Speaking of Bird Eggs

Today I am my own guest bloggers. I got the idea from Cathy, better known as ShareChair, who reposted some of her earliest posts. I posted this one year ago, one of my first posts. Since very few people have ever seen it I thought it was appropriate to republish it to show you another variety…

Marsha

May 30, 2013

1 minute

birds, photography, Tulare County, wildlife

We can’t believe that they are not extinct, but the sites I found on Google insist that they are common.

This mama or dad, they look alike, has been sitting in 100 degree heat all day to cool these four future killdeer. Her choice of nesting site is the reason we question the statistics on their abundance. Those rocks are our driveway.

She/he did the Killdeer feigning dance for me until the cat came over to investigate. I carted the cat safely away, and snapped these pictures one-handed as I left the poor stressed mother/father to get back to work sitting on the now-shaded eggs.

Sorry to say these pretty eggs didn’t make it either, in spite of their mother’s constantly chasing off predators. Most likely our cats were the culprits as they had their eyes all over those eggs. Vince and I felt very sad when the nest was empty.

And speaking of eggs did you all get a chance to name the new flamingo chick? You have until June 3.

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43 responses to “Speaking of Bird Eggs”

adinparadise

June 1, 2013 at 10:16 am

Very pretty eggs. Marsha. I’m so sad for the poor parents. I wish them more wisdom and better luck next time around.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  June 1, 2013 at 11:39 am
  
  Thanks for your condolences, Sylvia! The local killdeer may have learned their lesson this year. There haven’t been any eggs so far in the driveway this year! 🙂
  
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J. G.

May 31, 2013 at 10:12 am

Would you believe I have never known what type of birds these are. When we lived out in the boonies we had one of these that lived in the backyard. If we got close and then ran it would go after us (hey give me a break, I was only about 6 😉 ). It never would catch up to us. I guess it was guarding its nest. Interesting.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 1:15 pm
  
  There you go. I never knew what they were until I did this post! I have learned so much by blogging! And here I thought I knew it all BEFORE I started blogging. This is what every parent ought to get their teenager for their 13th birthday – their own blog! 🙂
  
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Jilanne Hoffmann

May 31, 2013 at 9:34 am

Beautiful bird, but ,yes, not the most intelligent. Darwin’s law rules.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 1:14 pm
  
  hahaha By his rules, shouldn’t they be getting more intelligent? 🙂
  
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  1. Jilanne Hoffmann
    
    May 31, 2013 at 10:37 pm
    
    Good point. Perhaps they’re just slowly losing numbers?
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      June 1, 2013 at 12:24 am
      
      I haven’t researched that! 🙂
      
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sharechair

May 31, 2013 at 5:33 am

So glad you reposted that. I think it’s a good idea to recycle some earlier posts so that new readers get to see some oldies-but-goodies! 🙂 I may be doing that more often, too.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 1:02 pm
  
  I know, Cathy. My states said I got no likes on it the first time! and who goes back and reads 370+ posts? haha I’m glad when someone comes back frequently and reads one or two!!! 🙂
  
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benzeknees

May 30, 2013 at 11:21 pm

Obviously not a very bright bird to lay eggs in a driveway & so sad they did not survive.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:56 pm
  
  haha! Those didn’t, but I’ve seen more killdeer, so some eggs somewhere made it! YEAH!!! 🙂
  
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diannegray

May 30, 2013 at 11:08 pm

I love you as a guest blogger, Marsha. What a brilliant idea 😀

I always feel really sad when the birds around the farm die or I find broken eggs. I remember after a cyclone when the kids where young they ran around when the wind stopped and picked up all the damaged eggs and asked me to fix them. Umm.. I can do a lot of things, but I’m not that good! LOL 😀

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:55 pm
  
  You’re pretty good, though. These eggs were pretty enough, I should have kept them and glued them together and shellacked them as ornaments! They were so delicate, though, and I’m a klutz! 🙂
  
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smilingtoad

May 30, 2013 at 6:46 pm

Absolutely adorable post! Right in your driveway, oh dear! They nest here in a great field across the way, a much more conducive spot. Those photos are too cute. Aye sad for the loss but good at the same time, taught killdeeries not to nest there in the future. Could have been first-time parents.

I remember when I was wee, a very, very long, long time ago, as I’m quite an olde piece of limestone, I would go mountain-bike-hopping (a very enjoyable activity I highly recommend) off some dirt mounds in a field that was nestled below a great, heaping prairie that seemed to expand to the heavens and far beyond. Well, I was flitting off of these dirt mounds like a hoodlum for hours one day when suddenly I heard this strange “peep-peeping” sound. I fell off the bike (naturally) as I whirled around to gawp at a cluster of tiny little fuzz balls darting about in the tawny grass. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a mass amount of killdeer and tiny cheeping fuzz-balls. The wee ones came rushing right up to me when I sprawled in the grass with them- not very wise, but heavenly for me all the same. They were the cutest little things, and I just marveled how something so minute and fragile could survive so well, thriving here in this sun-baked field, riddled with roaring humans on flying mountain-bikes, and bellowing dogs, with great baseball-gatherings, and stomping deer, and gallons and gallons of gawking hawks and owls sailing above, and smiling little ground-squirrels that poked their heads out of burrows every 12 seconds from every direction. Hmm…the ground-squirrel tunnels might have been useful….

