Welcome to the third entry in the “Baby Month” theme! Hopefully the title didn’t scare anyone off as it can be construed differently if the specifically placed apostrophe is interpreted incorrectly. If you made it to this point, you are good to go, no fear, there are adorables on the way … in just a bit. First the traditional banter to bring you up on the world of Intrigued.
The ankle is progressing, a bit slower than I expected/wanted, but as long we are getting closer to being back on the ultra circuit, I’ll stick with the program. I was actually released from the brace during yesterday’s therapy session. It was mainly being used as additional stability during the more intense exercises, but all the work during the sessions and more importantly, the religious commitment to the home workouts (minimally 3 times a day), it is ready to go solo! Still trying to be smart about it, keeping mindful on uneven ground and watching like a hawk for any crazy old ladies at the grocery story so they don’t ram me with their carts – it’s a thing folks, so much that it was one of the first things the surgeon warned me about after surgery…and you thought the only grey hair danger was on the road ha. Told my therapist that all the work on their basketball court (side shifts, braid walking, ladder hopscotch and lateral ladder steps, etc.) are bringing back a flood of memories from my grade school basketball practices – thank god no suicides or flutter kicking yet ‘cuz that crap sucked hehehe.
No on to the topic that soothes the heart – wildlife babies!
If you like those adorable fuzzy bird fledglings, hit the jump for an extra helping.
Back to that specifically placed apostrophe. The bird fanatics out there may have already figured it out but let me provide you with a really good clue and that is “Mommy”.
In case you do not recognize this species, it is an adult Killdeer. Although we are currently it the midst of the Deer hunt season, this bird was not named for its prowess behind a bow and arrow..or shotgun. Nope, it just happens to have a call that sounds exactly like a high pitched “Kill-Deer“. Clearly a counter to the Chik-Fil-A Cow’s devious attempts to get people to “Eat Mor Chikin“.
This particular specimen happens to be the proud parent of two adorable chicks.
With the exception of the first shot in this series, all the rest of the images are a mixture of solo shots. Although I tried my best, these two chicks refused to get close enough so I could get them in the same frame. Clearly excited to be exploring their new world, the two offspring were running around like someone lit their fuzzy tails on fire. They both look identical to me, so I have no idea which is which.
I also do not know how old these new specimens are as they can leave the nest as soon as their feathers dry. Killdeer have a typical clutch size of 4-6 eggs with up to 1 to 3 broods a year (according to Cornell). In my many years in the field, I have never seen a family of more than 2 Killdeer chicks, which would imply a rather poor fledging percentage. Now, that is just my observation, maybe you have seen larger families and that would make me feel better – let me know in the comments if you have experienced that.
I’ll mention a possible cause for this later in the post. For now let’s congratulate Mommy and Daddy in getting two fuzzballs nearer to adulthood – especially in this particular habitat.
This family was spotted at the Sediment Basin and Trash Removal area which is on the left side of Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainesville, Florida. Personally, I think Sweetwater can do a better job of advertising their incredible offering, but here is a link to their main site (link here) and probably more helpful, to their pdf which has more background on how this place was built along with a map (link here). Basically, water is sourced from an urban creek and filtrated/cleaned to improve the downward waterways and wetlands of the Sweetwater Branch. The garbage and “gunk” that makes its way to the urban channel gets collected here so it doesn’t propagate onward. This line in the PDF cracked me up, “The sediment basin captures sand and debris, like logs, shopping carts and tires, which are carried by Sweetwater Branch during storm events.” What kinds of storms do they have in Gainesville!?!.
These chicks didn’t seem to care about the trash and the mom was incredibly accommodating as her children ran from one shiny object to the next – kids will be kids. Unlike the Killdeers, I was very conscious of the trash as I was having to fight to get decent shots of the chicks while keep the trash out of the frame. We are skilled in Photoshop here at Intrigued, but we try our best to always bring you “true” shots.
There is one definite advantage to hanging out in this particular area and it wouldn’t be too surprising if the mother knew this. Note, I do not want to overplay the general intelligence of Killdeer as I will get to some questionable decisions in just a bit. I’ve covered this in many of my previous posts involving Sweetwater (for example the last post), Sweetwater has a tremendous number of Alligators (link here). For the most part, those are found in the larger ponds and swamps that are fed by this inlet. I did not see any Gators in the area where the chicks were playing – planned or luck is best left for academic debate.
