Slough near Eagle Lake
One of three young owls
Pineappleweed
Brown-headed Cowbird baby
Brewer's Blackbird, collecting food for his babies
Great Horned Owl male
Tree Swallow female
A great idea for a garbage can!
Brewer's Blackbird female
Unidentified plant - Milkvetch?
Brewer's Blackbird male
A splash of much-needed colour
Yellow-headed Blackbird with damselfly
A touch of blue
Ruddy Duck male
Arnica sp.
Purple Honeycreeper male, Asa Wright Nature Centre…
Balancing act
Red canoes at Cameron Lake, Waterton Lakes Nationa…
Red Baneberry, Waterton Lakes National Park
Maskinonge Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park
Common Raven in the sun
Gaillardia
Killdeer 'nest' and eggs - a telemacro shot
Tree Swallows - time to change places
Watching the watchers
Pale Green Weevil / Polydrusus impressifrons
American Coot and 'cootlings'
Who are we?
Brown Thrasher / Toxostoma rufum - a 'lifer'
Wilson's Snipe / Gallinago delicata
Striped Coralroot / Corallorhiza striata
Indian Breadroot / Pediomelum esculentum
Meadow Goat's-beard / Tragopogon pratensis
Bobolink / Dolichonyx oryzivorus
Forgetmenot Pond, Kananaskis
Red-winged Blackbird male
Star-flowered Solomon's Seal / Maianthemum stellat…
Mountain Bluebird with food for her babies
Dandelion perfection
Brown-headed Cowbird male
Collecting food for his babies
Wild and wonderful Lupines
The innocents
Common Merganser family
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
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224 visits
Killdeer / Charadrius vociferus
Friends and I were lucky enough to see two Killdeer nests two days ago, on 17 June 2017, when five of us went east of the city for the day, to visit our friend, Shirley, at her seasonal trailer.
"A shorebird you can see without going to the beach, Killdeer are graceful plovers common to lawns, golf courses, athletic fields, and parking lots. These tawny birds run across the ground in spurts, stopping with a jolt every so often to check their progress, or to see if they’ve startled up any insect prey. Their voice, a far-carrying, excited kill-deer, is a common sound even after dark, often given in flight as the bird circles overhead on slender wings.
The male and female of a mated pair pick out a nesting site through a ritual known as a scrape ceremony. The male lowers his breast to the ground and scrapes a shallow depression with his feet. The female then approaches, head lowered, and takes his place. The male then stands with body tilted slightly forward, tail raised and spread, calling rapidly. Mating often follows.
Killdeer lay their eggs into an empty nest but add other materials later on. Some of these items they pick up as they are leaving and toss over their shoulder into the nest. In one nest in Oklahoma, people found more than 1,500 pebbles had accumulated this way." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Killdeer/id
Most of our birding was done at and near Shirley's trailer site, including seeing this wonderful owl family, two Killdeer and their nests, a Baltimore Oriole, and (finally!) a pair of Brown Thrashers. I had hoped for several years to see one of these birds, so it was a real treat to see a 'lifer'. It was far away and so high up, but I managed to get a couple of shots just for the record.
As we were walking around the grounds, two ladies stopped us and showed us some baby birds that they had had to remove from the engine of their vehicle. They wondered if we knew what kind of birds they were, but we were unable to help. I posted a photo of them yesterday morning, just in case someone can ID them. The ladies had a bird house that they were going to put the babies into, hoping that the parents would hear them calling and be able to continue feeding them.
Thank you so much, Shirley, for inviting us all out to visit you while you were there for the weekend! It was such a pleasure to see some of "your" birds that you enjoy so much. Such a great variety of species! Wow, what a lunch we had, sitting at a table under the Tree Swallow tree, with a very vocal American Robin just a few feet away. How DO some birds manage to sing non-stop?! Hot chili made by Shirley, and a whole array of delicious salads and desserts left me feeling full till the early evening.
Many thanks, Anne B, for picking up three of us and for driving us east across the prairies. Hugely appreciated!
"A shorebird you can see without going to the beach, Killdeer are graceful plovers common to lawns, golf courses, athletic fields, and parking lots. These tawny birds run across the ground in spurts, stopping with a jolt every so often to check their progress, or to see if they’ve startled up any insect prey. Their voice, a far-carrying, excited kill-deer, is a common sound even after dark, often given in flight as the bird circles overhead on slender wings.
The male and female of a mated pair pick out a nesting site through a ritual known as a scrape ceremony. The male lowers his breast to the ground and scrapes a shallow depression with his feet. The female then approaches, head lowered, and takes his place. The male then stands with body tilted slightly forward, tail raised and spread, calling rapidly. Mating often follows.
Killdeer lay their eggs into an empty nest but add other materials later on. Some of these items they pick up as they are leaving and toss over their shoulder into the nest. In one nest in Oklahoma, people found more than 1,500 pebbles had accumulated this way." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Killdeer/id
Most of our birding was done at and near Shirley's trailer site, including seeing this wonderful owl family, two Killdeer and their nests, a Baltimore Oriole, and (finally!) a pair of Brown Thrashers. I had hoped for several years to see one of these birds, so it was a real treat to see a 'lifer'. It was far away and so high up, but I managed to get a couple of shots just for the record.
As we were walking around the grounds, two ladies stopped us and showed us some baby birds that they had had to remove from the engine of their vehicle. They wondered if we knew what kind of birds they were, but we were unable to help. I posted a photo of them yesterday morning, just in case someone can ID them. The ladies had a bird house that they were going to put the babies into, hoping that the parents would hear them calling and be able to continue feeding them.
Thank you so much, Shirley, for inviting us all out to visit you while you were there for the weekend! It was such a pleasure to see some of "your" birds that you enjoy so much. Such a great variety of species! Wow, what a lunch we had, sitting at a table under the Tree Swallow tree, with a very vocal American Robin just a few feet away. How DO some birds manage to sing non-stop?! Hot chili made by Shirley, and a whole array of delicious salads and desserts left me feeling full till the early evening.
Many thanks, Anne B, for picking up three of us and for driving us east across the prairies. Hugely appreciated!
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