Well maybe yappy mothers day.

Happy Mothers Day.

As if on cue, momma and papa Killdeer had their babies, four of them, hatch between yesterday and today. Happy Momma's Day to all, especially Ms Killdeer who fearlessly protected her brood with amazing antics of broken wings and flopping about whenever we approached. She laid her eggs in my shell drive and I first knew something was up when she stood her ground daring me to back up near her eggs. Her efforts have now paid off and she joins motherhood with our twin Sand Hill Crane babies and a lot of little turtles here in Florida.

An interesting note on Killdeers, the babies hatch already a week old compared to other chicks. They can hatch and immediately run around and get their own food. They only stay about two days and are off on their own. Tough love in nature.

Before we moved to town 10 years ago, we had a big gravel pad in front of my sorely-missed garage/shop. Every year, a momma killdeer hatched her babies right in the middle of it. I put up a couple saw horses to keep her from getting squashed.

One year she disappeared, & scattered feathers told the tale of her death by local cats. Her eggs were cold, but my wife insisted on bringing them inside. She put them in a small cotton-lined box & set it on top of our Insta-Hot water heater under the kitchen sink. I told her she was nuts, but she insisted. In a few days we heard baby birds cheeping, & miraculously, 2 of the 4 eggs had hatched. My BW mothered them for 2 or 3 days, & we set them out in the open field behind us. Wifey swears they returned the next year. I was smart enough not to argue with her.

Eggs & birds were nearly invisible in the gravel, & like noble, it was only when momma tried the broken wing trick we knew something was up, & searched for the nest.