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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pretzel" data-source="post: 328387" data-attributes="member: 12257">Day 186 - Killdeer!So on Thursday, my wife and son headed out to help her company set up for the huge local fireworks display, and while hanging signs, they spotted this little lady and her eggs...  TODAY, after getting up at 5:30 a.m. to clean up the aftermath of debris that's left over from those displays everyone loves, I asked her to show me where she was so I could go back and get pics.  Such a gorgeous bird!  Unfortunately, her nest is set up right near the driveway entrance at some nearby soccer fields, so I'm not sure if her wee little nest will make it, but she seems to be a good mama.  Most of the "kid" activity is much deeper into the soccer field area, so we can hope!She let me get VERY close, so I backed off the zoom a bit to get into the sharpest range on the lens, which seems to be between 100 and 200mm.  Here's a nice profile shot![ATTACH=full]99404[/ATTACH]Then, a half step closer, and a little more zoom...  she turned to face me and scolded me a bit.[ATTACH=full]99405[/ATTACH]Then, as I spoke to her to let her know all was well, and I wasn't there after her clutch...  she went into the routine that we all know the killdeer for.  She fled!  But not in cowardice, but rather to feign "injury" just a short distance off in the hopes that I would think she was a much tastier and easy to catch lunch.  All the while, she had an eye on me.[ATTACH=full]99406[/ATTACH]A step in her direction, and she headed a little farther off.  Different injury, same watchful eye.[ATTACH=full]99407[/ATTACH]It didn't take long for Papa to hear the distress call, so he came in and joined his efforts to the cause as well.  The weren't really all that close to each other, so it was a bit more of a challenge to catch them both in the same shot, but here you can see her (the brown blur in the foreground) with him a bit farther on faking his own injury after he gave me a fairly close fly by.[ATTACH=full]99409[/ATTACH]They both gave me a couple of close fly by's when I went back for one last and QUICK snap of their clutch before I left them in peace.  HOPING to get the chance to catch a few shots of the babies before they disappear, but not going to push the parents at all.  I'd much rather have the babies run off without pics than risk the chance of scaring the parent too much and have them abandon the nest.  It's rather funny to note that, where most birds line a nest with twigs, grass and other soft things, the killdeer seems to have an interest in lining hers with gravel?[ATTACH=full]99408[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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