[obol] Re: Killdeer nest
- From: DJ Lauten and KACastelein <deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:03:56 -0700
"always" is not necessarily a good word to use in this case.
Like most shorebirds and plovers Killdeer are ground nesters. In the
case of Killdeer they happen to like a wide variety of habitat types,
from farm areas to railroad tracks to the sides of roads to gravel
parking lots to sandy beaches, etc etc etc. They certainly like
relatively flat, open areas, as their strategy is to have camouflaged
eggs and have a good line of site as to what potential predators there
are coming towards them. Floyd's photos show the camouflaged nature of
the eggs well. When you say "wonder why", well it is a bit circular.
The reason why is because they are genetically programmed to do so.
It's not like they have the option of nesting, say on the roof, or in a
tree. They are genetically programmed to do so because millions of
years of evolution have resulted in the ones who nested in these
locations as being extremely successful. This sort of answers you
third question indirectly - yes many have made it to fledging, which is
why Killdeer are so common and why we see them nesting all over the
place - unlike so many other shorebirds. With that said, in these
modern times, are they still as successful as they had been in the past
millions of years? Well, it depends. If you look in the literature
you will probably find that many killdeer have relatively low
productivity, and it is partially due to their nature of nesting in what
we perceive as such obvious and possibly bad locations. Yet at the
same time they remain one of the most common shorebirds, and thus
undoubtedly at many locations they are very successful raising chicks.
If they weren't, they'd be a lot rarer - like our Snowy Plovers.
Hope that helps a little....
Cheers
Dave Lauten
On 4/16/2014 10:53 PM, Susan Deagle wrote:
Don't killdeer always make nests out in the open on roadsides, etc?
Wonder why.....does anyone know? How many birds make it to fledge?
Susie Deagle
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 16, 2014, at 10:34 PM, Floyd Schrock <fschrock@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:fschrock@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Today I found a Killdeer nest containing four beautiful eggs. For
anyone interested, I've posted a photo at:
http://empids.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately, the nest is located very near a busy playground, so
the probability of it surviving until the young are off and running
seems unlikely.
====================
Floyd Schrock
McMinnville, Oregon USA
http://empids.blogspot.com
====================
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