit of migratory birds. Each spring and fall thousands of waterfowl travel through this area. Areas like Sherburne provide valuable habitat where they can stop, eat and rest.

There are also some birds that use the refuge as a breeding ground. This killdeer nested right on the side of the wildlife drive. Refuge personnel put up markers to warn drivers so that they would be aware of the mother and her young chicks.

Shakespeare in the Park.

One of the most common shorebirds found in North America is the killdeer. These plovers are often found away from water at common places that people inhabit, such at golf courses, parks, yards and dirt roads. Despite their name these birds are quite passive and are not known for killing deer or any other large mammals. The name killdeer comes from their piercing call which, if you use you imagination just slightly, sounds like the words kill deer.

Even though killdeer may be spotted quite commonly they do have a special talent which make them anything but common. The killdeer is a consummate actor. When the killdeers nest is threatened by a predator the killdeer will put on an act worthy of an Oscar. As you may be able to tell by the pics above, the killdeer will feign having an injured wing to lure predators away from its nest. The instincts of the predator will be to go after the easy injured prey, however once the predator has followed the killdeer far enough away for the nest to be safe the killdeer will make a miraculous recovery and fly away, wings as good as new.
As a ground nester the killdeer has more to worry about then just predators. Often large ungulates, hoofed mammals, will threaten a nest that happens to be in their path. The killdeer's normal injured decoy act is not effective against these walking bulldozers. So instead the killdeer will fluff up its feathers, to make itself look as large a possible, and charge at the beast with its tail over its head, hoping that this bluff charge will change the behemoths trajectory.

After the killdeer chicks hatch they are able to run almost immediately. This takes some of the pressure off of the thespian parents, since the chicks can run and hide when danger is near.

Killdeer and Semipalmated Plover in South Dakota

One of the most common shorebirds found in North America is the killdeer. When I went to South Dakota to participate in a shorebird workshop the killdeer was the first shorebird that I saw. I drove out to South Dakota the day before the workshop began and since I had some extra time I made a stop at Big Stone Lake, which is the headwaters for the Minnesota River. There in the grass around the lake I spotted about a half dozen killdeer foraging the field for insects, worms, snails and seeds.Like most shorebirds, killdeer can often be found in shallow water or mud puddles but killdeer are more versatile in their habitat then most other shore birds and they also are found in farm fields, pastures, golf courses, sports fields and gravel roads. There ability to coexist and adapt to man is the key reason why the killdeer have been so successful.
Another reason for the killdeers success is their acting ability. Since they are a ground nester they often have to worry about predators like felines, canines, raccoons and other mammals attacking their nest. When predators such as these get near the nest the adult killdeer will often pose as an injured bird and try to lure the predator away from the nest.
The killdeer was not the only member of the plover family that I saw at the shorebird workshop. The semipalmated plover looks very similar to the killdeer except that it is missing a second stripe across its chest.
Semipalmated plovers nest up in the arctic regions of Alaska and Canada. We typically only see them during migration when they travel to wintering grounds which are located in the southern coastal areas of North America as well as coastal regions in Mexico, Central and South America. During migration they often stop at shallow pools and mud flats across much of North America looking for food to sustain them on their long flight.