I often hear the killdeer calling out in the night here, it is a lovely sound.

Here the sandhill cranes also have microscopic fuzz-balls that follow the parents around through alligator infested wetlands and along busy road-sides. To the little fuzz-balls, the giant crane parents must seem like massive, hulking dinosaurs.

Beautiful post as always dear friend,

Autumn Jade

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:46 pm
  
  You are so …oops, I almost said the S word! Killdeer are so cute! Artsifartsy just took some pictures of killdeer, so be looking on her post as well. You are definitely the best at attracting animals. Did the killdeer bond with you and start thinking you were their mommy? It is amazing that they can exist with all the obstacles that confront them!
  
  So thanks again for the beautiful comment! I thrive on your comments!!! 🙂
  
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  1. smilingtoad
    
    May 31, 2013 at 5:01 pm
    
    Oh dear lass, no, you cannot thrive on my absurd, blustery blathering. You must seek something much more substantial.
    
    Amazing indeed! Ooo I must check out that post then, brilliant!
    
    Oh golly, thankfully, no, I would make an absolutely abominable killdeer parent. Me flailing in the grass like some sort of beached whale, pretending to have a broken wing, I highly doubt will lure predators away. It will terrify any poor unsuspecting humans that might be lurking about, who will rapidly gather up their offspring and run for their safety.
    
    I once attempted to defend a nest of baby wrens against an onslaught of black-birds. The black-birds won. Grackles rather. I am grand at attracting predators, no so grand at deterring them. Oh dear.
    
    Did you know a crow landed on me once when I was very wee? It was one of the great joys of my life. I did not even have any bread, just hoped he would, and he granted my request. Was only for a second, and it was brilliant.
    
    A Canada-goose nearly took a ride with me mum and I home, once, too, I must have told you about. I know I did. I went down to the little pond, no bread again, and came back with a goosly-protégé quietly following behind me. I opened the back seat door and the goose began to climb right inside. Me mum balked and, crestfallen, I reluctantly lead the goose back to the water again. Yes, I know I told you that story indeed. 😉
    
    Did I tell you about the magical tortoise moment? I don’t think I have. Sir and I were rumbling down the road when I spotted a gopher tortoise munching grass just on the fringe of the woods. I bugled to stop, and we leaped out. We were a little distance away, when we were able to stop, and were back-tracking. Sir was convinced he knew where the tortoise was and went stomping into the woods by himself. I knew it was the wrong place. I darted further down, then bolted into the forest, sencing precisely where the tortoise had gone. And sure enough, I found him.
    
    “Stay there, now” I told the shelled-reptile with miniature elephant hind-legs. The creature stopped and gawped at me. I darted off again and retrieved Sir. The tortoise had remained in the same spot the entire time I was gone collecting Sir, who had managed to become somewhat tangled up in a prickly copse. As soon as we arrived, the tortoise began going about his routine again whilst Sir and I avidly watched.
    
    “What, he stayed in the same place because you told him to?! I DON’T believe it!” Sir bleated at me.
    
    “How do you think I knew right where he was, har har?” I said, hopping back to the car.
    
    Sir is always so dubious!
    
    😉
    
    Autumn Jade
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      May 31, 2013 at 6:33 pm
      
      He never learns! After this long, you’d think he’d have total faith in your abilities! So slow as a tortoise really means, “Stop, and wait for Autty to return!” hahaha 🙂 Most people collect porcelain geese. Not you, you garner in the real thing! 🙂 hahaha
      
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  2. smilingtoad
    
    May 31, 2013 at 5:06 pm
    
    Sensing, rather* and did I REALLY just type that far-too-long message….nooooooo!
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      May 31, 2013 at 6:34 pm
      
      My favorite kind! 🙂
      
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Ralph

May 30, 2013 at 4:14 pm

“Today I am my own guest bloggers.” Your best sentence yet MVBF Marsha 😀

So sad about the eggs and what a display to ward off predators !!

Big hug from my own guest commenter Ralph xox 😀

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 30, 2013 at 5:50 pm
  
  Hahaha.
  
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  1. Ralph
    
    May 31, 2013 at 3:21 am
    
    Was that your guest blogger laughing? 😉
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      May 31, 2013 at 12:58 pm
      
      Ralph, you make both of us laugh all the time. I laugh after I finish reading, then laugh some more during the day thinking about what you say! I don’t know about my guest bogger. I thinks she laughs a lot, too! 🙂 I laughed at your comments on AD’s Wordless post, too! 🙂
      
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      1. Ralph
        
        May 31, 2013 at 2:43 pm
        
        You are both so funny 😆 xox
        
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      2. tchistorygal
        
        May 31, 2013 at 6:24 pm
        
        As are you and your guest commenter! 🙂 Shall we agree to be mutually admirers? Hope your Moore, OK folks are ok. We are watching the stream of traffic coming out OK City. Mark and I might have ended up in OK City, Norman OK, somewhere in that area, had he chosen to go that direction after finishing Nazarene Bible College. How different my life might have been! 🙂
        
