Spotlight on
by David Lane
Advanced Indiana
Master Naturalist
W
Nature
e have had a small
visitor at our LaGwana Printingeast location office
for some time now. No, we nor any
hunters are killing deer. A lone nesting
Killdeer-bird, has taken residence on
the stone drive behind our building.
This very interesting bird normally
nests on the ground, a very unique
behavior, but nature has intended it to
be that way. That’s what makes nature
interesting and worth studying.
The Killdeer is a small wading
bird that has a loud, shrill cry, and the
largest and most common plover of
Northern America. This bird is similar
to a pigeon and a morning dove.
The plover is any of thirty-eight
different kinds of shore birds with
legs of moderate length and beaks no
longer than the head, slightly enlarged
toward the tip. They are pretty much
found all over the world. They nest in
open fields, on beaches and even on
stoned paved drive-ways. Their spotted
eggs blend in very well with the surroundings and are easily overlooked. In
some parts of the universe the eggs are
a delicacy.
The killdeer, so called, because the
Latin word vociferous (loud) describes
its noisy, reiterated cry. Killdeers,
often found in the uplands many miles
from water, are recognizable by their
brown back, tail and wings, they range
about eleven inches long and about five
inches tall, brownish above and with
two black bands on the white breast
and two on the head neck area.
Killdeer are tolerant of humans.
The female chose to lay eggs about four
inches away from the main traffic area
of where employees like to park their
vehicles here at the office. The last report that I received was that there were
four eggs that were laid and hatched
and of this writing they have hatched
and moved on. When the discovery
was found it was decided to put some
stake markers near the nesting area
to avoid destroying and endangering
the nesting ground. The baby killdeer
will come out of the egg-shell running.
They hatch with their eyes open, and
as their downy feathers dry they start
running around searching for their
first food.
The newborns cannot fly and they
depend on their parents for protection
and guidance. If you were to see these
freshly hatched birds, although very
lively, they are like new fawns, a bit
tottery and clumsy on their very long
and stringy legs.
The killdeer birds stay in their
shells much longer than some birds because they are maturing and growing
inside the shell. That is why they are
live wires when they hatch. The nature
word for these type of birds are called
altricial and precocial birds. Artricialbirds that hatch blind. naked, and
helpless such as robins, bluejays, and
cardinals. Precocial-birds are matured
when hatched such as the killdeer,
chickens, ducks and quail.
The Hometown Treasure · August ‘13 · pg 41