The downside to this area is the pedestrian access sits maybe 15 to 20 feet above the inlet. There are concrete side walls that help channel the water – and shopping carts apparently. This means you are going to be shooting down at your subjects which isn’t as impactful as being able to get down to their level. I am doing a bit of slight of hand here and shooting back from the forebay area to get you lower – the blessing of big glass.
I truly enjoyed watching these two chicks get comfortable with their lanky legs and new surroundings. The siblings really didn’t interact directly with each other, and as mentioned earlier, rarely got within 2 or 3 feet of each other. Just as interesting was watching how the mom handled the situation – she simply stood back and let them explore and would calling from time to time bringing the chicks back into protective range.
My general impression was she kept a further distance than a human parent would given the same level of dangers that lurked above and just beyond. In addition to the prehistoric reptiles, there were Cooper’s Hawks and Northern Harriers making continual scouting runs across the outer ponds and grassways.
Coming to the close here, time to elaborate on my comments above regarding survival rates and questionable decisions by breeding Killdeers. Nesting Killdeers will create mere “scrapes” in the rocks/dirt to lay their eggs in. Cornell notes that they tend to make several scrapes in the area in a possible attempt to “confuse predators”. Sounds logical, except time and time again I’ve seen them choose the scrape in the WORST possible place – like in the rocks in the middle of a walkway.
During my days in the grind I would drive out to our demonstration center for a meeting or to get a closer look at one of our products. They had a rock parking lot and inevitably there would be a Killdeer sitting out in the open on a nest somewhere within. Same thing happened on one of the paths at Sweetwater.
Fortunately, this was noticed by the volunteers at the park and they put caution tape and cones around the area. You can just see the dark spot in the middle of the intersection where the nesting bird above was sitting.
Thinking that putting your clutch in such a visible spot is not a recipe for high fledge rates. Sure, the fact their eggs blend in well with the rocks and the male’s “broken wing deception” technique can help, but there are plenty of smart actors in the animal world – why make it easier for them?
I’ll leave you to ponder that question, today I am just the messenger ha. Hope you enjoyed this latest entry in the Baby series. Take care everyone!
Wildlife Intrigued 
They are cute birds but perhaps not the brightest species? Instinct made them put the nest in the middle of the road I guess… 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I probably would not put them in the top echelon of bird intelligence scale. I think they weight how well their eggs blend in with the gravel walkways too heavy compared to the amount of creatures that use those walkways. I’d be more worried if I didn’t see multitudes of Killdeers absolutely everywhere I bird – they are apparently doing something right or like many in the bird world have a clutch size that compensates for the level of danger they experience. Take care John and continued healing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, so exposed! I don’t give that batch much chance of survival. But those young chicks are so adorable. I just want to pick them up and cuddle them, but I don’t think they would like that, even if it were possible.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think in this case they have a decent chance of survival thanks to an alert volunteer marking off their area. The female seemed overly content to just sit there in the middle of the rocks and glare at anyone that got too close to the caution tape. Granted, that keeps the humans out, there are plenty of other dangers that won’t honor that sign to stay away. For our piece of mind, let’s just assume they had a successful fledge and enjoying themselves in sunny Florida. Take care Anneli, hope you are having a wonderful shopping, I mean holiday season so far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re killing me, dear, with your wonderful photos of those adorable chicklets. Oh, I wasn’t braced for your release. Good deal. Avoid tree roots of all evil.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What can I say, I like baby birds and I cannot lie! I probably should have been out of the brace sooner than this, but I know they have been taking it a bit “safer” with me thanks to my wife continually squealing on me about my propensity to push the limits. I was hoping to be at least making small runs at this point which is pretty disappointing. I did start ground ladder work which is starting to simulate the movements at least. Clearly this is going to be a long road to get back in shape for the planned 100 miler next October (shhhhh, don’t tell Linda).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Plover chicks are the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right with ya B! I can do without all their squawking when they reach adulthood, but those featherballs are damn cute in their early years. Hope all your holiday plans are going well – this year you have an extra gift to buy for the new official addition to the family.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are coming over for xmas which will be the first we have shared with the Lemming in 8 years!!!!
