Baby Killdeer I rescued from a storm drain
One of the parents was running around the drain making a bunch of noise, went to investigate and found the baby trapped inside. I fished it out with a hair net wrapped around a coat hanger that I taped to a broom handle.
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I just saw one too. Not a particularly bright bird. It was sitting there yelling at me and I said out loud "what's your deal, yo?"
She laid eggs 2 feet from railroad tracks and was telling me to bugger off. They really blend in well!
Nesting on the ground is certainly an instinct. You go, you individual. You absolute being.
This picture was taken in front of a suburban elementary school. I feel terrible for her because I think she chose her nesting spot when covid lockdown was in effect and now she is stuck with tons of children running by twice a day. Literally 2 meters away from her. Will give her credit where credit is due that she sticks it out and doesn't leave her nest.
(Don't worry, she's roped off and they make regular announcements to use as reminders for everyone to look out for her.)
Looks like some of the kids built her a nice protective ring of rocks around the nest?
It was a pre-existing "rock garden" they made in 2019.
Yeah, they made a nest in the gravel left behind from a torn down building near where I live. I found the nest because as I was walking ~40 feet away one of them started going nuts. I never would've noticed the nest had they not called my attention to it :/
It was fun watching the baby birds emerge though, I thought the rain had drowned them for a while.
They're really stupid but have adapted really well to their stupidity. If you get too close to the nest, a parent will often mime having a broken wing to lead predators away from the eggs.