Monday, January 08, 2007

Q. Why did the killdeer cross the road?

A. To wander about with its friends in my wader filled car park.

kildeer1crop

A more valuable question would surely be how it got its name This rather smart little plover doesn't look much like a venison poacher to me? It's only little and there aren't even any deer on the island anyway.......


kildeer2


Seriously there were 5 or so of these little chaps jogging around the park uttering their alarm calls at my presence (I can see where the vociferus came from in their latin name) and in the case of this one climbing a little mound to get a better look at me. It still seems strange to me to watch waders like these running around dabbling in water filled tyre tracks but there's no doubt they feel at home. I understand they have a liking for nesting on green roofs so perhaps urban surroundings are to their liking. Before I came here I can recall reading fond blogposts of other nature bloggers about Killdeer and I have to say they do seem to have a bit of personality, I know they might not stay around down here for long but they've provided me with some good fun and who knows come spring they might be running around shouting at a bird blogger somewhere up north.

1 comment:

wolf21m said...

I know they are waders, but here in Idaho they tend to nest in the gravel on the shoulder of highways. Sometimes it is a great distance from any water source. I do like their load calls and especially their broken wing imitation.