Subject: [Tweeters] Baby Bird
Date: Apr 8 07:41:11 2015
From: festuca at comcast.net - festuca at comcast.net


I know there have been owls fledging, and Anna's Hummingbirds hatching all around.

On Monday afternoon, I saw my first Killdeer chick, just a day old, with its parents in the open lot at the corner of State and Jefferson in downtown Olympia.

I scanned for siblings, but only saw the one chick; usually Killdeer lay 4 eggs.

While it seems to fit in with the motif of Spring, the Solstice, Easter, renewal, etc., this is one of the earliest Killdeer chicks I've seen. Jewett et al. ( Birds of Washington State 1953) states that "the first set of eggs is generally found about the middle of April...", although Gabrielson and Jewett ( Birds of Oregon 1940) noted newly-hatched chicks as early as April 12th.

Given a 24 to 28 day incubation period, this pair would have nested somewhere around March 9-13th!

Cheers,
Jon.