The Not-So-Smart Mama

Paul was putting out some weed and feed last week. He got to the flower bed at the end of our driveway and a bird started going crazy. After looking for a few minutes, he found that this bird had made a nest in our flowerbed. She had one speckled egg there.





I don't know if she had sent Daddy Bird to look for the perfect nesting location or if she just decided on a whim that it was a great place to make a nest, but someone did NOT do their research! Somehow the fact that FIVE kids (FOUR boys) and THREE dogs live at that flowerbed! And, the four boys, they LOVE to dig through that flowerbed in search of bugs.

Over the course of the week I have kind of kept my eye out of the bird and her nest. I told the boys that they could not play over there and that if they were to touch the egg the baby bird would die because the mom would no longer care for it. So, they stand at the end of the driveway and antagonize mom from afar.

Through watching her, I became very curious about some strange observations. For one, if you walk towards her nest she flares her tail out and she looks injured. Another thing is until recently she never sat on the nest. She would stand by it and walk around near it, but she was never sitting on it. I also noticed there was another bird that was always near by.



Yesterday when I was taking the trash out I noticed her sitting on the nest. Later when I saw her walking around the yard I went and checked on the nest. To my surprise there were FOUR eggs.



After I told Paul she had more eggs, we immediately wondered how long they take to hatch. We have to start doing yard work. The grass is turning green, the weeds have been green and growing, and we can't wait on baby birds to do the yard work (we have a HOA....we really CANNOT wait!!) So, we got online to find out how long it takes for the eggs to hatch and babies to fly away.

Well.....these eggs will take longer than your average Robin! They are Killdeers and they are a type of shorebird. That means that they hatch with their eyes open and can immediately walk (although clumsy). That is probably a good thing with their boyish and barking neighbors, but it means that they stay in the egg an extra week (it takes 24-28 days to hatch). They cannot fly for several weeks though.

I also read that they are very tolerant of humans (although that was obvious by the fact that they are living here). The male and female take turns sitting on the nest (I don't know if that is so for all birds). They usually lay four eggs, but none of the eggs start maturing until they are sat on, so even though one eggs has been in the nest for a week longer, they will all hatch at the same time. If someone or something goes towards the nest they will act like they have a broken wing and start running the other direction (usually dragging their "injured" wing) to try and get the "prey" to walk away from the nest. When I went out and took the last set of pictures, I had injured mama walking one direction and injured daddy walking another direction. And if one starts screaming, any around will scream (I had at least three or four screaming at me). Also, they often live in gravel areas and their eggs blend in to the rocks and gravel.

Dad bird in the pasture behind us, screaming at me

So, there is your Killdeer lesson for the day. HOPEFULLY, I will be able to get pictures of the babies when they hatch. I am not sure what we are going to do about Easter egg hunt this year because if we do it out there like we normally do, someone is going to be collecting some REAL eggs!!