Purgatory Creek Shore Birds

This summer when gas prices got high I decided to try and do more of my birding closer to home. There were a few good spots in the Twin Cities that I visited regularly, Carpenter Nature Center, Mn Valley NWR, Dodge Nature Center and Wood Lake Nature Center, but in the past I also did a lot of traveling to places like Crex Meadows,Carlos Avery, Necedah NWR, Hok Si La, Park Point, Hawk Ridge, and Sax Zim Bog. This year since I was limiting my trips to those further locations I needed to find some new spots in the Twin Cities that I could visit to give me some more variety. Near the end of July I found a new spot that fit the bill. Purgatory Creek Park is a wetland area surrounding Purgatory Creek in Eden Prairie, MN. It is in the South west part of the Twin Cities, and I live on the South East, so it is not as close as many of the parks that I frequent in the Twin Cities but it is still only 20 to 30 minutes away, depending on traffic. They have a good system of trails, including one that runs between two wetland areas, and a viewing area. I heard about it on the MOU list server because it had some of the best mud flats around back at the end of July.
So I headed off to Eden Prairie after work to explore the park and check out the mud flats for any possible shore birds. I was not disappointed. There were a lot of things for me to photograph. They even had a small mud flat with a few shorebirds like this killdeer.
Besides for the killdeer I also spotted a solitary sandpiper. You can tell that it is a solitary, as I learned later in August at the shorebird workshop which I attended, because of the white eye ring and the dark shoulder.
Solitary sandpiper often found alone, thus the name. They are unlike most other shorebirds in that they do not mind having vegetation around, so they are often found wandering small ponds.
The lesser yellowlegs, on the other hand, will usually avoid mud that is filled with greenery. They use their long legs to wade through the water looking for aquatic insects, and small fish to eat.
It is difficult to tell the difference between the lesser and greater yellowlegs. A lot of people look for a difference in size to tell them apart but this can be difficult when you have only one bird. In our shorebird class we were told to examine the beak of the bird, if it is two toned then it is a greater yellowlegs but if it is a single color, as this bird demonstrates, then it is a lesser yellowlegs.

Birding Crex Meadows

After spending the long Forth of July weekend photographing the bears at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary and then spending time photographing things in the Sax Zim Bog I decided to rest a bit the following week and spend some time at home. By the next Saturday I was getting a little stir crazy so I decided to take a trip up to Crex Meadows. Crex Meadows is a great birding location and even in the summer when birding is a bit slow in this area you can usually find something to photograph in Crex.
Mourning doves are fairly common through out most of North America in one season or another, which is why I do not often stop to photograph them, but this bird was sitting beautifully in perfect light. So I stopped to take the pic. Mourning doves are considered a game bird and their are hunting seasons for them in many states. Fortunately Minnesota does not have a mourning bird season, I am not sure if Wisconsin does or not, which is good because I think that hunting mourning doves is one of the stupidest things that I have ever heard of. I am not a hunter, never have and never will, but at least with duck, pheasant, or dear you are hunting something that you can eat. After killing a mourning dove are you going to take it home and make yourself a sandwich?
Many eastern kingbirds spend their summers in the area feasting on insects. When they arrive in the spring they claim a breeding territory which they defend aggressively against other kingbirds as well as larger birds such as hawks, crows and bluejays. In the winter they migrate down to South America where they live in communities and eat mostly fruit.

The killdeer is the most common shorebird that we usually see in the area. That is because they have adapted well to people. This killdeer was searching the dirt road for worms, grasshoppers, beetles and other insects. Killdeers are great actors and will put on the show of a lifetime, pretending to have a broken wing to lure predators away from their nest.
Ring-necked ducks are named so because of the rust colored ring on their necks. Typically you do not get to see the ring, but this duck has his necked stretched so that the ring is visible. I wonder if this is the same ring-necked pair that I photographed earlier in the year at Crex that was also showing of its ring.
One of the birds that is most identified with Crex Meadows is the Sandhill Crane. Crex has a resident population of sandhills which comes each spring and stays though until fall. Last year Michelle and I were lucky enough to get to photograph a sandhill colt but this year I was not so lucky.
In the fall more sandhills will arrive at Crex from all around the upper Midwest and Canada. Hundreds of cranes will be grouped together preparing for the flight down to their winter habitat. Winters are spent in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico with small populations also in southern California and Florida. In the spring tens of thousands of cranes migrate together all stopping to rest at the Platte River in Nebraska. From there they break up into groups and move on to their summer breeding ground.
The only raptor that I photographed that day was this bald eagle who was keeping a watchful eye over the park. From what I have been told, at the National Eagle Center, Wisconsin is the state with the fourth largest population of eagles in the US, first being Alaska, then Minnesota and Florida.