I enjoyed Carol Riddell's description of the Killdeer chicks that she
saw, but in the interest of reducing sexism in our society, I want to
point out that in many shorebirds, Killdeers included, males play am
equal or even larger part in parental care than females. This is
especially true in monogamous species such as Killdeers in which the
females have used a lot of energy to lay those four huge eggs, so it
makes sense for the male to put in more than his share thereafter.
The pair works together to raise the young (incubating the eggs,
brooding the young at first and then shepherding them around and
warning them of predators, but not, in most shorebirds, feeding
them), but the male takes an equal part in all of these, sometimes a
greater than equal part. So there was a 50:50 chance that was Dad you
saw, Carol.

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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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