They then plan a trip to Oregon in the spring for a wedding ceremony for Tyler’s family.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How fun!! It has been THAT many years since she moved to Germany, wow. We will be out in that area of the country in Spring as well – maybe our paths will cross.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my, so adorable! I agree, plover chicks are adorable. This post brightened my day.
(The kindhearted volunteers are wonderful for placing cones & tape around the exposed area.)
Very glad to hear your physical therapy is progressing nicely. Hope you and Linda have a lovely weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad I could bring a little happiness to your day Takami! I am certainly glad the volunteers took steps to keep people a safe distance. They have plenty of predators in the world already and don’t need us adding to their safety threat. Appreciate the well wishes on the injury. It has been a slow go, especially for my wife who has to suffer through my cranky moments. At least I am starting to simulate running movements in therapy giving me hope I’ll be release to do some short runs before too long. May you have a joyous week filled with happy thoughts and beautiful birds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agree, they are soooooooo adorable. Another one of nature’s interesting conundrums. And maybe it’s the humans who should learn to be more accommodating of our friends in Nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is definitely some level of balance that has to be maintained with Nature and with that said I don’t know what that perfect answer is. Nature seems to figure that out own their own, humans tend to muck the algorithm up at times – don’t get me started on the whole introduction of species to alter courses or picking favorites by putting the finger on the scales for a particular species. I do support managing the upper apex’s of the food chain..I’m just a twist of theories eh. Thanks for coming by Jerry and glad you enjoyed the little ones.
LikeLike
Identical twins born during gen-beta in these “wildlife babies” photos. While I was reading your post I played a game with myself to determine if I could tell these two apart. Yet, I concluded that they must be identical twins or you favored photographing the twin in the background of frame of them together. Do you know?
It is very interesting that “Nesting Killdeers will create mere “scrapes” in the rocks/dirt to lay their eggs in.” I am glad that you included the volunteers’ caution tape and cones so I could fully appreciate it. And I’m grateful that you were able to exclude the human trash such as shopping carts and the scary alligators lurking nearby.
Mommy killdeer is beautiful. I enjoyed reading your post. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Teri! So the best way I could find to tell them apart is the tail feathers. One eventually smoothed them out a bit where the other kept it crazy. So, 4th, 7th and 11th are likely one of the siblings and the rest of the images are the other – beyond that, they pretty much looked identical to me – clearly do not have the mother’s eye to keep them apart ha. I would never put Killdeer in the upper echelons of cognitive ability. Their saving grace is their ability to play the “broken wing” routine to draw predators away. To their credit, they do seem to draw a lot of inter-species friends around them because they are like an obnoxious siren whenever they sense danger which is a good cue to the rest of the birds to leave the area. We here at Intrigued are rather annoyed by them as they continually spot us trying to creep up on a flock to get shots….only to watch them all fly away when the sirens go off! They do have cute babies though! Thanks for coming by and so glad you enjoyed your visit.
LikeLike
I’m working on a post about Snowy Plovers… and that is where I learned that Killdeer are members of the Plover family (technically, the Charadriidae family)! I may be slow, but I get there. Your youngsters are so wide-eyed and delightful! Did you happen to hear them calling – do they use the same kill-deer call as the adults?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always refer to the Killdeers as the ONPs, the obnoxiously noisy Plovers. I rarely here much from their other family members beyond a short call from time to time, but these damn Killdeer – I swell they NEVER shut up ha. Ooops should clarify and answer your question at the same time – I was referring to the adult noisemakers, the Killdeer chicks didn’t make one single peep the entire time I was photographing them. Not educated enough to tell you if that was normal behavior for their offspring or if that was a survival mechanism due to the dangers that lurked beyond that spillway. A good question to add to me ’26 field task list – stay tuned. I saw your Plover post came out, I’ll be getting over there as soon as I can to check it out. Take care Sam, hoping your holidays are merry (and warmer than here!).
LikeLiked by 1 person