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      3. Ralph
        
        June 1, 2013 at 3:44 am
        
        I had an email this morning from LyannV, a friend who lives close to Norman and this is what she said:
        “On top of all of that, as we came back into our home town this evening there was a large storm moving north ahead of us – we thought we were going to have a nice quiet night at home. But, the storm tracked back south, growing every larger by the minute and as of now there have been several tornadoes around the Oklahoma City metro. One storm chase team had their truck picked up and thrown a couple of hundred feet – they’re fine, but their truck isn’t. There are reports of about 5 fatalities around OKC. I think the tornadoes went right past Blazers Ice Centre, but I haven’t heard much about damage. I’ve had trouble reaching Carmon all week – I’m hoping she’s okay, as tornadoes were reported near her home.
        
        At this time things are quiet, but poor Zack is still recovering. All of this made him quite sick – as I was writing he was sitting next to me and bent over and vomited all over the floor in front of me. He’s asleep, exhausted from all the crying he did during the high winds and hail we had. The May 20th tornado really did affect him…
        
        And now, so much for quiet – another bad storm is tracking toward us. We’re going to take the children to our friend’s shelter. At this moment they have given a time the winds are to hit Trin’s high school in town, and after that it is supposed to come out here. I’m certain we’ll be all right – but I really was looking forward to a nice, quiet night at home…not this!”
        
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      4. tchistorygal
        
        June 1, 2013 at 4:59 am
        
        Keep us updated, Ralph! I still have a button in my sidebar that directly links to the Tornado Donations for the OK tornadoes through the Salvation Army.
        
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      5. Ralph
        
        June 1, 2013 at 5:15 am
        
        Will do
        
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      6. tchistorygal
        
        June 1, 2013 at 5:28 am
        
        🙂 xox
        
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  2. Ralph
    
    June 1, 2013 at 10:45 am
    
    Update on recent tornadoes on June 01 2013 from LyannV
    
    “We still haven’t heard from Carmon (ice skating coach and friend). Right now we’re going to town to check on my mother-in-law. We have power, but thousands upon thousands don’t – even the man who lives across the road from us. Nothing about these storms makes any sense.
    
    I saw there is a comment on my blogs, but I will have to check that later. Thank you for sharing my words.
    
    Zack (son)seems better today, but Jody and I are thinking of getting him some counseling. I’ve explained it is perfectly natural to be afraid of storms, and I think Zack was more upset about the level of his fear than he was about the storm itself.”
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      June 1, 2013 at 11:42 am
      
      I don’t know, from the news broadcasts, the level of the storm seems pretty terrifying from an outsider’s perspective. Watching the news about the storm coupled with actually being in it seems paralyzing to me!
      
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artsifrtsy

May 30, 2013 at 3:30 pm

I was shooting a killdeer a few weeks ago in Oregon when it did that dance – I didn’t get to see the eggs though.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:32 pm
  
  Ouch! You didn’t hurt any did you? I had to think for a minute when I read that! I thought, “Artsi wouldn’t be shooting anything, what’s up?” Then my brain kicked in!!! Have you posted them? 🙂
  
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  1. artsifrtsy
    
    May 31, 2013 at 2:10 pm
    
    I did post a couple of the mother today – I only shoot birds with a camera 🙂
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      May 31, 2013 at 6:21 pm
      
      Hahaha that sounds like my friend Artsi! 🙂
      
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ytaba36

May 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm

Oh boy, you took me back about 60 years to when I was a youngster in Saskatchewan. I loved the sound of the killdeer, and how they would do the “I’ve got a broken wing” moves to lure you from the nest. The nests were always on the ground, right in the middle of the cow pasture.

Thanks for the memories!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:30 pm
  
  hahaha I hope not on a cow pie! 🙂
  
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the eternal traveller

May 30, 2013 at 1:43 pm

I know it’s nature’s way, but why do they keep laying eggs in such dangerous places?

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 31, 2013 at 12:29 pm
  
  They’re a little stupid, I think!!! They did it more than once! And yet, they are common!!!
  
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Pride in Photos Photography

May 30, 2013 at 1:10 pm

Very cool images…love the first one especially.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  May 30, 2013 at 5:51 pm
  
  Thanks!!!
  
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Maddie Cochere

May 30, 2013 at 12:05 pm

Very nice guest post, Marsha. 🙂 I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a killdeer before. The rings around the neck are striking.

I always feel sad, too, when we see dead birds and broken eggs around our property. It’s part of every spring, but I never get used to it.

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Author

Written by

Marsha

Hi, I’m Marsha Ingrao, a retired educator and wife of a retired realtor. My all-consuming hobby is blogging and it has changed my life. My friends live all over the world. In November 2020, we sold everything and retired to the mile-high desert of Prescott, AZ. We live less than five miles from the Granite Dells, four lakes, and hundreds of trails with our dog, Kalev, and two cats, Moji and Nutter Butter. Vince’s sister came with us and lives close by. Every day is a new adventure.

Marsha Ingrao – Always Write