Keep an eye on the baby birdies

BY HELEN HANNAN, Courier correspondent

June 26, 2008 01:31 pm

— Distracted by the loud squawking of the apparently injured brownish bird floundering in the furrow of my muddy garden, I narrowly missed stepping on nearly invisible darkly speckled eggs. They were clustered in the partially burned debris of last year’s tomato vines.
Her beady little eyes watching every move, the bird nevertheless quieted as I stepped carefully away from the eggs. Her location in the exact center of my garden was a bit inconvenient; but a few days later my husband generously left an unplowed strip for her use. Would the eggs survive to hatch, we wondered? If they did hatch what of the hatchlings? She had chosen a dangerous neighborhood inhabited by a dozen or so cats and a couple of dogs on the premises.
After several days, the bird still lived and then there were four eggs.
On-line research identified the bird as a killdeer, so named because of its frequently heard call. Common in most of North America, the killdeer is a ground nesting bird related to the plover and sandpiper. About the size of a robin except with longer legs, killdeer is an attractive bird with grayish brown back and wings, white belly and breast and a tawny orange rump. It also has two black bands across the breast, brown face and cap with white forehead and orange red eye ring. Young and adult birds are similarly marked.
Because they stay in the egg about twice as long as a robin, the eggs are about twice as big. They are precocial which means that the babies hatch with their eyes open and begin scurrying about looking for food as soon as their downy feathers are dry. Their diet is mainly insects found in fields, along shores and in mudflats (my garden this year).
After monitoring the eggs for more than three weeks, hoping to catch them hatching, I missed the big event. Returning from a few days’ absence, the little depression in the ashes was empty. Though I have yet to spot them, I like to think the babies are alive and well because Mamma remains watchful, occasionally performing her conspicuous distraction routine, surely an indication the little ones are nearby.