Hi All,

Last weekend I was fortunate to witness and capture some images of very entertaining behavior by a family of KILLDEER. I was birding near my office when I heard Killdeer calls and started looking around for the birds. What I found were two very young chicks being watched very closely by two adults, particularly the female. The chicks clearly were too young to fly and basically were gangly down puffballs, though very active. Although they were cute, their disproportionately long legs made them look rather comical as they scurried about.

The family was following a very specific behavior pattern. The chicks would actively scoot around and forage for food - one managed to find and eat a worm - but then would apparently get cold. To warm up for their next foray, they would run back to mom and nudge under her wings. She would oblige, scoop them in against her body and then hunker down as if brooding them on a nest. After a few minutes in this maternal warm up hut, they would venture out and the whole process would start over again. The male hung around nearby keeping an eye on the rest of the family and the man pointing the big camera at the goings-on. Male and female would frequently call while this whole process was going on.

The first of four images can be found at http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=3694288&cat=38978. Click next from the linked image to scroll through the images. The first one shows a closeup of the chick. The second shows the first chick heading for mom's underwing. The third shows both chicks jockeying for position and then the last one shows mom completely covering both chicks - look closely in the last image and you'll see a backward facing foot that is about the only giveaway that two chicks are tucked neatly in.

I don't imagine running into these types of situations - with camera available no less - is very common, so I feel particularly lucky I was in the right place at the right time.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
www.tubbsphoto.com
johntubbs at comcast.net